Does Ginger Ale Actually Contain Real Ginger?

Ginger Ale has long been touted as the best soda to drink while flying and something to settle your stomach when you're feeling nauseous. Well, we're sorry to be the ones to inform you, but it's unlikely that the ginger ale you're buying contains real ginger. Yep, despite the name, a majority of ginger ale brands either don't contain ginger, contain ginger flavoring, or only a minuscule amount of the root. 

In fact, Canada Dry, found itself in hot water over this issue in 2019 when the company was sued for not using real ginger. Ultimately, Keurig Dr Pepper, who owns the brand, elected to settle for $11.2 million and remove the phrase "made from real ginger" from its labeling. Similarly, a man from British Columbia won a settlement of $200,000 in 2020, claiming he'd brought Canada Dry for health benefits, believing it contained real ginger. While the brand walked away with egg on its face in both these lawsuits, a Keurig Dr Pepper spokeswoman told MarketWatch "Canada Dry Ginger Ale has and will continue to be made using real ginger extract." True enough, if you look at the label of Canada Dry and Canada Dry Zero Sugar, it does say it contains less than 2% ginger extract and natural flavors, though a chemical analysis conducted during the 2019 lawsuit found that the ginger content in Canada Dry was so low that it couldn't be tasted. 

Likewise, brands like Schweppes, Vernors, and Great Value Ginger Ale do not include ginger on their ingredient lists; instead, they only mention natural flavors. Don't get too upset, though, because some brands still use the real deal!

Although many mass-produced ginger ale brands either skimp on their ginger content or use artificial flavoring, there are smaller companies that are making ginger ale in a way that lives up to the name. One such company is Reed's, which makes a Jamaican-style ginger ale with ginger root. Each 12-ounce bottle of Reed's contains about two grams of ginger sourced from the Peruvian Amazon. Similarly, there is Blenheim, which was founded in 1903 and continues to make ginger ale so potent it's like biting into the raw root. 

Another craft brand to check out is Bruce Cost Ginger Ale, which sells original ginger ale and ginger ale with other flavors, including passion fruit with turmeric, blood orange with Meyer lemon, and pomegranate with hibiscus. All varieties contain fresh ginger and are sweetened with cane sugar. 

There is also Fever Tree, which flavors its ginger ale with ginger root oils from India, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast. Good as a vodka mixer or drinking on its own, Fever Tree isn't as potent as Blenheim or Reed's, and it doesn't use fresh ginger root, but it's good for ginger ale fans who don't like a lot of spice.