Double Cola
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| Double Cola | |
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| Type | soft drink |
| Manufacturer | Double Cola Company |
| Country of Origin |  United States |
| Introduced | 1922 |
| Variants | Ski, Jumbo Orange, Jumbo Grape |
Double Cola is a regionally manufactured U.S. brand of soft drink, predominantly distributed east of the Mississippi River, and available in select international markets.
The Double Cola Company is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was purchased in 1980 by K.J. International, Inc. of London, England from Canadian firm Pop Shops International, which acquired it from a consortium of private investors and remains wholly privately held. The company was originally founded in 1922, primarily to market "Double Orange" and "Good Grape", now called "Jumbo Orange" and "Jumbo Grape". The Double Cola product was developed in 1933 and soon became the company's flagship product and the company was renamed for it shortly afterward. It was soon followed by "Double-Dry" ginger ale. In 1956 the company developed Ski, which is comparable to Mountain Dew or Mello Yello and predates either product. Bottlers were formerly small, community-based affiliated operations, as were many other brands of soft drinks. Today much of the production is bottled in Huntsville, Alabama.
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[edit] Marketing
It was formerly available in a somewhat-wider area of the South. Yet Double Cola is a distinctive part of culture in Southern Indiana, especially Evansville. It was once marketed as a lower-cost alternative to Coca-Cola and other soft drinks, but Double Cola is now marketed as a premium brand in that area, with the same or higher price than Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola.[citation needed] The company hopes to continue re-entry in all of its former U.S. markets, and expand into the Midwest, in the near future.[citation needed] Diet versions of both Double Cola and Ski have been developed in recent years, as has Cherry Ski, which tastes like Mountain Dew Code Red and was developed several years before.
The "Jumbo" line of fruit-flavored drinks has been expanded to include peach, strawberry, pineapple, fruit punch, root beer, and blue creme soda. Some of these drinks are available only in very limited areas.
Speculation that expansion to Middle Eastern markets was at least in part a chance to exploit the company's low profile and consequent lack of political connotations now inherent in the Coke–Pepsi struggle. Though the Double Cola company's international sales are not as large as Coke or Pepsi, their presence in South Asia, South America, the Middle East and consumption in 17 nations comprises their international market. Their two other brands, Oranta orange drink and Chaser lemon-lime drink, are available only in the international markets, and represent the extent of the international product line other than Double Cola itself.
[edit] Fun facts
- Ski was also mentioned in the Grammy Award-winning Kentucky Headhunters album Pickin' on Nashville, in the song "Dumas Walker".[1] (We'll get a slaw, burger, fries and a bottle of Ski / Bring it on out to my baby and me)
- Ski was also bottled in Greensburg, Kentucky before the Kentucky distributorship was sold to the Western Kentucky Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Bowling Green, Kentucky in the early 2000s. That company declined the rights to distribute Double Cola, however. The fact that the Kentucky distribution rights to Ski had been sold to a company bearing the Coca-Cola name led to incorrect speculation that Double Cola and Ski had become the property of the Coca-Cola Company.
- A 12 oz. can of Ski contains 17.1 mg of caffeine.
- Ski is believed to contain a small amount of alcohol in its concentrated form.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ This is how the band describes the song:
- That song struck such a chord with so many people, even though it was a regional song about a fellow who lived in Moss, Tenn. Dumas owned a package store just across the Kentucky/Tennessee line on the Tennessee side.
- It was called "Dumas Walker's" and he just so happened to be a world class marble champion. It was a place where you could buy beer, snacks, fireworks on the 4th of July, and just a small place where the old timers could hang and visit. It was a part of the Kentucky boys' lives growing up, and we just decided to write a song about it and him as sort of an "ode to Dumas."
- We added the slaw burgers, fries, and a bottle of ski from a small cafe in Greensburg, Ky, where the guys used to eat at after playing shows in the area. After we added it all up, we came up with "Let's All Go, Down To Dumas Walker's" and the rest is history, as they say.
