Here at the Blue Cleaver, we like coffee and we like pizza. Therefore we tip our hats to the mighty Manhattan Special, a beverage based on the former and sold alongside the latter at pizzerias and delis throughout the greater New York region.

Manhattan Special actually hails from Brooklyn, where "pure espresso coffee soda" has been brewing on Manhattan Avenue since 1895. The original version -- beloved by diverse constituencies that include gentlemen of a certain age playing bocce in Bensonhurst and young families wolfing down pies with extra cheese on Arthur Avenue -- is pretty much carbonated coffee with cane sugar. Dieters can opt for a Nutrasweet version of the same, which tastes much as one would expect (duh, not as good). The company's website describes decaffeinated and flavored editions, but our eyes have yet to spy them on grocery shelves.

You'll find cold Manhattan Special a fine refreshment right out of the bottle, but the more enterprising drinker might even see fit to employ it in ice cream sodas or coffee-based cocktails.