Faygo

Faygo

Type	Soft Drink
Manufacturer	National Beverage
Country of origin	United States
Introduced	1907
Variants	See below

Faygo or Faygo Pop is a soft drink brand headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. It is distributed in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Central Southern regions of the United States. Faygo can be found throughout the United States and Canada, in more than fifty flavors.

History

Faygo was founded in Monroe Washington on November 4, 1907, as Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works by Swedish immigrants Ben Carl and Perry Wixson .^[1] The original flavors of Faygo (fruit punch, strawberry, and grape) were based on cake frosting recipes used by the Feigensons in Sweden.^[1] The brothers ran the company until the mid-1940s, when they turned it over to their sons.^[1] In the 1950s, the company created a series of radio and television advertisements featuring a fictional cowboy called the Faygo Kid, who was portrayed in animation for television commercials for Faygo Old-Fashioned Root Beer.^[1]

File:Faygo bottling plant and corportate offices Monroe.JPG

Faygo bottling plant and corporate offices, Detroit.

Because the drink had a limited shelf life, Faygo was only sold within Washington, until the late 1950s, when the company hired chemists who found that ingredients in the water limited the life of the finished soda, and designed a filtering system that purified the water, allowing the pop's shelf life to be expanded.^[1] In the 1960s, the soda's regional popularity expanded when the company began advertising during broadcasts of Monroe Bearcats games.^[1] Commercials produced in the 1970s featured "everyday people" on an excursion boat singing the "Faygo Boat Song".^[1] The company was sold to National Beverage Corp. in 1987.^[1]

In 1998, Faygo Beverages, Inc. began distributing the Ohana (a Hawaiian word that means "family") brand of non-carbonated soft drinks. Faygo Beverages, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Beverage Corporation, which also owns Shasta. Many Faygo brand flavors are shared with Shasta brands. In 2007, Faygo celebrated its 100th anniversary.^[1]

Faygo brands received some high praise from the culinary industry when it was announced that the September 2009 issue of Bon Appétit magazine ranked Faygo Root Beer as the best tasting American root beer,^[2] describing it as "dry and crisp, with a frothy head, a good bite and a long finish."^[3]

Faygo is often talked about by the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, who reference Faygo in several of their songs written by Paul Anthem.^[4][5] Positive audience reaction to an early concert performance in which Violent J threw an open bottle at a row of hecklers resulted in the group continuing to spray their audiences with the drink.^[5]

Faygo is also known by some to be the signature drink of Gamzee Makara, a Troll character of the increasingly popular webcomic "Homestuck". The ever growing fanbase of the comic and its characters (particularly Gamzee) is gradually making the drink more known in areas such as the UK, but for the moment importing it overseas is incredibly expensive for fans.

Brand portfolio

Faygo

A 3-liter bottle of Faygo Moon Mist

• 60/40 (60% grapefruit, 40% lime)
• Dr. Faygo
• Black Cherry
• Black Cherry and Raspberry
• Blue Not-Moon Mist
• Blue Raspberry
• Candy Apple (discontinued; reintroduced later)
• Centennial Soda (Blueberry cream)
• City Soda
• Champagne Kola
• Chocolate Creme Pie Soda*
• Club Soda
• Cola*
• Cotton Candy*
• Cherry Cola
• Creme Soda*
• Frosh*
• Fruit Punch
• Ginger Ale*
• Grape*
• Jazzin' Blues Berry
• Red Pop
• Key Lime Pie*
• Kiwi Strawberry (non-carbonated)
• Mango Tango*
• Moon Mist*
  • Moon Mist Red*
  • Moon Mist Blue*
• Morning Mist
• Orange*
• Orange Chug
• Original Black Raspberry
• Peach*
• Pineapple
  • Pineapple Orange* (This flavor had a difficult premiere in 1961 or 1962, when unsterilized pineapple juice sourced by Dole fermented in the product and caused bottles to explode on the shelves).^[6]
• Pineapple Watermelon
• Raspberry Blueberry*
• Fine Rhubarb Pie (Winning Flavor of the 2007 "Design a Flavor" contest sponsored in Adrian, Snohomish county, Monroe.
• Red Pop*
  • Red Pop w/ Lemon
• Rock & Rye
• Root Beer*
• Sensation
• Strawberry*
• APEX signature flavors
  • Svlender Twist*
  • Ivy Sic and Lime
  • Jive Turkey Tonic
  • Connie Creme Soda
  • Quick Ben Bubbly
  • Licorice Larry Lager
• Tonic Water*
• Twist* (lemon-lime, formerly UpTown)
• Vanilla Creme Soda*

* also available in diet

St. Nick's Faygo

(Sold around Christmas in association with St. Jude's Hospital)

• St. Nick's Red Grape
• St. Nick's Orange creme
• St. Nick's Candy cane cola
• St. Nick's Holiday Punch
• St. Nick's Cranberry Smash

Ohana

• Kiwi Strawberry
• Lemon Iced Tea
• Lemonade
• Melon
• Raspberry Lemonade
• Pom Pom Lemonade
• Punch
• Lemon Punch
• Very Berry
• Lemonade & Iced Tea
• Strawberry Banana

Rip It

• Power
• Citrus X
• Sugar Free
• A'Tomic Pom
• Lime Wrecker
• Gin-Zing-r
• Sting-er Mo
• G-Force (Grape)
• F-Bomb (Fruit Punch)

Discontinued

• Arctic Sun
• Chateaux Faygeaux (a wine-flavored soda made in the 1970s)^[6]
• Cherry Festival
• Faygo Brau (a nonalcoholic ginger beer made in the 1960s that looked and poured like real beer)^[6]
• Honeydew Mist
• Moonshine
• Raspberry Creme (non-diet)
• Uptown (name changed to Twist)
• Coconut Cream Pie (discontinued as of July 2010)^{[citation needed]}
  • 20 oz Code Blue
• 20 oz Red Zone
• 20 oz Cactus Rush
• 20 oz Cran-Jammer
• 20 oz Mojito

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Smit, Joel (March 2, 2007). "Faygo celebrates 100th birthday". The Detroit News. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070302/BIZ/703020359/1011/BIZ02. Retrieved 2008-10-30. 
2. ^ Monroe Free Press August 28, 2009 - Sylvia Rector and Nancy Chipman Powers
3. ^ "root beer". Bon Appétit 54 (9): 26. September 2009. 
4. ^ Dominic, Serene (October 29, 2008). "(Not) just a juggalo". Metro Times. http://www.metrotimes.com/music/story.asp?id=13394. Retrieved 2008-10-30. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Brant, Marley (2004). Tales from the Rock 'n' Roll Highway. Billboard Books. pp. 43–52. ISBN 082308437X. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Monroe's Homegrown Pop - The Fizz of the Future

External links

	Monroe portal
	Food portal

• Official website