Jolt Cola

Jolt Cola
	Jolt Cola logo used until 2006
Type	soft drink
Manufacturer	Wet Planet Beverages
Country of origin	USA
Introduced	1985
Website	JoltEnergy.com

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Jolt Cola is a carbonated soft drink produced by Wet Planet Beverages. It was created in 1985 by C. J. Rapp as a highly caffeinated cola. It is targeted towards students and young professionals, stressing its use as a stimulant in a similar manner as energy drinks.

[edit] Jolt Cola in North America

A "battery bottle"

Jolt Cola was originally made by The Jolt Cola Company of Rochester, New York, which has since changed its name to Wet Planet Beverages. From the outset, Jolt's marketing strategy centered on the caffeine content, billing the drink as a means to promote wakefulness. The initial slogan was "All the sugar and twice the caffeine." This slogan was dropped when cane sugar in the drink was replaced with the less expensive sweetener high fructose corn syrup.

Jolt Cola later diversified into additional flavors named Cherry Bomb, Citrus Climax, Orange Blast, White Lightning (grape), Red Eye, and Electric Blue.

In 2003, the name was licensed to a Hackensack, N.J. company named Gumrunners, Inc., which manufactures a line of caffeinated gum and mints bearing the Jolt label and the slogan "Chew More, Do More." The gum comes in two flavors: spearmint and icy mint.

In 2005, Jolt Cola revamped its product line. Jolt Cola has a new logo, and is now packaged in "Battery" bottles (23.5 oz / 695 ml resealable aluminum bottles; the body of the bottle is similar to that of a standard aluminum can, but the top has a twist-off aluminum cap with a plastic gasket liner), and in smaller "Quick Fix" cans (8.4 oz / 250 ml single-use pull-tab aluminum cans, similar to those used for Red Bull) and "Battery" cans (16 oz / 473 ml resealable aluminum cans with the same twist-off top as the Battery bottles). The Jolt Cola website claims that the "Quick Fix" sizes are available at establishments that serve "adult beverages," for use as a mixer. The flavors of Jolt offered have also changed. Available flavors are Cola, Blue Raspberry, Cherry Bomb (cherry cola), Silver (lemon-lime), Wild Grape, Orange Blast, Passionfruit (featuring a yellow can) and Ultra (a diet drink with Splenda as its artificial sweetener alongside guarana, ginseng, taurine, and vitamin B complex). Jolt Cola is also packaged in glass bottles under license by the 7 Up bottling company of California. These are sold on the West Coast, where laws are stricter to encourage use of refillable bottles.

Jolt Cola was featured in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park in a scene which shows computer programmer Dennis Nedry's work station covered with Jolt Cola cans & bottles. It was also shown in several scenes in the film Hackers; in one scene, the characters Razor and Blade refer to it as, "Jolt Cola: The soft drink of the elite hacker." There is product placement of Jolt Cola in the movies Deep Impact, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Men At Work, Basket Case 2, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It is also mentioned in Wayne's World 2 , when Garth attributes a hallucination to his excessive intake of the drink. Although the name was changed to "Volt Cola," Beavis and Butt-head clearly parodied the drink in the episode "Vaya con Cornholio". Vending machines in the video game Monster Madness dispense Jolt Cola to restore your character's health.

[edit] Jolt Cola worldwide

Retro cans of Jolt

Jolt Cola is also manufactured under license in Chantilly, Pittsburgh, Australia, Sweden and formerly (and briefly) in the United Kingdom, where it was a budget cola. The German and Swedish supplier uses the old logos, branding and formulation, and only sells the original flavor. Jolt Cola is also available in the Netherlands and Finland. However, Jolt Cola Netherlands is a subsidiary of Jolt Cola Germany. Jolt Cola is sold in 500 ml bottles in most Eurospar's and Dunne's Stores.

In Australia ("bottled under the authority of the Jolt Company Inc. by Jolt Corporation Australia Pty Ltd, 1 Barrpowell Rd Welland" South Australia) Jolt is sold in the traditional cola flavor, as well as black cherry, root beer, cream soda, and orange flavors. It generally comes in 615 mL bottles, with 196 mg of caffeine. In 2006 bottle capacities were reduced to 600 mL (in some cases, without vendors being aware of the change). With a caffeine concentration of 32 mg per 100 mL, these bottles contain a claimed 192 mg.

Jolt Cola was also available in Japan^[1] in the late 1980s and early 90's, through the local distributorship of UCC Ueshima Coffee Co.

In the Mid 1990s, it also made headway into Pakistan, but could not survive the competition.