[net.misc.coke] MOXY Clothes

adam@lll-crg.ARPA (Adam Mackler) (08/16/85)

What is this Moxy anyway?  Is it still made?  The only reference
made to it I've ever heard (other than on this list) was just after
new coke came out, and some said "Coke could taste like Moxy and
people would still buy it, just because it's Coke."
I've never seen moxy for sale, and I've been from one coast to the other,
and I've seen a lot of thing sold one place that were'nt in another.
I don't recall seeing RC being sold in Boston for example.

Changing the subject; Here's are some unverified rumors:
(anyone who can verify them, or just make them more intersting, go ahead)

Althought lots of people disagree on exactly how many times the formula
has been changed, everbody has heard that there was at some point
a formula which included cocaine.  It seems that this should be easy
enough to verify though I, nor nobody I know of has actually done so
and told me.  I have heard that this change in the formula coincided
mysteriously with the great deppression. Hmm.

I have also heard that Coca-Cola (before it was even called Coke) was
originally marketed as a cough syrup, and that soda fountains mixed it
with soda water and sold it.  Anybody know anything about this?

I have also been told by someone, who seems reliable enough, that they
saw, not strangely enough, coke syrup for sale (in a small bottle, not
a 20 gal. cannister), but that it was actually in the cough syrup
section.  I have since then looked for it without luck.  On the
assumption that it was true (can anybody verify this) it stands to
reason that new coke marketed solely for drinking purposes would not
be sold as cough syrup, and that the cough syrup would be the ``REAL''
thing [stuff].  Therefore, anyone who desperately needed a coke fix,
could whip it up themselves, since the proportions could be gotten
from anyone who has ever worked in a McDonalds, (there are enough).
It may also have been sold as soda syrup with the Zarex(remember that?).

Also, regarding the returnable bottles: a number of student organizations
at MIT have OLD coke machines which dispence bottles (10 oz. I believe)
which they insist you return, persumably the local bottler also wants them
back.  Does this count as returable bottles?

Regarding the Coke Clothes, the only real coke clothes are the ones
that employees have which are white with tiny little coke tags in
the rear seam. 
guess that's all for now.

andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers) (08/16/85)

In article <788@lll-crg.ARPA> adam@lll-crg.UUCP (Adam Mackler) writes:
> What is this Moxy [sic] anyway?

That's M-O-X-I-E.

According to the Wall Street Journal (7/12/85), it's "America's oldest 
and oddest soft drink", a "mud-colored soft drink made from gentian, a
bitter root also used to cure stomach aches".

According to people like me who actually like it, "it's the surreal thing!"

> Is it still made?

Sure is.  The formula and rights to the name are owned by Monarch-Nugrape
in Atlanta, although the seven surviving bottlers are all in New England.
About 12 million bottles are sold per year, giving it a 0.01% market share
(although it has about a 75% market share in my refrigerator).

> The only reference made to it I've ever heard (other than on this list)
> was just after new coke came out, and some said "Coke could taste like
> MoxIE and people would still buy it, just because it's Coke."

I'd sure buy Coke if it tasted like Moxie... for one thing, it would be a
lot easier to find!  I wouldn't buy Moxie if it tasted like Coke, though!

> I've never seen MoxIE for sale, and I've been from one coast to the other,
> and I've seen a lot of thing sold one place that were'nt in another.

As I pointed out above, it's not especially easy to find even in New England.
The supermarkets tend to stock it sporadically if at all ("OK, it's your turn
to stock the Moxie!"  "Aw, c'mon, we had it only six months ago!"), although
the cutesy nostalgia-mongering "country stores" have it most of the time.

>I don't recall seeing RC being sold in Boston for example.

True; I've never seen it in any of the four supermarkets I shop at in the
western suburbs.  (Now do any other transplanted New Yorkers know where to
find the immortal Fox's U-Bet around Beantown?)  

Andrew W. Rogers


PS: Send me a USnail address and I'll send you copies of several articles
concerning Moxie and/or their famous Horsemobile!

jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (08/20/85)

> As I pointed out above, it's not especially easy to find even in New
> England.  The supermarkets tend to stock it sporadically if at all ("OK,
> it's your turn to stock the Moxie!" "Aw, c'mon, we had it only six months
> ago!"), although the cutesy nostalgia-mongering "country stores" have it
> most of the time.

That's true of Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink here, also; rural stores always carry
it, but it just occasionally appears briefly in regular supermarket stores.
I've always wondered why that is; do the supermarkets get special trial
offers or something?
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