Double Cola is a regional U.S. brand of soft drink, which is also available in some other countries, notably in the Middle East.

The Double Cola Company is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company was originally founded in 1922, primarily to market "Double Orange" and "Good Grape", now called "Jumbo Orange" and "Jumbo Grape". The Double Cola product was developed in 1933 and soon became the company's flagship product and the company was renamed for it shortly afterward. It was soon followed by "Double-Dry" ginger ale. In 1956 the company developed "Ski", which is comparable to "Mountain Dew" or "Mello Yello" but predates either product. Formerly largely bottled by small, community-based affiliated bottlers (as were most other brands of soft drink), today much of the production is actually bottled in Huntsville, Alabama. Double Cola is strongly acidic, perhaps even more so than Coca-Cola, and has a strong taste. It was formerly available in a somewhat-wider area of the South (Strangely, Double Cola is huge part of the culture of Southern Indiana, especially Evansville; people can tell if you are an Evansville native if you choose Double Cola over Pepsi or Coke), and was usually marketed as a lower-cost alternative to Coca-Cola and other soft drinks (Double Cola is now marketed as a more of a premium brand, with the same or righer price when compaired to Coke or Pepsi). The company hopes to continue to re-enter all of its former U.S. market area, as well as expand into the Midwest, in the near future. Diet versions of both Double Cola and Ski have been developed in recent years, as has Cherry Ski, somewhat like "Code Red ".

The "Jumbo" line of fruit-flavored drinks has been expanded to include peach, strawberry, pineapple, fruit punch, root beer, and blue creme soda. Some of these drinks are available only in very limited areas.

Apparently the expansion to the Middle East was at least in part a chance to exploit the company's low profile and consequent lack of political connotations now inherent in the Coke-Pepsi struggle. Double Cola can hardly be considered to be a massive U.S multinational corporation or tool of imperialistic exapansionism as can Coke and Pepsi. Two other brands, "Oranta" orange drink and "Chaser" lemon-lime, are available only in the international markets, and represent the extent of the international product line other than Double Cola itself.

External links

• http://www.double-cola.com