Twig’s history a bit fizzy

Most museums frown on visitors enjoying beverages while viewing exhibits, but Twig’s Beverage officials don’t mind. In fact, they encourage it.

Twig’s will officially open its museum and gift shop to the public May 1, although some groups have gotten a sneak peek at the tribute to the history of soda pop in Shawano. The Shawano County Historical Society and We Are People visited the facility this week, and a number of elementary school classes have visited on field trips.

Visitors will be able to enjoy samples of Sun Drop and an array of new flavored sodas that Twig’s has come out with recently in a tasting area created to look like a 1950s style diner. The area includes two stained glass windows depicting scenes of preparing and distributing Sun Drop in northeast Wisconsin.

“Any other bottler or brewer that has a museum, they allow you to sample the beverages they make, so you can experience exactly what we do here,” said Luke Hartwig, son of owner Dan Hartwig and the third generation to go into the beverage business in Shawano. “Besides, who would want to turn down free samples?”

Among the samples is the Farmer’s Brew, a butterscotch-flavored root beer made in tribute to the old Farmer’s Brewery on Main Street. Other new Twig’s flavors include blue raspberry, lime, caramel apple and rhubarb berry. Visitors will also get to try Twig’s classic cream soda and black cherry in glass bottles.

There are also several viewing areas where visitors can watch the soda being made and bottled. A small theater allows visitors to see a short film on the history of Twig’s Beverage.

The entryway to the new museum and gift shop on Franklin Street has been transformed into the Shawano streets of yesteryear. One window shows off a classic barbershop with a vintage striped pole, while another window showcases an old-fashioned soda fountain.

Hartwig said his father has been trying to develop the museum for more than a decade. It is a labor of love from countless nights and weekends, when the senior Hartwig has not been busy managing the beverage facility.

“He had it planned for quite a while. He wanted to do something that was dedicated to Sun Drop and the history its had with Shawano,” Luke Hartwig said. “He’s been doing it mostly on his own, but it’s taken quite a while. Most of this has been done in the after-hours.”

A number of metal signs, which Hartwig said his father collected over the years, line the walls of the new museum. Once it was decided to start the museum, the Hartwigs searched antique stores and online sites for vintage Sun Drop items and other assorted memorabilia, including a pair of antique traffic signals, 1950s-era bottling equipment and old soda dispensing machines.

“I can’t forget the customers and the patrons that stop in and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this cool item, this Sun Drop memorabilia,’” Hartwig said “Some have actually donated big signs to the museum, and it’s good to have them involved so they have a piece (of the museum) for themselves.”

The name Twig’s is synonymous with soda pop in the Shawano area, especially with Sun Drop, deemed to be locals’ favorite beverage. The company was started more than 60 years ago by Luke’s grandfather, Floyd, known to locals as “Twig.”

“He was actually shot and up in a hospital over there in Korea, and he sent his paychecks from the military back to his mom to start investing in bottles,” Hartwig said. “That way, when he got back, he’d have these bottles because he wanted to start a beverage bottling business.”

The company started at the Farmer’s Brewery, across the street from where Twig’s Beverage is today. It was moved to the existing facility due to the difficulty of hauling 50-pound bags of sugar up two flights of stairs, Hartwig said.

It wasn’t long before Sun Drop officials came calling and asked Floyd Hartwig to bottle their soda locally.

Luke Hartwig hopes the museum will give patrons a sense of nostalgia, hearkening back to a time when soda came exclusively in glass bottles, before plastic became the container of choice for carbonated beverages.

“We’re still trying to keep that going,” Hartwig said. “Everybody has that inclination to try and hold on to something from the past, and this is one of those good things that people like to remember and still come back and experience — being able to taste how soda is made with real granulated sugar, which not many people do anymore.

“Although it takes more time, the more time you put into it, the more natural feel to the soda they’re going to have.”