Pok Pok Som full strength drinking vinegar is a sweet and tart fruit and vinegar based concentrate that makes a refreshing all natural soda alternative or a unique cocktail mixer. Drinking vinegar for health reasons is an age-old practice in many cultures around the world including here in the USA, dating back to colonial times when "shrubs" were a common tonic. While Pok Pok does not make any claims as to the health benefits of this product, it is a delicious and refreshing drink with a nice tartness coming from the vinegar and concentrated flavors of fruit and aromatics. These vinegars can be served with soda water as a soft drink and at full strength as a mixer in cocktails.

Som Soda is the ready to drink version of Pok Pok Som drinking vinegars brought to market by Pok Pok restaurants in Portland, Oregon. Our sodas only use 6-7 natural ingredients. Cane vinegar, cane, sugar, water, citric acid, sea salt and fresh produce. There are no artificial coloring or flavors, and no “natural flavor” or preservatives. They are sweet and tart. Not too heavy on the vinegar. They are great sodas and make wonderful and unique cocktail mixers.

Pok Pok Som (“naam som” means sour in Thai) was founded in 2010. The drinking vinegars had been sold at the original Portland Pok Pok restaurant since 2008. The Pok Pok team originally discovered Asian drinking vinegars while shopping at an Asian market. For the first couple of years, Pok Pok bought what was available, often from Taiwan or Korea and of dubious origin and content. Making it from scratch seemed like a better idea and the team experimented first with fermenting vinegar, then switching over to a method used to make shrubs. This method involves macerating fruit in vinegar and then balancing the mixture with sugar, salt and water to a specific acidity and sugar content.

Som drinking vinegars can be found in retailers nationwide and are now served in all of our restaurants, both diluted with soda water as a soft drink and at full strength as a mixer in several cocktails.