By Gus Saltonstall

Tahlia Cott.

When Upper West Side resident Jessica Sabat heard her future daughter-in-law’s last name, she had a thought.

“Like the lemonade?”

“When we get to a certain age, we remember Cott lemonade from our childhood,” Sabat told West Side Rag.

It turns out that Cott’s great-grandfather was the founder of the Cott Soda Company, and the company remained in the family for several generations before it was finally sold.

The soda, which has been popular in the Northeast for decades, is no longer available in the United States, but it is still in circulation in Canada. On a trip north of the border, Tahlia and Nathaniel Sabat, Jessica’s son, came up with the idea of ​​tying empty Cott Soda cans to the bumper of the newlyweds’ car after the wedding.

“It’s still the drink of choice in Jewish delis in Montreal,” Jessica said.

As the groom’s mother, she announced that she would be in charge of sourcing the Cott Soda cans for the August 3 wedding. “I told them I would be happy to do that, as I was thinking of buying the cans online and having them shipped to me.”

But the usual online shopping platforms didn’t offer Cott Soda, so she contacted a Toronto beverage retailer that sold the soda and placed an order, but weeks later received a notice that the order had been cancelled. The explanation was that the company doesn’t ship products internationally.

At this point, Sabat reached out to a community group on the Upper West Side.

On March 1, 2024, Sabat posted in Being Neighborly, a UWS Facebook group, explaining her predicament.

Within 20 minutes, Sersti Purcell, also a lifelong resident of the Upper West Side, responded in the affirmative.

Purcell and Sabat had never met or interacted before.

“My friend from Montreal thinks this is great and he and his girlfriend can help. He’s going hunting tomorrow,” Purcell wrote in the post.

“‘I can solve this problem.’ That’s how my brain works,” Purcell told the Rag. “I see possibilities and think I can connect the dots, bring people together. We’re here to help each other. If someone needs help with something and I have a way to make it happen, then of course I’ll step in.”

Purcell’s friend Eric drove 45 minutes to “the equivalent of Montreal’s Bushwick” the next day to secure the cans, and paid for the postage himself to ship the Black Cherry Cott soda cans to New York City.

Four days later, on April 12, Sabat picked up the 27-pound box.

She then “dragged it home on the M5 bus.”

Sabat had already made plans to meet Purcell over a few cans of Cott Soda to toast the experience and get to know each other better. The two women met later that month at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on Riverside Drive.

“We discovered all kinds of things,” Sabat said. “We realized we knew people in common. She told me all about her childhood on the Upper West Side. She’s very well integrated into the fabric of the neighborhood and we just had a wonderful time together for two hours.”

“We walked away with a great appreciation not only for our Being Neighborly group, but for each other,” she continued. “And a decidedly ‘meh’ review of Black Cherry Cott Soda.”

Nathaniel Sabat and Tahlia Cott were married on August 3 in Massachusetts.

“May your marriage, your love that brings out the best in each other, continue to ignite generosity, kindness and connection between people we barely know,” Sabat said in her wedding speech.

Later, partygoers heard the couple leaving the venue, Cott soda cans clinking behind them.

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