11 of the strangest colas ever produced in Alabama

Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

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(Source: Birmingham Public Library)

11 of the strangest colas ever produced in Alabama. Would you drink Celery-Cola?

If you saw one on the soft drink shelf, would you try a Revive-Ola, or a Nerve Pepsin? How about a Mitch-O-Cola or maybe a Queen-Ola? During the turn-of-the-20th century cola wars, you could have tried any of these in Alabama. After the debut of Coke, people were seeking bubbly drinks that refreshed and gave them energy. Of course, that's because colas initially contained heaping helpings of cocaine and caffeine. This photo shows a young woman drinking a soft drink at a Birmingham lunch counter in 1946.

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(Two women drinking Coca-Colas in the 1930s/University of Alabama Libraries)

During Alabama's Cola Wars, soft drink companies popped up in Birmingham faster than Starbucks are built today. Every entrepreneur thought he had the secret to matching, or besting, Coca-Cola's success. As many as 80 soft drink companies operated in Birmingham alone, according to Dennis Smith of New York, author of "Kola Wars: Atlanta" and "Kola Wars: Birmingham" and the website KolaWars.com. And while Birmingham was the hot-spot for cola production, bottling companies could be found across Alabama.

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(A man drinking an unknown cola brand sometime in the 1890s-1910s/University of Alabama Libraries)

Birmingham outpaced Atlanta in cola production

"In 1913, the residents of Birmingham drank more Coca-Cola than those in any city in the world," said Dennis Smith on KolaWars.com. "Crawford Johnson's Birmingham Coca-Cola Bottling Company had a capacity of 40,000 bottles a day and surpassed even Atlanta in number of bottles sold. But the citizens of Birmingham were drinking more than Coca-Cola - they were also drinking Ala-Cola and Alpha, Cafa-Cola and Cola-Nip, Fan-Taz and Glee-Cola, My-Coca and Nifty-Cola, Pep-To-Lac and Pepsi-Cola, Rye-Ola and Wiseola."

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(Source: Dennis I. Smith via BhamWiki.com)

Celery-Cola

Yes, this cola was celery flavored. If you’re wondering who would drink such a thing, remember it was produced from 1899-1910 at a time when people thought they got that energy buzz from the healthy veggie content, when it was actually cocaine.

Celery-Cola was manufactured in Birmingham by the Celery-Cola Company, owned by James Mayfield. The company ceased production after it was prosecuted by the Pure Food and Drug Administration for having "unhealthful amounts of cocaine and caffeine in its beverages," according to BhamWiki.com.

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(Source: Dennis I. Smith via KolaWars.com)

A Celery-Cola bottle made in Bessemer.

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(Source: Dennis I. Smith via KolaWars.com)

A Celery-Cola bottle from Birmingham.

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(AL.com File Photo/Mark Almond)

Wise-Ola

Wiseola, or Wise Ola, was developed in 1905 and bottled in Birmingham by the Wiseola Bottling Company. The drink, marketed with an owl logo with the words "Get Wise," was successful until 1915 when Theodore Roosevelt's Homes Commission reported that tests showed the drink contained cocaine, made illegal by the 1906 Food and Drugs Act.

A Wiseola advertising mural was uncovered in 2010 during renovations of the former hunter Building in downtown Birmingham.

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(Grapico logo designed by O2 Ideas/ Buffalo Rock Company)

Grapico

Grapico, a drink still produced today, might not seem strange to us now but consider it was one of the first grape soft drinks. In addition, its producers, J. Grossman’s Sons in New Orleans, marketed it by hiring songwriters to compose a song about the drink called “Meet Me in the Land of Grapico." It was developed in 1914 in New Orleans, and a Birmingham bottler was one of the first to buy the Grapico syrup wholesale in 1917 and begin his own production of the drink at Grapico Bottling Works in Ensley. It operated there from 1920-1922.

Today, Grapico is produced by Buffalo Rock in Birmingham, which acquired the rights in 1981, according to BuffaloRock.com.

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(Source: Gadsden Public Library)

Rye-Ola

Rye-Ola was created in 1905 by Birmingham chemist Jefferson J. Peek, who founded the Peek Beverage Company. Rye-Ola was bottled at plants in Birmingham, Gadsden, Cedar Bluff and probably others. Peek's headquarters was initially located in the Watts building in downtown Birmingham, according to BhamWiki.com. It ceased production in 1921.

This photo shows the Rye-Ola Bottling Works in Gadsden.

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(Source: eBay.com)

An unusual purple Rye-Ola bottle from Birmingham is for sale on eBay.com from the user PurpleGlassMaster for $39.95.

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(Source: WorthPoint.com)

Dope

Dope, a slang word for soft drink in many regions, especially the Appalachians, was also the name of a cola company that once operated in Birmingham. The National Dope Company made and bottled various soft drinks under the name from 1909-11 after buying the trademark to the name "Dope." However, the name was changed to the Birmingham Bottling Company in 1911. This bottle from the National Dope Company was listed on WorthPoint.com.

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(Source: WorthPoint.com)

Cola-Nip

The Cola-Nip Co. was founded in 1912 in Birmingham. This Cola-Nip bottle from 1914 was listed on WorthPoint.com and shows the similarities between its logo and that of Coca-Cola.

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(AL.com File Photo/Linda Stelter)

Gleeola and Gay-Ola

Gleeola was developed in 1910 by the Gleeola Co., located on 18^th Street South in Birmingham, according to BhamWiki.com. It also had a bottling facility in Montgomery. The name was changed to Gay-Ola, written in a script that resembled the Coca-Cola logo, and the company was sued by Coke in 1911. The company continued to produce the drink, in newly designed bottles, through the 1920s. Shown, a Gleeola bottle is on display at the Birmingham-Jefferson History Museum.

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(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Illustration of a Gay-Ola bottle.

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(Source: WorthPoint.com)

Nifty Cola

Nifty Cola was bottled in Jefferson County at the Nifty Cola Bottling Co., beginning in 1915. This 1916 amber bottle from Nifty Cola was listed on WorthPoint.com.

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(Source: Royal Crown Co)

Chero-Cola

After five years in operation, the Royal Crown Co. of Columbus, Ga., produced a cherry-flavored drink called Chero-Cola in 1910. In 1912, the company was renamed Chero-Cola after its popular drink and operated that way until 1925, when some of the company's bottlers began operating under the name Nehi Corp. In 1959, the company became the Royal Crown Cola Co., which is still producing soft drinks today. Chero-Cola was bottled in Ensley beginning in 1924. This illustration is from a Chero-Cola promotion.

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Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com

Joe Louis Punch

Joe Louis Punch was a grape-flavored soft drink formulated in 1945 by the All-American Soft Drink Company in Chicago. Louis was an Alabama native, born in Lafayette in 1914, and it wasn’t long before an in-state company decided to bottle the drink. Joe Louis Punch was bottled in Birmingham by the Brown Belle Bottling Co. until 1950.

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