The cultural divide between Eastern students from southern Illinois and northern Illinois has plenty of differences, but none bigger than soda.

In reality, that is not the biggest difference, but it is certainly one that always happens to come up in conversation whenever students from the different areas meet up.

I have heard the difference all the time, and it lies within the last word of my first sentence.

Soda is soda when you live in Clinton County, but north of at least Charleston (probably further north, I just do not know where it starts) it is referred to as pop.

One brand of soda, or pop, that I can likely, for certain, say most students have never encountered before is Ski.

Everyone always questions the name, but you do not need to because the taste more than takes all the conversation of the local brand.

Ski is almost exclusively sold in Clinton County, which, for me living in New Baden, is only a 25-minute or so drive to St. Louis for reference.

If you live in Clinton County, Ski is king and Ski is life.

Everyone who lives there swears by Ski, and I have known why for a long time: Because it is very good soda pop.

To set a guide for anyone who has never had it and may come across it sometime in the future, here you go.

The absolute best way to drink Ski is out of the glass bottles they are sold in at local Clinton County stores.

For one, the glass bottles have the old school logo on them and just look cool.

Secondly and most importantly, that is the best-tasting Ski available.

Some pulp from the ingredients is still at the bottom, and the sugar used to make the drinks complement each other beautifully; rather, they complement each other deliciously.

The second-best way to drink Ski is out of the plastic bottles because they taste good cold or warm, with a lot of the sugar still present enough.

Lastly, and weirdly (I know), drinking Ski out of a can is probably the last way you would want to consume it.

If I had to try to explain it, I think drinking it out of a can seems flatter than the other ways. The only way to drink it out of a can is if it is very cold.

And that is a brief introduction to Ski for anyone who has never heard of it or consumed it.

It really is a pretty good drink and if you ever happen to be in Clinton County, give it a shot.

Dillan Schorfheide is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or dtschorfheide@eiu.edu.