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From: andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers)
Newsgroups: net.misc.coke
Subject: Re: MOXY Clothes
Message-ID: <555@grkermi.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 14:32:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: grkermi.555
Posted: Fri Aug 16 14:32:51 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 04:07:00 EDT
References: <937@security.UUCP> <542@grkermi.UUCP> <788@lll-crg.ARPA>
Reply-To: andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 44

In article <788@lll-crg.ARPA> adam@lll-crg.UUCP (Adam Mackler) writes:
> What is this Moxy [sic] anyway?

That's M-O-X-I-E.

According to the Wall Street Journal (7/12/85), it's "America's oldest 
and oddest soft drink", a "mud-colored soft drink made from gentian, a
bitter root also used to cure stomach aches".

According to people like me who actually like it, "it's the surreal thing!"

> Is it still made?

Sure is.  The formula and rights to the name are owned by Monarch-Nugrape
in Atlanta, although the seven surviving bottlers are all in New England.
About 12 million bottles are sold per year, giving it a 0.01% market share
(although it has about a 75% market share in my refrigerator).

> The only reference made to it I've ever heard (other than on this list)
> was just after new coke came out, and some said "Coke could taste like
> MoxIE and people would still buy it, just because it's Coke."

I'd sure buy Coke if it tasted like Moxie... for one thing, it would be a
lot easier to find!  I wouldn't buy Moxie if it tasted like Coke, though!

> I've never seen MoxIE for sale, and I've been from one coast to the other,
> and I've seen a lot of thing sold one place that were'nt in another.

As I pointed out above, it's not especially easy to find even in New England.
The supermarkets tend to stock it sporadically if at all ("OK, it's your turn
to stock the Moxie!"  "Aw, c'mon, we had it only six months ago!"), although
the cutesy nostalgia-mongering "country stores" have it most of the time.

>I don't recall seeing RC being sold in Boston for example.

True; I've never seen it in any of the four supermarkets I shop at in the
western suburbs.  (Now do any other transplanted New Yorkers know where to
find the immortal Fox's U-Bet around Beantown?)  

Andrew W. Rogers


PS: Send me a USnail address and I'll send you copies of several articles
concerning Moxie and/or their famous Horsemobile!