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No ginger in Canada Dry Ginger Ale, man claims in suit

Canada Dry - Jack's Ginger Farm

An Ashland man who claims Canada Dry Ginger Ale gets its taste from stuff other than ginger is suing its maker on behalf of himself and other consumers who thought they were getting health benefits from guzzling the stuff.

In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Boston, Samuel Fisher says Dr Pepper Snapple Group should be ashamed of itself for a decade-long campaign playing up its alleged "real ginger" makeup as a supposed healthful alternative to your more common sugar-laden soft drinks - and pay him and other consumers and his lawyer more than $5 million in recompense.

Fisher alleges:

Canada Dry is not made from real ginger as reasonable consumers understand that phrase, i.e. it is not made using ginger root. Instead, Canada Dry Ginger Ale is made from carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, preservatives, and “natural flavors,” i.e., a flavor compound comprised predominately of flavor extracts not derived from ginger, and a miniscule amount of a ginger flavor extract. But Canada Dry’s ginger flavor extract is not “real ginger” as reasonable consumers understand that term. It is manufactured in a lab using various chemicals and extraction processes. And, although the flavor extract contains some ginger compounds, the miniscule amount that DPSG uses to make Canada Dry results in less than two parts per million of any ginger compounds in the final beverage. This microscopic amount of ginger flavor extract provides none of the health benefits consumers associate with real ginger and even appears to fall below the threshold concentration required to impart any flavor to the beverage.

It is possible to make ginger ales using real ginger root. The traditional method is to brew ginger root in water. Indeed, many smaller craft beverage companies make it that way, as do some of DPSG’s mainstream competitors such as Reed’s. Reed’s, for example, has 17 grams of fresh ginger per 12-ournce bottle. Beverages made this way contain hundreds of more times the amount of ginger compounds than the miniscule amounts in Canada Dry.

Fisher describes how he personally was harmed by Canada Dry Ginger Ale:

Plaintiff Fisher has purchased Canada Dry on numerous occasions within Massachusetts over the past four years. He would typically purchase a 20oz bottle of Canada Dry at a gas station or convenience store. He made each of his purchases after reading and relying on the truthfulness of DPSG’s product label that promised the Products were “Made from Real Ginger.” Mr. Fisher believed this meant that Canada Dry was made using ginger root and was, as a result, a healthier alternative to regular sodas. Mr. Fisher further recalls seeing DPSG’s Jack’s Ginger Farm commercials ... which reinforced his belief that Canada Dry was made using ginger root because the commercials depicted people on a ginger farm pulling up the stalks of ginger plants to reveal a bottle of Canada Dry where the ginger root would be.

At the time of each purchase of Canada Dry, Mr. Fisher did not know that the Products that he purchased were not made from real ginger, but were instead made from a miniscule amount of a ginger flavor extract, which does not contain any of the health benefits of real ginger. As a result of DPSG’s misrepresentations and omissions, the Products have no, or, at, a minimum, a much lower, value to Mr. Fisher. As a result of DPSG’s misrepresentations and omissions, Mr. Fisher was injured by paying more money for Canada Dry that he would have paid. Indeed, had DPSG not mispresented the true nature of Canada Dry, Mr. Fisher would not have purchased Canada Dry or would have paid a lower price for it.

The soft-drink maker has yet to file a reply to the complaint.

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Comments

Mr. Fisher believed this meant...

Just because you believe the marketing, doesn't mean the seller did anything wrong. If I buy a Camaro and hot chicks don't suddenly start hanging all over me, is that the car's fault?

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don't like Camaros. The chicks on the Farmer's Only commercials may like Camaros.

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Does the car say on the hood "this car will cause hot chicks will suddenly start hanging all over me"? If so you probably have a case.

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More like if you bought a Camero that was clearly labeled "Real leather seats" and "real leather" you would expect them to be made of real leather instead of pleather.

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How can we get that to happen? Right on the common.

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Call me crazy but I remember these ads and I think the plaintiff has a point. Not only do they show the drink being 'pulled from the ground' (like ginger) they outright say "includes real ginger." As for the ingredients, I think some people would assume "natural flavors" includes the real ginger.

Not sure why we as a society automatically go to victim-blaming when it comes to lawsuits. Are there nuisance suits filed against companies--absolutely? But it's weird that the knee-jerk reaction to a international corporation getting sued for wrongdoing is for us to side with the corporation.

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Victim-blaming requires a victim. Please don't suggest you take this seriously.

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"health conscious" doesn't bother to read the ingredients of the products he buys.

Buy, as a Canada Dry ginger ale drinker, I suspect I'll be receiving a "$2.85 off your next purchase" coupon in the mail as the result of the inevitable settlement in about a year or so.

Sad that these are the types of issues our lcputts and egal system are forced to deal with these days.

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It's false advertising. If you claim your product contains (or doesn't contain) something, the actual ingredients should reflect that. The advertisement claims it contains "Real Ginger" which it doesn't.

I hope the courts rule they need to start adding real ginger.

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Only drank it for the benefits of the ginger and gave it to my children for upset tummies. Otherwise it’s just toxic sugar.
Product should be pulled from shelves until manufacturer changes label. Out and outright lying.

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And, although the flavor extract contains some ginger compounds, the miniscule amount that DPSG uses to make Canada Dry results in less than two parts per million of any ginger compounds in the final beverage.

My understanding is that's still more potent than most homeopathic medicines (here's a source I may or may not have understood correctly). Also from that source, "the more diluted and succussed a remedy is, the deeper it acts with more long-lasting effects." Perhaps DPSG can use that as a defense?

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Grade A Bullshit. Calling it medicine is unfair to real medicine.

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But "tiny vials of water that go for $20-30 a pop" was too many words.

(honestly, most of what I know about homeopathy comes from the Amazing Randi, who I saw give a talk on it, golly, many years ago now. He started the talk by taking out a box of homeopathic sleep aids, downing the entire box of pills, and saying "I trust I'll be awake at the end of this talk." He was.)

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It's not Canadian or dry, either. Where do I get my monies?

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Meanwhile, Polar has teamed up with Goslings Black Seal Rum to create a ripping ginger beer.

If you want ginger ... you get ginger.

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The best local stuff that I've found: Fever Tree!

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Try "The best 'ginger ale / beer I've found locally is Fever Tree, from the UK.' "

If you look at their site, they have an EU statement about not using slave labor harvest their ginger, even. Good to Note.

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Within 200 miles sort of local.

Dammit. Now I want a Paloma.

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Please let this be true.

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We hoarded the stuff during snowmageddon! It was introduced around 2010.

Market Basket carries it - sometimes they put it in the mixers, usually it is with the polar sodas.

Not sure how much ginger is in it, but it has a very strong ginger flavor to it!

IMAGE(https://i2.wp.com/www.ilovegingerbeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/goslings_cropped.jpg?resize=536%2C1024)

In Bermuda, you can buy it with the rum and lime already mixed in!

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by drunks remembering their good times being drunk in other places. Goslings available here is similar to Canada Dry, only "edgier" in terms of marketing.

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Tough to overrate that.

I find it works well with the dark rum or "pirate" rums aged in oak.

For things like Moscow Muelers, I use Fever Tree.

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Coke for their utter lack of cocaine?

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at one time actually had cocaine in it. must have been one hell of a soft drink.

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So it's all relative.

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I usually get annoyed at lawsuits like this as others do, but in this case, I think the plaintiff has a valid point. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that ginger ale labeled "made with real ginger" has a non-negligible amount of real ginger in it.

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If you read them you can figure out there probably isn't much "ginger" in them but probably just the flavor.

In all seriousness I read labels of soda type "ginger ale" before and I always assumed that the flavor of ginger is so strong and that is what the ingredients meant.

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This isn't about reading ingredients.

This is about flagrant false advertising.

If the ingredients do not match the advertising, there is a serious legal problem.

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No way

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Says "Made with real Ginger" right on the can. What would make it flagrant by your definition?

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And if hundreds of other products did the same thing with their names (grape nuts, cheese balls, etc

And if you looked at the ingredients to see what was actually in them.

And if you were really put out by something NOT having something significant in them.

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I think grape nuts might have neither nuts nor grapes in them, but I'm pretty sure cheese balls have cheese in them.

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only a tiny, tiny amount.

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this seems like an argument for better public education about nutrition, and maybe about consumer-product marketing, too.

We made the food companies label their products, and if you can read, and are health-conscious enough to care about what you eat, you should be able to make an intelligent decision between what the label tells you and what the advertising is selling you. But this guy's dim brain is fighting persistent, sophisticated marketing campaigns to sell him poison every day, and it's losing. He's carping about being sold a bill of goods about the health benefits of *soda pop*, for chrissakes. That kind of ignorance costs you and me money.

Government has stepped into these questions before, with tobacco being the obvious example, and saved and extended millions of lives. That's a public good that benefits everyone in the form of lower healthcare and insurance costs.

Don't take away people's tobacco or soda or triple-patty-with-extra-bacon-and-cheese burger. But maybe educate them enough to be aware of the risks. That's gonna hurt some big corporate campaign contributors, but if you care about average citizens and their healthcare costs, that's what you're going to do.

Yes, I know that when it comes to Republican lawmakers, they're going to fuck ordinary people every time, and gull the slow ones into thinking it's about their freedom. An ignorant populace is their ally. You can laugh at this poor benighted clown, but he and his ilk are ultimately taking money out of your pocket. If you really want to make America great again, fight to make it smarter. Better food choices wouldn't be a bad first step.

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Truth in advertising. Just saying.

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Do cheese doodles have cheese in them.

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Ah that's Dorchester shrimp Bub...

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and he should of drank Reed's, then.

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There is no ice in ice cream.

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He tries Mountain Dew.

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and there's no cocaine in Coca-Cola. Same claim, same law firm, different plaintiffs, filed in December. The firm is touting it on their website. Jackie Fitzhenry-Russell et al. v. Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. et al., case number 5:17-cv-00564, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Looks like that's this firm's niche. Wonder if Mr. Fisher has been a past plaintiff in similar hold ups, er, law suits.

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corn syrup? I hear that stuff has health benefits. Given that there's over seven teaspoons of it per 12 ounces of that sodie, mmm: that's good diabeetus!

Sing with me (to the tune of "Ain't She Sweet"): "Canada Dry Ginger Ale, it's not too sweet."

You want the purported health effects of drinking ginger, get a juicer, or a KitchenAid blender with a 3.5-peak horsepower motor like mine, dumbass. It's great for Tiki drinks, too: they're full of antioxidants.

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Heinz Ketchup marketing from the same time period.

https://youtu.be/UM5FElHbqL0

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Chicken pot pie was a real disappointment.

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and drank Canada dry.

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Darn! You beat me to it.

I was going to trot out the old one about my uncle who got arrested on a visit to Toronto - he saw a billboard that said Drink Canada Dry, and he tried.

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