Dr. Nut

Old Dr. Nut sign

Dr. Nut was a soft drink produced by New Orleans-based World Bottling Company (and later by another New Orleans company, Wright Root Beer) during the first half of the 20th century. Dr. Nut had a distinct almond flavor, similar to Amaretto liquor and bottles were characterized by their plain logo depicting a squirrel nibbling on a large nut.[1] In the 1940s it was marketed at a competitive price and was known for its slogans and for having a man in a running costume who ran with the Mardi Gras parades.[2][3]

The drink was made famous to a new generation in John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces, in which it is a favorite drink of the main character Ignatius Reilly. His copious consumption of the drink is a comic example of the discrepancies between Ignatius' purportedly ascetic medieval values and his undisciplined, gluttonous lifestyle.[4]

By the time the novel saw print, the beverage was already out of production. A different company attempted to revive the product, but the taste of the new drink lacked the almond flavor of the original and was not well-liked by consumers.[5] [6] Dr. Nut advertising used to feature a man on the beach, wearing half a nutshell as a bathing suit, and a squirrel as his friend. Many people dressed as this funny figure during the New Orleans' Mardi Gras parades. [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Try Dr. Nut", St. Charles Avenue, September 2008.
  2. ↑ "Our times: Dr. Nut, popular local soft drink in 1930s, '40s", Times-Picayune, June 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ "The Man Who Ran Before the Parades", New Orleans Magazine, July 2011.
  4. ↑ Potrč, Julija (2010). "Feast of Fools: The Carnivalesque in John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy Of Dunces" (PDF). Acta neophilologica 43 (1-2): 83, 86. Retrieved 2012-03-07. Moreover, while raging against the perversions and excesses of the modern age and advocating medieval asceticism, he obviously does not see it unfit to wolf down boxes of wine cakes and guzzle enormous quantities of Dr. Nut, his favorite drink.
  5. ↑ William F. Glueck (1980). Business Policy and Strategic Management (McGraw-Hill Series in Management). McGraw-Hill. p. 706. ISBN 0070235198. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Julia Street", New Orleans Magazine, March 2010.
  7. ↑ Dr. Nut, Angelfire.

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