"soft drinks" news and stories

Coca-Cola is no longer available at Costco.

A Costco executive told the Associated Press that it is no longer carrying Coca-Cola products in its stores after a dispute over pricing with the Atlanta-based company.

Neither Costco nor Coca-Cola officials returned calls from Slashfood, but a Coca-Cola Co. executive told the AP the company wouldn't comment on the ongoing negotiations. The official said the company wanted to work out its differences with Costco "in a spirit of fairness." In addition to Coca-Cola soft drinks the company makes Sprite, Squirt, Dasani water, Full Throttle energy drinks.

[Via Associated Press]

Do you buy your Coke at Costco? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Jolt Cola -- the evening study fuel of many a cramming student and the precursor to caffeine-packed energy drinks like Red Bull -- may soon be no more.

Jolt Co. Inc. filed for bankruptcy last year after racking up more than $5 million in debt to a Chicago can manufacturer. The company was optimistic about restructuring, but plans fell apart this week, putting the future of the double-caffeinated cola into jeopardy, a Jolt attorney told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

"The name will show up someplace else, but just that," William I. Kohn of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff told the paper. "I don't see anybody buying the entire package."

Jolt founder Carl J. Rapp, who started the company in 1985, fought the restructuring of the company and blamed its current situation on an investment group that owns a large stake in the company, the paper reports.

Will you miss Jolt Cola? Spill it in the comments.

[Via Rochester Democrat & Chronicle]

Fentiman's Victorian Lemonade is at the center of an underage drinking debate in Maine after a teen at Houlton High School brought to school a bottle of the lemonade that he'd purchased from a store.

The Bangor Daily News reports officials from the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse are investigating because the naturally fermented beverage contains less than 0.5 percent alcohol. The incident has other officials proposing the lemonade -- brewed since 1905 -- be reclassified as "imitation liquor," which can't be sold or consumed by minors -- a move that Fentiman's officials are fighting.

The company acknowledges that some alcohol is left in the beverage.

"We remove some components of the product during that process and also add flavoring," Greg Warwick, the president of Fentimans North America, told the paper. "What we end up with is a product that is a mixture of less than 1/2 percent alcohol because of the fermentation process. The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has deemed this safe for all ages. There should be no restrictions on the distribution or sale of the product."

The school's principal said the student turned in the half-consumed bottle of lemonade after he read there could be alcohol in the soda.

"There was no intent on the student's part to break any school rules or laws," Principal Martin Bouchard said. "This was just a harmless incident."

Should children be banned from drinking naturally fermented soda pop? Let us know in the comments.

[Via Bangor Daily News]

Pepsi's recently released iPhone application Amp Up Before You Score has raised eyebrows as it purports to help users score dates.

The application, tied to Pepsi's new Amp energy drink, breaks women into 24 category types -- like bookworms, cougars, marrieds and actresses -- so users can "study up quick with a cheatsheet on the stuff she's into, with lists, links and some surefire opening lines."

Jezebel calls the Pepsi iPhone app "completely unacceptable and ridiculously offensive."

[Via ABC News]

The Vio family of fizzy milk drinks. Photo: Vio.

Coca-Cola is getting into the milk business.

The soft-drink maker is currently test marketing a sweetened fizzy milk beverage called Vio. Made with sparkling water, a hint of skim milk and cane sugar, the 8-ounce beverages come in four fruit flavors: Citrus Burst, Peach Mango, Very Berry and Tropical Colada.

Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the brand, told Slashfood on Tuesday that the drink is currently in "very limited distribution and only in New York City."