Coming Soon To A Store Near You - Moxie

Discussion in 'Food & Drinks' started by Ken Anderson, Aug 28, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    moxie.jpg

    One of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States, Moxie has been a Maine-only beverage for several years now, produced for Maine by Coca Cola New England. However, it has just been acquired by the national brand, who intends to market it nationwide.

    I am not thrilled with this because it is one of my favorite soft drinks. As it is, Moxie is available to me in pretty much any store in Maine, but if it doesn't sell well nationwide, Coca Cola might very well either change the formula to make it into something that they think would be more appealing, or they might discontinue it altogether.

    Moxie is an acquired taste. When I first tried it, I bought a six-pack. After drinking the first can, I didn't think I'd ever buy that stuff again. It has a strange taste, and the first reaction that most people have to it is negative. However, by the time I had finished the six-pack, I loved it.

    However, while some Mainers love it, I don't know how well it's doing among the new generation, who tend to want everything to taste the same. I don't know how well it will do nationally.

    moxiead1.jpg

    Yes, Moxie is the source of the word.

    See: Moxie (Wikipedia)
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Is it kind of a cola drink, or what does it taste like, @Ken Anderson ? What other flavor of soda pop would you say is most similar to this one ?
    We have a brand down here that is called “Cheer Wine”, and it is somewhat similar to a cherry coke. I am not sure what all states it is sold in, but I had never heard of it until I came out here to the South.

    3FCB7A66-185C-412D-97E5-BD69E72B8338.jpeg
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Moxie doesn't taste like anything else. It is a root-type drink, made from the Gentian root, but it's not at all like rootbeer. It's not as sweet as most other soft drinks and people who don't like it sometimes describe it as bitter, but I don't think that's a good description.

    As for Cheerwine, that was my substitute for Moxie while I was living in North Carolina since Moxie wasn't available there, although it doesn't taste at all like Moxie. It's not available here.
     
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  5. Betty Jones

    Betty Jones Veteran Member
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  6. Betty Jones

    Betty Jones Veteran Member
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    i remember when we were kids in mass. thats the only drink my dad would drink
     
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  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I guess that didn't work out because they quit making it altogether.
     
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  8. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    Epcot used to have (maybe still does for all I know) a pavilion where you could get samples of soft drinks made by Coca-Cola from all over the world. Some were OK and some were absolutely disgusting. The worst one was "Beverly", made in Italy, which left a nasty quinine-like flavor in your mouth for an hour. Yuk.

    For the record, I hate Moxie AND Cheerwine.

    I absolutely lived on Koka-Kola in Turkey. That's the product made by Coca-Cola (better than American Coke) there but they had to spell it with a "K" because there is no hard C in Turkish.
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I hope no one has committed suicide or anything after I announced that they had discontinued Moxie because Coca Cola has announced that they have not discontinued it but that they are out of it, and behind in production, whatever that means. They say that it will return.
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Great news, everyone! Moxie is back in the stores. Regular Moxie came back first, but I have found Diet Moxie for the first time in quite awhile just today, so I bought a couple of cases.
     
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  11. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    The most disgusting soda I've ever seen (and I say "seen" because I cannot conceive of any reason I'd ever taste it) was something I came across years ago in a discount store called Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum Flavored Diet Soda. It was an iridescent pink fluid that looked like it might glow in the dark.

    I just can't...……………..

    I did have some prune soda in Spain once. It comes at #2 on the yuck-o-meter.
     
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  12. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Interesting. .. Softening of the brain... I should try some.

    "Moxie originated around 1876 as a patent medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food," by Augustin Thompson in Lowell, Massachusetts. Thompson claimed that it contained an extract from a rare, unnamed South American plant (the gentian root). Moxie, he claimed, was especially effective against "paralysis, softening of the brain, nervousness, and insomnia.""
     
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  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    So how is it? Did Coke bastardize the formula?

    I used to love Mountain Dew and Fresca when they first came out, but I'm certain they are not as I remember them to be. Talk about 2 ends of a spectrum: tons of sugar versus "nothing natural added" cyclamate.

    Goodness knows why they bother embalming us these days.
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Maybe Mad Cow Disease can be treated with Moxie. "Cures hangnails, gout and spongiform encephalopathy."
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Apparently, the formula has changed a few times over the years, but there haven't been any recent changes.

    I loved Mountain Dew when I was twelve or thirteen but the last time I tried it, I got the idea that it was almost pure sugar, and it was disgusting. Maybe it was then too, but I didn't care. I don't know. I drink Fresca once in a while but it's not one of my go-to drinks. As far as I could tell, Fresca hadn't changed that much.
     
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