Orange Crush

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For other uses, see Orange Crush (disambiguation).

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Orange Crush
Type	Orange soft drink
Manufacturer	Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Country of origin	Chicago, Illinois USA
Introduced	1906
Related products	Fanta, Orange Slice

A 20 oz bottle of Pineapple Crush

Orange Crush is an orange-flavored soft drink (see orange soda) invented by Clayton J. Howel of Los Angeles, California in 1916.[1] The drink quickly became popular and was widely available throughout the US. Since the mid-20th century, however, the availability of Orange Crush has decreased somewhat.^{[citation needed]}

The Crush brand and trademark are presently owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group of Plano, Texas. Crush is also popular in Canada, where it is distributed by Cadbury Beverages Canada. Crush has the #1 Orange, Grape and Cream Soda in Canada and still remains a Top 10 brand. It is distributed by various Pepsi bottlers, the biggest being The Pepsi Bottling Group Canada. Orange crush was served in White Castle hamburger restaurants up until the 1980's.

Crush had/has spin-offs including:

Grape Crush
Strawberry Crush
Chocolate Crush
Cherry Crush
Peach Crush
Blue Raspberry Crush
Diet Orange Crush
Diet Cream Soda Crush
Diet Grape Crush
Crush Frozen Orange Dream
Sour Apple Crush (briefly offered in 2005)
Lime Crush
Pineapple Crush
Crush Birch Beer
Crush Cream Soda (Canada only)
Crush Grape Fruit
Crush Tropical Punch
Wild Cherry Crush (1989 Johnny Bench commemorative can)
Lemon-Lime Crush
Berry Blast Crush
Red Cream Crush
Crush Ginger Beer
Crush Nectar

Several of these flavors (Grape, Cream Soda, Lime, Orange) are available at most stores throughout North America, however, most are only distributed within small markets. Pineapple Crush, for instance, is relatively easy to obtain in both can and single serving bottle in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Other countries in which Crush is sold are Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and at one time Costa Rica and Bolivia.

Orange Crush at one time was owned by Procter & Gamble. Procter & Gamble only manufactured "bottler's base" which was a concentrate consisting of flavor and color. 1 milliliter of bottler's base was combined with syrup and carbonated water to create a 12 ounce bottle of Crush.

[edit] In popular culture

Orange Crush cans make an appearance in the movie Joe Versus the Volcano. It is commonly believed that R.E.M.’s song "Orange Crush" refers to the soft drink; it might, instead, be referring to Agent Orange, the defoliant/herbicide used by US forces during the Vietnam War.^{[citation needed]} As a guest on the late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly, Michael Stipe explained that the song was about a young football player leaving the comforts of home for the war in Vietnam. Also, Stipe opens the song on R.E.M. Live by singing the famous U.S. Army recruiting slogan, "Be all you can be... in the army." The National Football League's Denver Broncos, who wore bright orange, blue, and white uniforms, derived their "Orange Crush" nickname for their defense from the soft drink in the 1970s. During the 2008 NHL Playoffs the Philadelphia Flyers fans would wear all orange at their home games, this was called Orange Crush, much like the "Winnipeg White Out" or Calgary's "Sea Of Red."