What’s the history of peanuts in Pepsi? I tried the popular NC combo for the first time
In the South, there are many food combinations that just work.
Biscuits and sausage gravy, shrimp and grits, hot dogs with slaw, sweet tea with any meal — the list goes on.
Of course, there are some combos that many would consider less conventional. Putting mayonnaise and bananas on a sandwich or dipping your celery in peanut butter might raise a few eyebrows in other parts of the country.
Then there’s peanuts and Pepsi.
Growing up in Denver, a community roughly 25 miles north of uptown Charlotte, I occasionally saw my high school classmates pour salted peanuts into their cola drinks. But I never got the appeal.
“Wouldn’t the drink make the peanuts soggy?” “Do the peanuts make the soda overly salty?” “How do you not choke on the peanuts if you’re drinking them?”
Those are all questions I asked myself as I washed my hamburger down with some chocolate milk in the cafeteria.
Finally, this week, I decided to try it for myself.
But first:
Where did the trend come from?
The combination is believed to have originated in the South in the 1920s as a snack for blue collar workers that did not require them to touch their food, according to food historian and author Rick McDaniel.
The snack, which only requires one hand to eat, could have also made it easier to drive stick shift or keep one hand free while working, McDaniel speculated.
We can also speculate that the peanuts and Pepsi concoction, made with a soda invented in New Bern, North Carolina, in the late 1800s, possibly originated in the Tar Heel State.
Nevertheless, the drink that one X user dubbed “redneck boba” is still enjoyed by many in the South, with some dumping peanuts in other soda, like Dr Pepper and Orange Crush.
Trying it for the first time
According to the National Peanut Board, the Southern delicacy is best served in a glass bottle, but after an exhaustive search at the three convenience stores near my house, I came up empty. So, I just bought plastic bottles of Coke and Pepsi, along with two small packs of Planters salted peanuts.
Food blogs say to drink a few sips of soda before pouring the peanuts in. The end result should be a “sweet and salty flavor combination that works pretty well,” according to a Reddit user.
Saving the best for last, I tried the peanuts + Coke mixture first.
It was like drinking a regular Coke at first, followed by a nutty aftertaste. After the initial shock of tasting peanuts in my drink, I started to get used to it.
I took a few more swigs before tasting one of the crunchy peanuts soaked in soda. They weren’t bad, but as someone who prefers salty peanuts, they tasted like someone had rinsed them off with cold water then added a hint of Coke.
I tried peanuts + Pepsi next.
Again, nothing to write home about, but the peanuts were noticeably sweeter this time around. There was also less of a nutty punch than with the Coke, which, to me, was a good thing.
Final thoughts
I’m glad I finally tried the snack Southerners have been raving about for more than a century, but if someone offered it to me, I’d probably turn it down.
To me, salted peanuts are a top-tier snack, and you can never go wrong with Coke or Pepsi to complement a meal, but they each taste significantly better on their own.
When it comes to sweet and savory, I’ll stick to peanut M&Ms.
This story was originally published July 18, 2024 at 10:55 AM.
