Well, that was the thing - I married a California girl who'd never been exposed to it, and had mentioned to her once that it was, sine qua non, THE best way to go from sleepy to ye-almighty-Zeus awake, both from the caffeine content and because of the taste, which I recalled as being something like turpentine cola.

So when I managed to find a bottle labelled as such I figured on giving it to her to try so I could giggle over what I was -sure- would be a hilarious reaction.

And then she says "Oh, this isn't that bad."

And it wasn't. It had some vaguely herbal notes, but ultimately was just...cola.

So whatever they're passing off as Moxie on this coast is -NOT- the real thing, as far as I can tell, but it's been more'n a decade since I've had access to the genuine article and perhaps my taste buds have been fried.