Even with the internet and a phone to help gain insight on Mr. Cola’s origins, its conception still has a shroud of mystery. Mr. Cola’s straight forward, black and white label clearly states “since 1949” but has been through the hands of at least two manufacturers within its 62 year history. Grapette (Grapette has since been bought up by Walmart) owned and produced Mr. Cola from 1962 and discontinued production in 1970. More than ten years would pass before the Orca Bottling Company of Washington State, introduced its first beverages to the market. Orca bought a Pepsi bottling plant that had been flooded and subsequently was written off Pepsi’s insurance company in the early 80’s and with this stroke of luck was able to buy defunct formulas and contract with other soda producers to develop a full line and thus Mr. Cola found its way back to the market shelves.
The basic black and white packaging and the heavy caramel color seems straight forward with some possible aesthetic appeal to the hipster community. The flavor has a light, sugar cane base sweetness with slight bite of phosphoric acid. The aftertaste almost reminds me of a slight artificially sweetener taste that you would expect from a diet soda. This aftertaste although light, would sway me toward another cola on my next purchase. Also I understand that Mr. Cola’s style is that of a minimalistic, James Dean cool, with basic black and white paper label, but with the quality of the pop being in question, I’m left to wonder if Orca should put more thought into bettering a brand that’s been discontinued at least once before.
The Orca Bottling Company’s story and its website offers inspiration to all those whom dream of owning a legitimate business and with a handful of soda’s that are relatively good (dad’s root beer and Sioux City Birch Beer) I believe that Orca should Either redesign or retire Mr. Cola.
4 Bottles out of 10
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