On Aug 5, 10:22 am, in alt.tasteless,
AI <ela...@satans.a@#%@#%> vomited:

This may be of interest to ne.food ...

http://www.boston.com/business/globe...et_life_again/

Sincerely, Malcolm Xylophone, the original and best.

Boston.com is up to their old B$ again, requiring log-in. So here's
the full text of the article:

Can a bitter taste find sweet life again?
Unique N.E. soda Moxie thirsting for a revival
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | August 5, 2007

LISBON FALLS, Maine -- Moxie, the bitter soda that once outsold
Coke nationally before fading to a quirky regional curiosity, is
finally
developing some . . . well, moxie.
Earlier this year, Cornucopia Beverages Co. of Bedford, N.H.,
bought the long-neglected brand from an Atlanta business, bringing
it back to its New England roots and launching an ambitious plan to
save Moxie, the country's first mass-produced soft drink, from
irrelevance.
In recent weeks, the company has sent vendors across New
Hampshire and Maine to peddle the carbonated beverage at places
where prospective Moxie fans might congregate: at minor league
baseball games, at a lottery for moose hunting permits, and at
Wal-Mart stores. Last month, Cornucopia sponsored a Moxie-
chugging contest here at an annual three-day festival in honor
of the beverage that attracted thousands.
Cornucopia has launched a trial program to sell Moxie for the first
time in Florida, where company officials believe many fans of the
drink might be living in retirement. And the company is pressing for
more discounts and shelf space across New England to reach the
fans it believes are still here. Cornucopia used to own Coffee Frost,
a sparkling coffee beverage that fizzled out a decade ago, but the
company was dormant until it purchased Moxie.
"There's a diehard loyal following here in New England, but it's
pretty
esoteric," said Justin Conroy, Cornucopia's brand manager. "Moxie
has a unique taste and we have a lot of opportunity to grow it inside
our territory and beyond. And we want to have some fun doing it."
Reviving the popularity of a drink that in its heyday had high-
profile
endorsers and fans -- Red Sox slugger Ted Williams promoted the
drink, and President Calvin Coolidge is said to have toasted his
swearing-in with an ice-cold glass of Moxie -- figures to be a long,
hard slurp. Detractors grimace at a drink they think is too bitter
and
medicinal. Even longtime Moxie enthusiasts concede that their
favorite soda is liquid tough love.
"You have to acquire a taste for it," said James Jannson, 61, of
Shelton, Conn., a member of the New England Moxie Congress, a
loosely knit band of Moxie zealots who collect Moxie-related
memorabilia, promote the drink's availability, and get together
for parades.
Jannson, who works at a winery, describes Moxie as a "root beer
on steroids," and likes to pour the beverage in a chilled pilsner
glass. "It's refreshing, a very powerful flavor."
Even the drink's creator emphasized its reputed regenerative
qualities rather than its taste. Moxie was the brainchild of Dr.
Augustin Thompson, a pharmacist with the Ayer Drug Co. in
Lowell, Mass., who in 1876 created a potent mixture with gentian
root extract that he brought back from South America. Thompson
patented his creation as a medicine and dubbed it "Moxie Nerve
Food," marketing it as a cure for almost any illness, including
paralysis and "softening of the brain."
In 1884, as carbonated drinks were beginning to catch on in the
United States, Thompson introduced a carbonated version of his
concoction. Promoted as an invigorating elixir, Moxie instantly
took off, selling 5 million bottles during the first year, according
to the Matthews Museum in Union, Thompson's hometown,
which hosts an extensive bottle and memorabilia collection
in honor of the beverage.
Moxie had to put an end to its cure-all claims after the Pure Food
and Drug Act was enacted in 1906. So the drink was repackaged
simply as "Moxie" and marketed as the beverage for people of
discerning tastes, with catchy jingles such as the 1904 hit "Just
make it Moxie for Mine" and a best seller "Moxie One-Step Song"
in 1921. Bottlers soon opened across the country, and Moxie
operations moved to a huge showcase facility in Boston, known
as Moxieland, at 74 Heath St. near Jackson Square. Eventually,
the Splendid Splinter was pitching the dark brown drink.
But over the years, Moxie lost its mojo to superpowers such as
Coca-Cola, which rode its multimillion dollar advertising
campaigns, national distribution network, and much sweeter
taste to national preeminence. Monarch Beverages, which owned
Moxie for the past several decades before Cornucopia, did little
to reinvigorate the brand and kept it relegated to mom-and-pop
shops and the supermarket aisles of New England.
That has forced some distant diehards, such as Jack Henderson
of Jacksonville, Ark., to be resourceful. A native of Saugus,
Mass., Henderson, 77, pays a friend in New Hampshire who
sells Moxie all over the country via eBay to ship 48 of the orange
cans to his home every month. In a phone interview, Henderson
said he usually runs out of Moxie by week three.
Cornucopia is constantly fielding requests for more Moxie from
fans across the country, Conroy said. So the company decided
to step up efforts to distribute the product and launched pilot
sales in Florida. Cornucopia has another big sampling planned
in a few weeks at Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.
"We have found that the product has some work to reestablish
in the marketplace," he said. "But the overall results from trial
have been relatively positive and well-accepted."
While the average Moxie drinker tends to be older, Conroy said
the company believes the drink has wide appeal. The future
seemed promising on a recent Saturday in Lisbon Falls, where
Moxie was everywhere: Dr. Mike's Madness Cafe featured
Moxie flavored muffins, Kennebec's offered Moxie ice cream
floats, UPS advertised "Let's send some MOXIE back home
for friends and family!" What started as a small book signing
at Kennebec with Frank Potter, author of "The Moxie Mystique"
in the early 1980s evolved over the years into three days of
full-blown festivities celebrating the drink in Lisbon Falls.
Andrew Osborne of Andover, Mass., dragged his parents and
sister up to Maine for the festival, where he bought an orange
"I've Got Moxie" hat to match his orange "I've Got Moxie"
T-shirt. The teenager is committed to spreading the love for
the beverage: He brought Moxie to a party celebrating the
end of the school year at his high school.
"Not many other people drank it. They thought it tasted too
bitter, too much like medicine," Osborne said. "But I love it."
Nearby, Conroy presided over a Moxie recipe contest (a
Moxie pizza won), saying, "There's really no words to
describe this. You just don't usually see people unite around
a consumer product like this."
Beverage analysts say Moxie faces an uphill battle with
sagging soft drink sales and a crowded market. Still,
devotees of the beverage -- and there are enough of them
that in 2005 they led a successful bid to make Moxie the
official drink of Maine -- think Moxie's distinct flavor may
give it enough of an edge.
The company can also capitalize on the one brand
extension in the past century: Moxie Energy drinks
introduced in 2004. Still, it faces formidable competition
with a growing number of brands such as energy king
Red Bull, which some say isn't any better tasting than Moxie.
"Someone who has the moxie, the spunk, and the courage
to go after the big brands can do it," said Robert Passikoff,
president of Brand Keys, a marketing firm in New York
City. "Who better to do it than a soft drink named Moxie?"
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.

© Copyright The New York Times Company

johnl

It's great, so long as you're not looking for something as sugary and
flabby as Coke or Pepsi.

R's,
John

cheryl isaak

I admit to being intrigued. It's been a long time since I tried Moxie (like
decades) and it is high time I tried it with adult taste buds.

C

john polcari

I suggest you try both the regular and the diet, and with LOTS of ice.

John Polcari

--
"We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is
moonshine." H. L. Mencken

marc dashevsky

In article <f9dsmk$i5h$1@reader2.panix.com>, jpolcari@not-this-but-gavone.com says...

Good point. This discussion prompted me to buy some, and when I got
home from Shaws it was warm so I had it with ice, which diluted both
the sweetness and the medicinal flavor. Now that I've had it chilled
and undiluted, I prefer it that way. I do wish it were less sweet.
I'll try diet next week.

--
Go to http://MarcDashevsky.com to send me e-mail.

cheryl isaak

Well, there is a can chilling in the fridge for later... DS tried it "room
temp" which is how he prefers his drinks and hated it.

C

cape cod bob

My grandfather and a good friend's father drank Moxie with a splash or
milk or cream.
------------
There are no atheists in foxholes
or in Fenway Park in an extra inning
game.
____

Cape Cod Bob

Delete the two "spam"s for email

cheryl isaak

Did it take the edge off the aftertaste?

paul

Waaay back, we had Moxie floats (at Higgins' Ice Cream in Exeter, NH,
another long gone memory.)

I had noticed Moxie in the office Coke machine a while ago, but when I went
to try one yesterday there was none. Either it sold too well, or not at
all.

--
Paul