Witch Doctor Soda Hack

A Southern soda-fountain tradition that blends five sodas with dill pickle brine and pickle slices for a sweet, tart, and distinctly savory glass of nostalgia.

The Witch Doctor was created in the mid-1950s by Don Frye at the family's roller rink and swimming lake on Poplar Tent Road in Concord, North Carolina. As his daughter-in-law Sandra Frye tells it, Frye built a "suicide" — the soda-fountain habit of mixing every flavor on the machine into one cup — and then dropped in pickles. His wife, Nell Frye, came up with the name. It caught on first with the skating crowd, then spread through Concord, Kannapolis and Mooresville, and today it is most closely tied to the regional What-A-Burger drive-in chain, which is a separate company from the Texas Whataburger. Versions vary from counter to counter, but the build is generally given as Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Sierra Mist, Sun Drop, Cheerwine and cherry flavoring, finished with lemon and pickles. A local suggestion that the name came from David Seville's 1958 novelty song has never been confirmed, and it sits awkwardly against the family's account of Nell naming the drink earlier in the decade.