Jim Stillman
NevarMoxie: “You’ve Got Spunk . . . I Hate Spunk”
July 30th 2007 15:12
Lou Grant could have been addressing a bottle of Moxie, instead of Mary.
Moxie, trade name for a soft drink, has become a noun meaning courage, fighting spirit, nerve and, yes, spunk. It took all that to swallow what was America’s most popular drink and remains in some quarters, a much admired and lusted after quaff.
I can still recall my first gulp of Moxie, long, long ago. I recently became re-acquainted with the drink and was surprised that it was not only being manufactured but that one of the few companies that distributed the stuff was in my home town of Tampa. Suddenly, after sixty years or so, I became face-to-face with the familiar bottle. My second sip of the brew came a month or so ago. My opinion has not changed.
Unless a reader comes from or lived in New England, and some areas of Pennsylvania, he or she may not have heard of this unique tasting soft drink that has a taste which must be acquired. Personally, I’d rather have a root canal than drink another bottle or can of Moxie or even try another swallow.
Yet it has had a following for over 125 years. Go figure.
Moxie is claimed to be the first mass produced soft drink in this country.
Augustin Thompson, while working for a drug company in Lowell, Massachusetts, created Moxie in 1876, about ten years before the debut of Coke. He was a medical doctor who brewed up a mixture of Gentian root extract, cinchona, sassafras, caramel and other flavorings to make "Moxie Nerve Food". It was billed as a medicine which could "recover brain and nervous exhaustion; loss of manhood, imbecility and helplessness, it will cause recovery of paralysis, softening of the brain, loco motor ataxia and insanity". Moxie Nerve Food, like all early soft drinks in America, was first created as a medicine, not a recreational drink. (As I have noted in an earlier article, the early use of such drinks may have been the origin of the term “tonic” as a soft drink still used in north east Massachusetts, where Lowell sits, perched on the banks of the Merrimack River.) In any event, the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in the early twentieth century, the more “creative” claims on behalf of Moxie and its competitors were dropped.
Carbonated beverages started out as cures thousands of years ago, and can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans who thought water could treat ailments. Cold and hot baths and steam rooms aided the curative process long ago and still do today. Hot springs with dissolved chemicals and minerals were thought to be restorative, and health "spas" were popular in Europe as places to "take the water cure". The natural carbonation in some of these springs helped digestion and other ailments and people began to drink the water as well as sit in it. These "tonics" were said to invigorate, refresh and improve the body tone of those who drank the stuff.
After the US Civil War, pharmacists began to add medicinal roots and herbs to produce a more curative drink. Sugar was often added to counter the bitterness of these concoctions and to make a better-tasting drink. Dr. Thompson had no truck with the sissies who loaded their tonics with sugar. The suggestion has been made that the good doctor, like many of his contemporaries in what would be a soft drink industry, including the folks at Atlanta’s Coca Cola Company, were not averse to adding a smidgen of cocaine to the brew.
The tonic was dispensed by the spoonful but within a few years, Thompson mixed the oily, tarry substance with carbonated water and sold it as an invigorating drink which would give the drinker “spunk”. Moxie is said to have been kept handy by bartenders to give to customers who were too drunk to be given any more alcohol. This story may be apocryphal, however, inspired by Moxie's noted aftertaste, which many people (including me) find unpleasantly strong. That is an example of the most outrageous understatement possible.
Notwithstanding my own prejudices against the brew, I have to admit that many people swear by the drink and it has had a long run of popularity. Just a few years ago, the state of Maine designated Moxie as the “official state beverage”, a choice that makes the non-Maine mind boggle. While I have not tried this, several blogs on Moxie mention that the drink mixes well with other drinks, including the “Welfare Mom”, which consists of equal parts Diet Moxie and Coffee Flavored Brandy and the “County Girl”, a drink made up of one part bourbon whiskey and two parts Moxie on the rocks, with an optional lime garnish. Many people, even those who do not like the soda on its own, find it superb, refreshing and relaxing when mixed with Jack Daniel’s!
Oh well, back to the development of Moxie’s popularity. There is a one word answer: marketing. Moxie’s advertising and marketing was developed and spearheaded by one Frank Archer, an advertising genius.
When Moxie was being advertised it grew to become the world's most popular soft drink, but when advertising dollars were reduced it disappeared into near extinction. The picture of a man urging the purchase and drinking of Moxie, and slight variations on the same theme, was one of Moxie's most successful campaigns. Just like the old "Uncle Sam Needs You!" poster, the eyes follow you wherever you go (try it -- lean you're head to one side of the screen -- spooky huh?). And check out that smile. Do you want to drink some Moxie now?
The major and most successful advertising scheme involved vehicles known as MoxieMobiles, first horse-drawn carriages, later trucks and automobiles, all with replicas of Moxie bottles. These MoxieMobiles were in small town parades throughout the country and, while they were used, Moxie’s popularity soared. Ultimately, however, the taste did it in and, notwithstanding the loyal coterie of supporters, Moxie could not compete with Coke, Pepsi and other sweeter beverages.
There is a story that may or may not be totally true. When Warren Harding died in 1923, his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, was at the family farm in Vermont bailing hay. The telegraph messenger arrived at 2:00 a.m. with the news, and old John Coolidge, a justice of the peace, swore in his son as President of the United States. They then, with all of the others present for the occasion, toasted with glasses of Moxie. (The taste of the beverage may have been the cause of the Depression six years later. I made that up.) Other famous people were associated with Moxie, including the local hero, Ted Williams.
There is, at this time, an organization called the”New England Moxie Congress”. In order to demonstrate that I am not guilty of hyperbole, all the time, I quote from that group’s membership application form:
“The New England Moxie Congress is a loosely-knit band of Moxie zealots and fellow travelers who collect Moxie-related memorabilia promote the drink's availability, get together for parades and clambakes, and some who actually drink the stuff. The annual business (?) meeting may be held on a car at the end of the line at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, but then again, it may not..
Membership includes a subscription to our award-winning publication, the Nerve Food News (hard copy edition) which will keep you current on Moxie-related events and activities, and fast-breaking news about people with a distinctively different taste.
The qualifications for membership are to be alive and breathing and be willing to part with a sawbuck (or c-note if you're really serious). “
There are Moxie-related celebrations throughout New England all year long. For example, Coolidge’s inauguration will be celebrated in Plymouth, Vermont, on August 4, 2007, Festivals and Fairs will be held in Eliot, Maine, Union, Maine, The Forks, Maine, Concord, New Hampshire, just in the next two months. You get the idea.
The Granddaddy of all festivals is the Annual Moxie Festival in July at Lisbon Falls, Maine. Also there is the Moxie Congress’ annual clambake in Freeport, Maine. These all sound like fun and I would look forward to visiting, if I didn’t have to drink the favored brew.
Moxie, trade name for a soft drink, has become a noun meaning courage, fighting spirit, nerve and, yes, spunk. It took all that to swallow what was America’s most popular drink and remains in some quarters, a much admired and lusted after quaff.
I can still recall my first gulp of Moxie, long, long ago. I recently became re-acquainted with the drink and was surprised that it was not only being manufactured but that one of the few companies that distributed the stuff was in my home town of Tampa. Suddenly, after sixty years or so, I became face-to-face with the familiar bottle. My second sip of the brew came a month or so ago. My opinion has not changed.
Unless a reader comes from or lived in New England, and some areas of Pennsylvania, he or she may not have heard of this unique tasting soft drink that has a taste which must be acquired. Personally, I’d rather have a root canal than drink another bottle or can of Moxie or even try another swallow.
Yet it has had a following for over 125 years. Go figure.
Moxie is claimed to be the first mass produced soft drink in this country.
Augustin Thompson, while working for a drug company in Lowell, Massachusetts, created Moxie in 1876, about ten years before the debut of Coke. He was a medical doctor who brewed up a mixture of Gentian root extract, cinchona, sassafras, caramel and other flavorings to make "Moxie Nerve Food". It was billed as a medicine which could "recover brain and nervous exhaustion; loss of manhood, imbecility and helplessness, it will cause recovery of paralysis, softening of the brain, loco motor ataxia and insanity". Moxie Nerve Food, like all early soft drinks in America, was first created as a medicine, not a recreational drink. (As I have noted in an earlier article, the early use of such drinks may have been the origin of the term “tonic” as a soft drink still used in north east Massachusetts, where Lowell sits, perched on the banks of the Merrimack River.) In any event, the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in the early twentieth century, the more “creative” claims on behalf of Moxie and its competitors were dropped.
Carbonated beverages started out as cures thousands of years ago, and can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans who thought water could treat ailments. Cold and hot baths and steam rooms aided the curative process long ago and still do today. Hot springs with dissolved chemicals and minerals were thought to be restorative, and health "spas" were popular in Europe as places to "take the water cure". The natural carbonation in some of these springs helped digestion and other ailments and people began to drink the water as well as sit in it. These "tonics" were said to invigorate, refresh and improve the body tone of those who drank the stuff.
After the US Civil War, pharmacists began to add medicinal roots and herbs to produce a more curative drink. Sugar was often added to counter the bitterness of these concoctions and to make a better-tasting drink. Dr. Thompson had no truck with the sissies who loaded their tonics with sugar. The suggestion has been made that the good doctor, like many of his contemporaries in what would be a soft drink industry, including the folks at Atlanta’s Coca Cola Company, were not averse to adding a smidgen of cocaine to the brew.
The tonic was dispensed by the spoonful but within a few years, Thompson mixed the oily, tarry substance with carbonated water and sold it as an invigorating drink which would give the drinker “spunk”. Moxie is said to have been kept handy by bartenders to give to customers who were too drunk to be given any more alcohol. This story may be apocryphal, however, inspired by Moxie's noted aftertaste, which many people (including me) find unpleasantly strong. That is an example of the most outrageous understatement possible.
Notwithstanding my own prejudices against the brew, I have to admit that many people swear by the drink and it has had a long run of popularity. Just a few years ago, the state of Maine designated Moxie as the “official state beverage”, a choice that makes the non-Maine mind boggle. While I have not tried this, several blogs on Moxie mention that the drink mixes well with other drinks, including the “Welfare Mom”, which consists of equal parts Diet Moxie and Coffee Flavored Brandy and the “County Girl”, a drink made up of one part bourbon whiskey and two parts Moxie on the rocks, with an optional lime garnish. Many people, even those who do not like the soda on its own, find it superb, refreshing and relaxing when mixed with Jack Daniel’s!
Oh well, back to the development of Moxie’s popularity. There is a one word answer: marketing. Moxie’s advertising and marketing was developed and spearheaded by one Frank Archer, an advertising genius.
When Moxie was being advertised it grew to become the world's most popular soft drink, but when advertising dollars were reduced it disappeared into near extinction. The picture of a man urging the purchase and drinking of Moxie, and slight variations on the same theme, was one of Moxie's most successful campaigns. Just like the old "Uncle Sam Needs You!" poster, the eyes follow you wherever you go (try it -- lean you're head to one side of the screen -- spooky huh?). And check out that smile. Do you want to drink some Moxie now?
The major and most successful advertising scheme involved vehicles known as MoxieMobiles, first horse-drawn carriages, later trucks and automobiles, all with replicas of Moxie bottles. These MoxieMobiles were in small town parades throughout the country and, while they were used, Moxie’s popularity soared. Ultimately, however, the taste did it in and, notwithstanding the loyal coterie of supporters, Moxie could not compete with Coke, Pepsi and other sweeter beverages.
There is a story that may or may not be totally true. When Warren Harding died in 1923, his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, was at the family farm in Vermont bailing hay. The telegraph messenger arrived at 2:00 a.m. with the news, and old John Coolidge, a justice of the peace, swore in his son as President of the United States. They then, with all of the others present for the occasion, toasted with glasses of Moxie. (The taste of the beverage may have been the cause of the Depression six years later. I made that up.) Other famous people were associated with Moxie, including the local hero, Ted Williams.
There is, at this time, an organization called the”New England Moxie Congress”. In order to demonstrate that I am not guilty of hyperbole, all the time, I quote from that group’s membership application form:
“The New England Moxie Congress is a loosely-knit band of Moxie zealots and fellow travelers who collect Moxie-related memorabilia promote the drink's availability, get together for parades and clambakes, and some who actually drink the stuff. The annual business (?) meeting may be held on a car at the end of the line at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, but then again, it may not..
Membership includes a subscription to our award-winning publication, the Nerve Food News (hard copy edition) which will keep you current on Moxie-related events and activities, and fast-breaking news about people with a distinctively different taste.
The qualifications for membership are to be alive and breathing and be willing to part with a sawbuck (or c-note if you're really serious). “
There are Moxie-related celebrations throughout New England all year long. For example, Coolidge’s inauguration will be celebrated in Plymouth, Vermont, on August 4, 2007, Festivals and Fairs will be held in Eliot, Maine, Union, Maine, The Forks, Maine, Concord, New Hampshire, just in the next two months. You get the idea.
The Granddaddy of all festivals is the Annual Moxie Festival in July at Lisbon Falls, Maine. Also there is the Moxie Congress’ annual clambake in Freeport, Maine. These all sound like fun and I would look forward to visiting, if I didn’t have to drink the favored brew.
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