Ode to Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice

If you’re looking for a fruity, bubbly beverage to celebrate a holiday or festive event, Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice is a popular (and New England-based!) choice.

Founded in 1869 but based in Concord, Massachusetts since 1952, Welch’s is a popular brand (both locally and nationwide) owned by a co-op of grape growers — the National Grape Cooperative Association. It’s primarily known for its Concord grape juices, jams, and jellies, but in more recent years, Welch’s has grown to include other juice blends, fruit snacks, and even flavored sodas. Welch’s Sparkling Cocktails (reintroduced in their current form in 1981) are especially popular during the holiday season. In flavors like white and red grape, plus blueberry and cranberry (which are harder to find, but I suspect no less delicious), they’re a fun and fizzy non-alcoholic alternative to champagne. In fact, providing a “dry” yet delicious alternative to spirits has long been a part of Welch’s history. According to the Welch’s website, in 1913, then Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan turned heads worldwide by serving Welch’s instead of wine at a function honoring the British ambassador.

My own childhood included an annual glass of Welch’s Sparkling White Grape juice each New Year’s Eve. Along with the Chinese food pig-out, dance party with my sisters, and heading outside at midnight to run around the house banging my mom’s pots with wooden spoons (other people did this, too, right?), the glass of sparkling grape juice felt both grown-up and celebratory in a way that’s hard to re-capture now.

Taking their role as a celebration beverage seriously, Welch’s participated in a recent special event that was arguably bigger than New Year’s Eve. When Boston’s Fenway Park turned 100 in 2012, baseball fans (32,904 in all!) raised glasses of Welch’s sparkling together to toast the park and the beloved Boston Red Sox — setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest toast in one venue in the process. And guess what? We were there, too! Read about it here: Behind the Scenes at Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary Celebration.

So with another new year in our grasp, we got to wondering… How did you spend New Year’s Eve as a child? And did it ever include Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice? Let us know in the comments! This post was first published in 2014 and has been updated. 

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