Yahoo— Mountain Dew!

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There’s no dispute that a trademark application for a soda named Mountain Dew was filed on November 12, 1948 with the U.S. Patent Office by Hartman Beverage Co. of Knoxville, TN. After that the path of Mountain Dew to its current worldwide popularity breaks into a number of offshoots that parallel, intertwine, and circle back.

Brothers Barney and Ally Hartman, who had moved their business from Augusta, GA, to Knoxville in 1932, initially bottled a lemon-lime mixer they jokingly called Mountain Dew, a 19th century nickname for moonshine, for their own after-hours consumption. Ally Hartman claimed the recipe was his brother’s.

mt dew bottle square frame
1958 Mountain Dew bottle

The Hartmans took an early prototype of their drink to a 1946 beverage convention in Gatlinburg, TN where they were assured by friends that their product, to them nothing more than a goof, could turn them a tidy profit. At the convention the brothers met Charlie Gordon, of Tri-City Beverage.

John Brichetto drew the first sketches of the original Mountain Dew bottle labels in 1948, depicting a character known as Willy the Hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner. Below the illustration is the phrase “by Barney and Ollie”—as in FILLED by Barney and Ollie, a nod to the way a homemade jug of moonshine might be hand filled by the moonshiner. This labeling quirk was carried on until Pepsi Cola entered the picture many years later.

Charlie Gordon’s Tri-City Beverage first commercially bottled Mountain Dew in 1954. The Hartmans began selling Mountain Dew the next year, marketing it as a lemon-lime drink to be used as a whiskey mixer. Although they felt the Dew would be a big seller, it didn’t catch on as they had hoped. In fact, it sat on retailers’ shelves, and generated little revenue.

Herman Minges, co-owner of a North Carolina Pepsi franchiser that became a Mountain Dew licensee in 1955, was over time able to greatly expand the regional reach and appeal of the product. He had met the Hartmans through Bill Jones (photo below left).

In 1958, Jones – a well known soft drink supply salesman – acquired a company by the name of Tip Corporation, located in Marion, VA. Jones was not a wealthy man, and was forced to take on investors to further promote his venture. The first investors were Allie Hartman, Herman Minges and Pepsi Cola bottlers Richard Minges of Fayetteville, NC, and Wythe Hull of Marion, VA. Some of these first investors were long time friends of Jones, from the days he had spent as a supply salesman.

In 1959 Bill Bridgforth, manager of Tri-City Beverage, formulated Tri-City Lemonade to compete with SunDrop Cola. The following year he transferred the company’s moderately successful Tri-City Lemonade flavor into the green Mountain Dew bottles.

This “New Mountain Dew” was a hit in the East Tennessee area (except for Knoxville, where the Hartmans stuck with their lemon-lime Mountain Dew for a few more years). Its base flavor is still used in Mountain Dew today.

It was rumored that Bill Jones acquired the name for Mountain Dew at a 1960 dinner with Ally Hartman. Hartman was said to want to donate the recipe and name, on behalf of his deceased brother, to the newly formed Tip Corporation. Apparently Jones would not accept the gesture, and offered to purchase the dinner that evening for the rights to the name and recipe of Mountain Dew.

If this is to be believed, the trademark for Mountain Dew, one of today’s most valuable brands, along with the recipe for the soft drink, sold for a mere $6.95 dinner check.

At the same time as Mountain Dew was making its way into the soft drink market, Pepsi Cola Company was launching its new lemon lime soda, Teem. The majority of Tip Corporation customers were Pepsi bottlers, and remained faithful to their parent company. They sold the new Teem, instead of Mountain Dew.

Bill Jones, Tip Corp CEO

Jones decided to tweak the Mountain Dew recipe to give it a more orange flavor, so that the drink would not compete with Pepsi’s Teem. Jones added a bit of orange flavor, which seemed to make the drink a stand-out among the other lemon lime sodas then on the market.

Meantime, in 1962 Pepsi Cola Bottling of Lumberton NC [Herman Minges’ company] introduced New Mountain Dew in the Columbus County, NC market.

On May 29 of that year Tip Corp. sold its first wholly-owned franchise as well as its first new flavor franchise to Pepsi Cola Bottling of Kinston, NC.

Soon other bottlers were demanding Mountain Dew concentrate. Within three years of its introduction, Tip Corp. was supplying 40 bottlers, and they were selling over 10 million cases of Mountain Dew a year. The large consumer beverage corporations started taking notice.

Richard Minges brokered the sale of Mountain Dew to the Pepsi-Cola Co. on August 27, 1964 from the Tip Corporation, for what remains a rumored $6 million dollar plus sale price.

Tri-City Beverages continued as an independent franchisee of Mountain Dew until 1966, when Pepsi purchased that company as well.

Mountain Dew quickly became Pepsi’s 2nd best selling brand, bested only by the flagship drink itself.

sources: www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/sep/16/drinking-in-history/
www.angelfire.com/tn/traderz/dew.html
www.oldandsold.com/articles33n/mountain-dew-104.shtml
http://www.mariettasodamuseum.com/MtDew%20Facts.htm

Mountain Dew's hillbilly heritage has Knoxville moonshine roots

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9 comments

  1. Mountain Dew has a lot of caffeine which may be treating and self-medicating a high rate of ADHD in this culture.

  2. I have a plastic yahooo mountain dew jug with a cork in it, that says “It’ss tickie yore innards”. Its about 5.5 in tall. Markings on the bottom say NPC & 1037. Does anyone know what this item is or how much its worth? Looked online and cant find an item like this.

  3. We have a 1948 mtn dew bottle full untouched but with chip out of bottom. what is something like this worth?

  4. @All those with a 1948 mtn dew bottle, they are worth 25,000$ Pristine, and 10-15 grand damaged.

  5. I have a 7oz yah-oo Mountain dew bottle that was made by owen glass plant 2 in west virginia with the bottle year date 68 on it. The Yahoo Mt. Dew slogan did not start till 73 and I called mt and they said they never maxe a 7oz yahoo bottle they came in 8 and up that it must have been a pre pruduction bottle. So whats something lkke that worth its in perfect shape no chips or scratches

  6. I was walking down a dirt road picking up trash when I found a glass Mountain Dew bottle! It is a 16 fluid ounce, it was made in 1978. Now, what do I do with the thing?!

  7. My name is John Hartman I’m the grandson of Bernie Hartman the true fact of it is the Hartman Beverage Company who was bottling their own products prior to Pepsi-Cola which it come in and try to purchase the company was turned down and my grandfather ended up Building Company and operating and only the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company in Knoxville. The Hartman bottles we’re always like. My uncle Bernard Hartman has recently passed burnt Hartman with a man who had nothing to ever live out with the most honest and sincere person I’ve ever known. I know for a fact that his father and his uncle and Bennett Mountain Dew. Hartman beverage company was the first people to bottle Mountain Dew they are the first people to have Titan he Mountain Dew product. When he was running his Pepsi-Cola plant instead of the Hartman Beverage Company he focused more on the existing Pepsi-Cola product of course. To honor my uncle’s passing and to honor his father my grandfather I hope the world recognizes the contribution the Hartman family has given to Pepsi-Cola through the amazing product called Mountain Dew. And it was a mixture for his after-hours drink because he did not have anything out there that he enjoyed as a mixer they wore bottling their own product for 30 years prior to this. What a crazy lock this is

  8. I live in pinellas county fl. I was working in a older built condo building and in the a/c vent I found a old mountain dew can with yaahoo above the mountain dew logo. It is a pop top can and the only thing it says on the top is patent pending and aluminum I haven’t found no date or any other timeline markings on it. Is it worth anything? I was born in grundy Virginia and always loved Pepsi cola it’s my go to beverage so I’m definitely going to keep it as this is a piece of history that is vastly disappearing from the landscape of the u.s. what a great find.i would greatly appreciate any feedback on the can thank you .

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