Moxie
Drinking Moxie- Maine’s Soft Drink
MELiving.com brings you the hidden gem of Maine – Moxie soft drink. Moxie is Maine for soda pop. Moxie has been called Maine’s beverage of choice. If you are not from New England, chances are you may not have heard or Moxie or know about this soft drink’s connection to Maine and New England. Learn all about Moxie, it’s creator Dr. Augustine Thompson, and the history of Moxie right here. Please share your Moxie comments. To feature your Maine business, please contact us.
History of Moxie – Maine’s Soft Drink
Moxie is a sweet yet “distinctively different” soft drink that at one time out-sold Coke and Pepsi in America. Today it is bottled by the Monarch Beverage Company. Monarch sells a great deal of Moxie here in New England. Moxie was the brainchild of Dr. Augustine Thompson. The good doctor marketed the original concoction as a patent medicine in 1876 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Dr. Thompson was a native of Union, Maine and to this day Union is famous for being the birthplace of Moxie. The early version of Moxie was a spoon fed elixir that could supposedly cure a wide range of ills ranging from dementia to impotence. Moxie has been modified several times since then. In 1884 Moxie was reformulated, repackaged and re-introduced to America as a carbonated soft drink. Sales soared and according to
Distinctively Different – The original Drink Moxie marketing slogan still rings true today.
“Maine Farmhouse Journal”, Moxie was America’s most popular soft drink right up to the early 1920’s.
Today, early Moxie bottles and Moxie advertising pieces are collectors’ items and are probably worth considerably more than they originally cost. Former Red Sox slugger, Ted Williams, endorsed the product and his tins and advertising signs have become quite collectible. There’s even an annual Moxie Festival, and a Moxie Musuem has been proposed. Several books have been written about Moxie, including The Moxie Mystique. The mystery today may be in finding a can of Moxie. Ask your favorite beverage store if you’re having trouble buying some.
Most Moxie drinkers will tell you that Moxie is an acquired taste. The flavor is, as the can says, “distinctively different”. We suggest you try some for yourself. You’ll be experiencing a taste of living Americana.
– Richard Rock for MELiving.com
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US Senator Olympia Snowe and former President George W. Bush pose with a MOXIE t-shirt.
