LITTLE ROCK — My wife recently discovered that Walmart Stores are again offering the Arkansas-made soft drinks Grapette and Orangette. This is good new to anyone who appreciates these distinctive fruit drinks.
The unique taste of Grapette still lingers in the misty memories of many middle-aged and older Arkansans. I originally wrote about Grapette in 2003, and that column generated more letters, emails, and phone calls than any of the nearly-400 total columns written. One female Grapette fan wrote, “I grew up in Lexington, Mo., a culturally and gastronomically deprived community which didn’t stock Grapette. However, when I visited my maternal grandparents in Perry, Iowa, there was always a stock on hand.” She continued: “I am about to turn 63, and I hope to savor Grapette one more time while I still have my taste buds.”
We owe the Grapette soft drink to BenjaminTyndle Fooks (pronounced Folks), a Kentucky native whose family moved to Camden in 1914. After high school he studied bookkeeping and accounting in a business college, then entered the lumber business with his father. He soon moved to Chicago to study at the Moody Bible Institute, but left after a few months, though he remained a devout Methodist layman for the remainder of his life.
By 1925, Fooks was back in Camden where he purchased a service station. Within a year he sold the station to acquire a small soft drink bottling plant in Camden. He quickly bought additional plants in Arkadelphia and Hope. The Great Depression forced Fooks to consolidate, but he kept the operation going.
Fooks experimented with developing new soft drink flavors, eventually producing more than 100 different ones, many of which he marketed to other bottlers. Consumers seemed to prefer the grape flavors, and Fooks concentrated on refining the formula to get a truly distinctive taste. Grapette went on the market in Camden in 1940. It was an immediate success. Within 10 years it was the most popular grape soft drink in the nation, and the Grapette Company was the seventh largest beverage company.
Part of Fooks success was due to his willingness to experiment. Going against the industry standard, he bottled Grapette in a lightweight and clear bottle. This allowed the rich purple color of the drink to show clearly, and the bottles were cheaper to produce and transport.
World War II posed many hazards to softdrink bottlers since sugar was strictly rationed. Fooks is reputed to have gotten around the rationing by convincing his sugar supplier to liquefy the sugar. Syrup was not rationed.
The end of the war brought expansion once again as Fooks added new products, including Lemonette and Orangette, both of which were immediately successful. The company went international in 1945 when the first Grapette franchise was sold in Guatemala City. Eventually a separate Grapette International corporation was established under the leadership of R. Paul May.
In 1962 Mr. Cola was introduced to competewith Coca Cola, and the following year Lymette was created to compete with 7-Up. Mr. Cola was the first 16-ounce soft drink to go on the market.
Fooks’ penchant for experimentation led him to begin a line of flavored syrups which could be mixed with water at home to produce an inexpensive but tasty non-carbonated soft drink. The syrup was sold in novelty bottles of various fanciful shapes. In 1953, the company produced 10,000 cases daily of syrup in the shape of elephants or clowns.
In 1972 Fooks sold the Grapette Company to the Rheingold Corporation, and it ultimately came under control of the Monarch Company, which shelved the product in favor of their own NuGrape brand.
Grapette International continued to market the drink internationally, with millions of bottles sold annually in Latin America and elsewhere. In 2000, Grapette International acquired the rights to market Grapette once again in the United States.
The country store where I first tasted Grapette is long gone. And the one-gallus philosophers who lounged on the porch are mere memories. But, each time I taste a Grapette, I am transported back to that hot, dusty day when I first lifted the tiny Grapette bottle to my lips.
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Tom Dillard is head of special collections at the University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. Email him at [email protected]. An earlier version of this column appeared Feb. 9, 2003.
Editorial, Pages 88 on 10/24/2010