History of Mug root beer

Mug Root Beer was introduced in 1885 as Dr. Swett's by the Belfast Beverage Company of San Francisco California. By 1947, the name was changed to Belfast Root Beer.Belfast Beverage Company has been known as a sparkling water and ginger ale maker since 1877.

In 1925 Belfast Beverage Company was bought by another locally based entity, the New Century Beverage Company, co-founded by a young local named Angelo Campodonico.

In 1927, Campodonico moved his soda manufacturing plant to a much larger facility at 820 Pacific St. in Chinatown, where the modern facility was lauded as growth to the city.

By 1955, the name was changed to Belfast Old Fashioned Mug Root Beer, and later to Mug Old Fashioned Root Beer.

Eventually, the soda’s name was officially shortened to Mug Root Beer, and the company attempted to add newer tag lines to their brand over the years. In the 1970s, one commercial on radio station KFRC claimed the soda was “the one root beer with true draft taste.”

In the late 1960s, Sugar Free Mug (now Diet Mug Root Beer) was introduced. Mug Cream Soda and Diet Mug Cream Soda were later introduced, but they are not as widely available.

Different Campodonico family members continued to operate the New Century Beverage Company until the product was acquired in 1986 by the Pepsi-Cola Company.

By the early 2000’s Pepsi decided they needed to redesign and relaunch the product as they believed it had “no personality.” After multiple iterations of various designs, they eventually changed their packaging to include a rough-looking bulldog.

Pepsi continued producing its sodas in the city and later moved to a factory at 17th Street and Valencia Street in the Mission before eventually closing the San Francisco outpost in the early 1990s.

The Mug brand has four products associated with it. These products include Mug Root Beer, Diet Mug Root Beer, Mug Cream Soda, and Diet Mug Cream Soda.
History of Mug root beer

Barq's Root Beer

Edward Charles Edmond Barq bought the Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works on Keller Avenue in Biloxi in 1897 and invented Barq's root beer in 1898.

After experimenting with soda flavors using backyard tubs, Barq created the sharp tasting recipe that many enjoy today in the form of a Root Beer Float. Barq began bottling and selling his soft drink he named after himself in 1898.

Barq's was the iconic root beer of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the greater South and eventually was marketed in cities from New Jersey to Hawaii.

Although root beer was never as popular as the cola products, Barq’s nevertheless spread throughout the United States and branched out with flavors such as Grape, Moon-Glo, Imitation Strawberry, and red creme soda.

By day Barq and his wife sold the drinks, and then spent the rest of their time mixing the formula for them and refilling glass bottles. But first the bottles had to be sterilized and then each process had to be created in large pots in the couple's backyard. In 1936, Barq's operation was moved from Keller Avenue to a larger plant at 604 Lameuse Street, also in Biloxi. Demonstrating the product's appeal, by the 1950s, there were more than two hundred Barq plants across the United States.

Barq’s added Bubble Up, franchised through the Bubble Up Corporation of Peoria, Illinois, in 1955 and prepared for an even greater expansion.

In 1976, New Orleanians John Oudt and John Koerner bought Barq’s and moved the company’s headquarters to New Orleans. The company was sold to Coca-Cola in 1995 for $91 million.
Barq's Root Beer