Hello.   Your company was referred to me when I was requesting a hard to find extract.  My boyfriend's family has made a recipe for years and has recently been unable to find the ingredient we need to do so.  They have substituted wintergreen for it, but it is not the same.  Can you please tell me how I can get  checkerberry extract; money is no issue.  Thank you for your time.  Elizabeth T.

Watkins has enormous numbers of extracts, and some hard to find ones during the winter holidays.  But frankly, I have never heard of checkerberry extract and Watkins certainly doesn't have it.  They do, however, have wintergreen most holiday seasons, and probably still have some in stock.

On searching the web, I find that it grows in New England (where else, I don't know), Thoreau wrote about it, and it is considered a folk remedy:  Vitamin C/thoreauity's Guide to Herbs states: 

"Checkerberry (Gaultheria Procumbens) - Wintergreen flavor, oil poisonous when concentrated. Leaves have a salicin content & considered to be a remedy for fevers, arthritis, sore muscles & joints." 

More than one source, however, states that this is another name for Wintergreen.    On a page titled "Wild Edible Plants", the author states: 

Wintergreen    :    Gaultheria procumbens

Also known as checkerberry.    
*   HABITAT: Poor soils, woods and clearings. 
*   USES: The leaves can be gathered throughout the year used to make tea.  Both the tender new leaves and berries can be used for a trailside snack or added to salads.  
*   CAUTION: The medicinal methyl salicylate common to wintergreen can be poisonous in large quantities.

If anyone has any further information to add about this, please do so.  We'd love to hear from you.

Hi!   I was just doing a little searching to try to find out whether wintergreen is a natural flavor.  It's chewing gum is so vile, they have to disguise it as "winter fresh," and "polar ice," instead of admitting it is wintergreen.  Tastes like it should be in a bathroom disinfectant.

At any rate, I have actually had checkerberry, once.  I think it was checkerberry ice cream.  Suckered again, if you see what I mean.  Sure tasted like wintergreen.

It was in Guilford, Connecticut, at the drugstore/ice cream parlor on the town square.  I'm afraid it was in the late 1960s, but things seemed to change VERY slowly in that town, so maybe someone there can still help you. If you are looking for old timers, try contacting any of the apple orchards, as in Bishop Orchards.

Seems you are saying wintergreen is a natural flavor, or at least was at one time.  Now it seems to be synthetic, which may explain the person's  dissatisfaction with the wintergreen substitute. You might tell her to try substituting spearmint; they might be a lot happier.

You're probably right about wintergreen flavored products often being artificial.  I read something at least twenty years ago- and I'm sure it's doubly true now- about strawberries, much along the same line.  An article stated that if all artificial strawberry flavor was banned, almost all the "strawberry flavored" items would disappear from the market- jelly rolls, jams, ice cream, candies, powdered or liquid drinks, fillings, icings, you name it!   There's just not that much strawberries in production to fulfill the need for the natural flavor.

Since wintergreen was a berry that grew wild, I'm sure there's not a lot of it around either.  

When I was a child, I stayed every summer with my grandfather on his farm near Newfield, New York.  Grandpa had a sweet tooth, and whenever he went to Ithaca for supplies or on business, we stopped at the Woolworth's five and ten, where there were rows and rows of glass bins full of candies, nuts and treats.  The smell was overwhelming.   Grandpa always bought the same things; a bag of marshmallows covered with toasted coconut, one of his favorites, chocolate covered malt balls, sometimes some chocolate covered nuts and raisins, sometimes ribbon candy, and always a white paper bag of huge wintergreen "pills", dyed bright pink.   These and the malt balls were my favorites, and it was a struggle not to be a pig and to make them last for a few days.   In my teens in Lincoln, Nebraska, I gave myself the same treat every payday, but wintergreen was hard to find there.   

Now from time to time I buy a bit of candy or baked goods and unfortunately am almost always disappointed and kick myself for having spent the cash and consumed the calories.  I'm positive it's not my taste buds, because well-prepared foods, made by me or someone else, tastes every bit as delicious as when I was young.  It's the fact that the good stuff is expensive and in short supply, and often takes more handling, therefore companies produce real junk food made with artificial ingredients.  I cannot image what they've done to Rocky Road Ice Cream!  (See It's Not Too Late for Father's Day.)  Even chocolate candy bars don't have much real chocolate in them.  A few years ago one of the prime ingredients in most peanut butter was lard!  Even Twinkies don't taste like they used to (probably a good thing).   Why should wintergreen be any different?

Lifesavers still makes Wint-O-Green, good stuff last time I tasted it, which was admittedly a decade ago.  It's a little suspicious, however, that their flavor doesn't say "wintergreen" right out front.  I tried to contact them to ask, but was never able to get past Nabisco's "friendly" telephone selection menu and speak to a person.   Walgreens Pharmacy has a house  brand of Antacid Tablets that are "Wintergreen Flavor" and they taste fine to me.  Their list of ingredients just lists "flavors", so you're probably right on that one too.  

Watkins only has wintergreen flavoring during the holiday season, but it's called extract, which means it has real wintergreen in it.   Most of Watkins flavorings are natural, in fact.  Most ice cream recipes on the web call for wintergreen oil, which can be toxic in large quantities, but that may reflect the fact the most flavorings are artificial.

From a wintergreen aficionado, however, I would have to state that you have it backwards;  bathroom deodorants probably smell like wintergreen, not the other way around!  Suggestion:  put pine in the bathroom and stick with mint flavored goodies.

Thanks for writing.

Hi.  My parents have a small bottle of checkerberry extract that probably dates from the 30's or 40's. We use it sparingly for flavoring cake frosting, and there is nothing like it in this world, it's heavenly. The taste is somewhat like cinnamon and wintergreen, but hard to describe. 

If you could ever put me in touch with Elizabeth T, in the event that she has found a source, I'd be very grateful.   Thanks.

I can't believe you still have some extract that old.   It must be aged like old brandy or something at this point. 

Next time you are at your parent's home, take another look and see if it is extract in alcohol, or if it's in an oil base.  Maybe, if it's so old, it doesn't say.  What company made it?    I'll be looking forward to getting more info on it.

I'll forward a note to Elizabeth T.   Please, if anyone can shed any light on the checkerberry-wintergreen controversy, please speak up!!!   Any Adirondack or New England botany professors out there?   Does anyone know any experts whose arm you can twist?

I would love to subscribe to your newsletter.   (Checkerberry) used to grow rapidly in Shrewsbury, Mass. and in Maine.  Are there any other companies you know of  I can contact?  Thanks.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any other companies.  I have searched the internet and cannot find a source.     I had written about the wintergreen candies and Wint-O-Green lifesavers, and they contain artificial flavor too.   I bought a packet and they don't taste at all like they did several decades ago, although edible (barely).   

Dear Bess, How do I get ahold of John Lawler who wrote about checkerberry?

Unfortunately, I can only forward any message you may have; I cannot give out people's email addresses.  Or you can post your question or comment to the forum, and I will make sure he gets a copy (will do so now, in fact, with this page).   

In addition, there's a new message:  see Regarding Checkerberry...

Don't give up, Elizabeth, there's still hope.    My mouth is watering already in anticipation!

Lachlan MacLearn....Regarding Checkerberry

 My hometown of Guilford, Connecticut, used to have a drugstore on the town common (or 'green', as we always called it) called "Douden's". While Douden's is no longer in business, I grew up, in the '50s and '60s, consuming Douden's soda fountain specialty, the famous 'Checkerberry Ice Cream Soda'.

Wintergreen was indeed the source of the flavor, and I'd give anything to know where either the syrup (or the essence of wintergreen used to make the syrup) could be found.  The last owner of Douden's was a gentleman named Richard Dudley, whom, I believe, still lives in Guilford. I'm currently trying to reach him.  If I succeed, and manage to locate checkerberry syrup or essence, I'll update this site.

I'm currently awaiting a reply from Richard Dudley (Guilford, Connecticut) who, apparently, is in the process of setting up a Checkerberry syrup distribution business.  As soon as it's up and running, I'll let the Sneaky Kitchen site know.

Now that's some news that I'm sure will make a lot of hearts rejoice!  I'm already thinking about recipes for using it.

Almost forgot.  Check out http://www.checkerberry.com   (no longer running...)

This is a 'not-quite-ready-for-primetime' site, being set up by the Dudley Family, in my old hometown of Guilford, CT.  They intend (I'm told) to sell checkerberry syrup through the site, but for now, they only sell it locally.

Great!  This is the future website of The House of Checkerberry in Guilford.   I assume this is finally going to be the real stuff - genuine checkerberry syrup or extract.  You can email Richard Dudley from the site, too.

Hi...I am hoping you can help me!!! I am in desperate need of either wintergreen or checkerberry (preferably checkerberry) extract.  I have searched high and low and can not find any in my local area (Portland, ME).  Is this something that you would carry on a seasonal basis?

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer!

Marcia J. Bell, Branch Manager - Br. 56
Trimac Liquid Transporters. Inc.

Watkins usually carries wintergreen extract during the holiday season, but they didn't this year.  They do have other seasonals like Irish Creme and Danish Pastry. 

If you'll look at the Forum Index, you'll see several entries for checkerberry, leading ultimately to http://www.checkerberry.com, the future website of The House of Checkerberry in Guilford, Conn. (invalid link)  Maybe a  very future since it's been up there incomplete for a year or so.  But you can e-mail them and ask.  David Dudley is the owner of the site, and you can see a story about his drugstore and checkerberry flavored ice cream at The Largest Town Green.

The stuff is obviously around, because some places (resorts, hotels, drugstores) in the Adirondack mountains serve desserts made with checkerberry.  But I have been unable to find any other commercial source except for wholesale or medicinal use, not what you want to bake with.  

If anyone can help by supplying a source, please let use know.

Thanks very much, Bess.  I appreciate your efforts.  I had tried that website http://www.checkerberry.com (invalid link) and reached a dead end, unfortunately.  I guess we'll keep searching. Who knew it would be so tough to find?!?!

I would love to receive the Sneaky Kitchen newsletter.  Thanks for the offer!

Take care & Happy Holidays....

Hold on, not so fast.  Believe it or not, I found a source, courtesy of Webmaster James Cassidy ( e-mail: cassman6771@earthlink.net ).  I e-mailed the Guilford site as follows:

Your website has been in progress for quite a while.  Do you ship out to customers on request?  Have a catalog?  Or isn't your production up and running yet?

They (the Dudley's) bought the domain, put a shell of a site up, and do intend on creating a functional website.  They sell their Checkerberry Syrup to local (Guilford, CT) stores.  It is made in small batches and there are certain logistical "hurdles" to jump before they get running.  So as of now there is no catalog.  But you can purchase a 16 oz. bottle for $8.75 + $4 shipping (check or money order) to:

Susan Cassidy
610 Bullard St.
Holden, MA 01520

Thanks for your inquiry,
Jim Cassidy, Webmaster

I can't believe, after all the inquiries, we finally found a source for checkerberry flavoring or extract!  Thanks so much, Jim.  Now, send that check off, get ready and BAKE, readers.  Despite detractors, in my opinion this is one of the great flavorings of the world!   

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