Vess

Vess Soda is a brand of soft drink manufactured and distributed primarily in the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. The company was founded in 1916. During the height of its popularity, Vess had bottling plants in various locales such as Asheville, NC; Lafayette, IN, and Cincinnati, OH. It is owned by Cott Beverages.

Charles Leiper Grigg, a Vess Soda salesman who developed the orange Whistle flavor for Vess, later founded 7Up after devising its recipe too. Vess Beverage assets and division, Vess Specialty Packaging Company, was purchased in 1994 by Cott. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE6D7103BF932A35755C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Company News: Cott buys Missouri Bottler for $27.4 Million] ]

Current products

As of 2007 Vess soda is sold in small plastic bottles and cans, as well as 2 and 3-liter bottles. Their slogan is "The Billion Bubble Beverage".

Vess flavors include the standard cola and fruit flavors. Vess is well-known for their orange soft drink, Whistle. The cream variety is an unusual deep pink color. Vess-Up is their lemon lime soda. Vess also produces pineapple, peach, strawberry, blue raspberry and kiwi-strawberry flavors. There is also Vess Tonic Water, Ginger ale, Club soda and Seltzer in one liter bottles and standard and fruit flavors available in 2 and 3 liter variety..

Past products

In the 1980s, Vess soda produced a chocolate beverage almost identical to Yoo-hoo. It was called Vess Chocolate. It was discontinued in the mid 1990s.

Vess company collection

The Vess family also maintains one of the finest private collections of Chinese ceramics, and 19th/20th Century American and European prints in the US.

ee also

* The Bottle District

References

External links

* [http://stlcin.missouri.org/history/structdetail.cfm?Master_ID=2210 Giant replica of a family-size Vess Soda Bottle Neon Sign]
* [http://www.googleearthhacks.com/dlfile19077/Worlds-Largest-Vess-Soda-Bottle.htm Aerial view of World's Largest Vess Soda Bottle]