Howel’s Root Beer

“With that good Old Fashioned Flavor”

There isn’t much out there about Howel’s Root Beer, but from what I’ve been able to determine, it was one of the earlier products made and sold by a man by the name of Clayton J. Howell. It was available in bottles from about the early 1920’s through to the late 1940’s.

Prior to the sale of Howel’s Root Beer, Mr. Howell had introduced the syrup for Howel’s Orange-Julep in 1916, which later was known as Ward’s Orange Crush. Neil Ward was Howel’s partner and a chemist. Together the two men incorporated their company, naming it the Orange Crush Company. Howell relinquished his right to have his name appear on the Orange Crush product, and from then on it was known as Ward’s. As partners, they distributed the soft drink syrups to establishments with soda fountains. Neither of these men were the original inventors of the Orange Crush soft drink. The credit for this goes to J. M. Thompson of Chicago in 1906. Like any other successful idea, there were many imitators.

Of course, Ward’s Orange Crush went on to become THE Orange Crush that is still popular today. Luckily for Howell, he maintained rights to the Howel’s Root Beer. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything I can find to determine that Howel’s Root Beer survived into the 1950’s. Online I have seen many Howel’s Root Beer signs, glass mugs and a puppet, so it seems that it must have been a very successful business at one time. They certainly were doing well enough to do a fair amount of advertising. The vintage Howel’s Root Beer advertisements feature a character appearing to be a brownie, dressed in a tunic and tights with a little cap on his head with “Howel’s” printed on it.

Howel’s Beverage Company
Chicago. Illinois

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Mission Soda

“Naturally Good”

The company that created Mission soft drinks went through several name and location changes over the years. Initially, California Crushed Fruit in Los Angeles produced the first soft drinks. Their Mission Orange soft drink was so successful that in 1933 they formed The Mission Dry Corporation and started bottling Mission Orange soda in a unique black bottle. By the 1950’s they had become Mission of California, Inc. with offices based in New Haven, Connecticut. Throughout their total history, they manufactured soft drinks from about 1929 to 1970.

Around 1950 they began putting their soda into 1-quart cone top cans. Some of these cans can be very valuable. One website states that in 2000 a Mission Root Beer quart cone top can went for over $3000 at auction. They also put their soft drinks into flat top cans in the 50’s, but they didn’t really catch on with the consumer until the 60’s.

Flavors that Mission soda was available in included Orange, Lemon-Lime, Coco-Pina, Black Cherry, Cream and Root Beer, among others.

The Mission Dry Corporation
Los Angeles, California

Mission soda production was based in California but was bottled all over the US. Do you have a Mission story you’d like to share? If so, please blog-in.

Goody Soda

“Thirst Come—Thirst Served”

Goody Soda was made by the Willow Springs Distillery that opened in Omaha, Nebraska in 1866. By 1894, Willow Springs was the third largest distillery in the US. They manufactured alcoholic beverages like gin, rye, whiskey and bourbon until Prohibition, when manufacture of any alcoholic beverage became illegal. In 1919 they changed their name to Willow Springs Bottling and began making only near beer, malt and soft drinks.

Advertising for Goody Soda from the late 1940’s shows a character called “Goody”. This young man was used to promote sales of Goody soda to storeowners. I can find vintage Goody soda bottles online, dating as recently as the 1960’s. I don’t know exactly when they stopped making it.

Willow Springs Distillery
4th and Pierce Streets
Omaha, Nebraska

Flavors that Goody soda was available in included Strawberry, Chocolate and Black Cherry. If you know of any others, please share it with us. Also, when was the last time you saw Goody soda available?

NuGrape Soda

“A Flavor You Can’t Forget”

The NuGrape Company of America was started in 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia. It was managed by O. R. Randall. The company was unique for the time, since they made and bottled soft drinks. Other companies did one or the other, but not both. Many claim the NuGrape soda has the truest grape-flavor of all grape soft drinks on the market. NuGrape soda was very popular, and by 1937, there were 600 NuGrape bottlers in the US.

By the 1950’s the name was changed to the National NuGrape Company. In 1967, Moxie bought the National NuGrape Co. and formed the Moxie-Monarch-NuGrape Company of Doraville, Georgia in 1968. Today NuGrape is distributed by the Monarch Company in Atlanta.

The NuGrape Company of America
168-170 Peters Street
Atlanta, Georgia

NuGrape soda isn’t that easy to find today. Are you a NuGrape fan?

Pioneer Valley Soda

“Beverages of Quality”

Pioneer Valley soda was manufactured by the Pioneer Valley Ginger Ale Co. in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was based in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Some of the flavors that were available were Golden Ginger Ale, Cream, Fruity Lemon & Lime and Pale Dry Ginger Ale, Strawberry Crème. There were also Pioneer Valley Club Soda and Tom Collins Mixer.

This company no longer exists, but if you can tell us more about this brand, blog-in.

Dr. Wells Soda

“Always Drink Dr. Wells”

Dr. Wells was introduced in 1935 to compete against Dr. Pepper and its many imitators. It was developed by Ludford Fruit Products of Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Wells was acquired by the Monarch Company of Atlanta in 1987. They believed that Dr. Wells was among those soft drinks, that yet they had a strong following, could benefit from a wider distribution. In 2007, Dr. Wells was sold to Hedinger Brands in Jasper, Indiana, and it was then licensed to The Dad’s Root Beer Company, also in Indiana.

The Dad’s Root Beer Company, LLC
PO Box 790
Jasper, Indiana

Do you have a Dr. Wells story to share? Please blog-in.

Squirt Soda

Squirt is a carbonated grapefruit drink that was created by Herb Bishop in 1938. His intention was to make a soft drink that required less fruit and sugar than other sodas, since America was involved in the Great Depression. He started with a soft drink by the name of Citrus Club that was bottled in Phoenix, Arizona and very popular in that part of the country. His experimentation resulted in a soft drink made from grapefruit juice and sugar that Bishop believed to be the freshest tasting soft drink available on the market. He thought it tasted like a slice of grapefruit exploding in the mouth, and so he called it “Squirt”.

In 1941 Herb Bishop and his partner, Ed Mehren, created a character called “Little Squirt” to use in the marketing of their soft drink. The little tike encouraged people to “Drink Squirt”. He caught on right away with the consumers and sales increased. The soft drink did well through WWII, when others did not, because of its reduced sugar content. In the 1950’s, Squirt became a popular drink mixer. And by the mid-1970’s, Squirt was sold in Central and South America.

In 1977 Squirt was bought by a Michigan bottler, Brooks Products, that went on to introduce a new product logo and a reformulated Squirt. Diet Squirt was introduced in 1983 and was the first diet soft drink in the US to use aspartame. A Ruby Red and Diet Ruby Red were also added to the product line of Squirt soft drinks.

Today Squirt is the best-selling grapefruit soft drink in the United States. It is one of the many brands under the corporate umbrella of London-based The Cadbury Schweppes Group, having been purchased as part of Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up, Inc. in 2000.

Cadbury Schweppes Bottling Group
5950 Sherry Lane
Dallas, Texas

Blog-in if you have anything to add. We’d love to hear from you.

Pequot Soda

The Pequot Water Company was a soda and spring water bottling company where I grew up in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Pequot soda came in a long list of flavors. Some of the ones I remember are orange, root beer, and lemon-lime. Trucks came directly to our door to deliver the specific flavors my mother had ordered. The glass bottles with a cork-lined cap were transported in heavy wooden crates, with 12 bottles per crate. When the soda bottles were empty, the truck returned to take the crate of empties back to the bottling plant to be reused.

The Pequot Water Company was a business started in 1916 by the Roser family of Glastonbury. The water used to make the soda was from an onsite spring that was purported to have magical powers by the local Indians. Pequot soda was delivered on trucks from the early 1960’s into the 1970’s. The company is gone now, and the building stands empty, having been recently sold. But the name of “Pequot soda” brings a smile to my face as I remember how great it tasted and how much by brothers and I enjoyed it as kids.

Pequot Water Company
320 Spring Street Extension
Glastonbury, CT

Have you got any memories to share about Pequot soda? Please blog in and let us know.

Frostie Soda

“You’ll Love It!”

Frostie Old Fashion Root Beer was introduced in Catonsville, Maryland in 1939. The president of The Frostie Company was George Rackensperger, who rented an abandoned jailhouse outside Baltimore in which to start his soft drink bottling operation. According to the story, the bottling equipment was placed in the garage that had housed the police wagon and the storeroom for sugar and bottle crowns was made from the former cells. Originally, Rackensperger made several flavors of soft drinks, but this had to be whittled to one—Root Beer—in order for him to meet the customer demand. In addition, the plant had to be moved to a newly constructed larger and more modern building to accommodate the booming business.

Before 1947 Frostie became franchised and was available across the entire country by the 1950’s. At its height, this brand was being bottled at 300 licensed plants in the US. Frostie sodas originally were sweetened with cane sugar, but today they use high fructose corn syrup, giving it a slightly different taste.

Leading Edge Brands
4001 Central Pointe Parkway
Temple, Texas

Flavors that Frostie is available in today are Root Beer, Diet Root Beer, Cherry Limeade, Vanilla Root Beer, Blue Cream, Orange and Concords Grape.

Please blog-in with any comments you’d like to make.

Buffalo Rock Soda-Birmingham Alabama

“Taste the Difference”

The Buffalo Rock Company was started 1901 when the owner of the Alabama Grocery Company, Sid Lee, and a local chemist invented Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale. Their intent had been to create a tonic using ginger that would relieve stomach ailments, but instead they developed a drink that when drunk cold, was a relief from the southern heat. With the drink’s success, there was a shift from the grocery business to the making and distribution of soft drinks and in 1927 they changed their name to the Buffalo Rock Company. For 30 years, their primary products were Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, Mission Orange, Mission Grape and B-1.

James C. Lee took the helm after his father’s passing, and in 1951 the company bought the Birmingham Pepsi-Cola franchise and began bottling Dr Pepper and 7-Up in addition to their other products. This made Buffalo Rock the first bottler to produce three major soda brands in one plant. They added Grapico in 1981, and Dr. Wham in 2005.

It was the Buffalo Rock Company that introduced the 3-liter bottle in 1984. First used for Pepsi-Cola, it is still available on today’s store shelves. This innovative company also introduced the 20-pak mini-case for 12-ounce cans and 12- and 20-ounce bottles.

Today the Buffalo Rock Co. is among the largest single-family owned Pepsi-Cola bottlers in the US, operating 14 distribution centers in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

Buffalo Rock Company
111 Oxmoor Road
Birmingham, Alabama

Do you have an experience to share in regard to this 100-plus year-old soda company? Please blog-in and share it with us.