The A.J. Canfield Company was a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based independent producer of carbonated beverages founded in 1924. The company was known during its later years for marketing unusual flavors, including

Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge soda is a zero-calorie, aspartame-sweetened carbonated soft drink canned and distributed by the A.J. Canfield Company of Elgin, Illinois, United States, a division of Select Beverages. Production for the midwestern ...

; it was sold by the Canfield family in 1995 to Select Beverages.

History

The company was started in 1924, at 67th Street and South Chicago Avenue in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, by Arthur J. Canfield, a former railroad worker. Canfield's was unique during much of its early history in the marketing approach of using quart glass bottles of a unique design that could be returned only to the Canfield's bottling plant, whereas almost all regional bottlers at the time used generic quart glass bottles with removable paper labels that could be returned to any bottling plant. The company then promoted its beverages and bottles to be of higher quality than other Chicago area soft drink makers. This plan produced mixed results, as some retailers declined to carry Canfield's products to avoid the extra work required to return the bottles. Canfield's also used unique reinforced wooden cases for delivery and return of their quart bottles to help prevent breakage. Canfield's was a marketer of this unique bottle until the mid-1970s. Around 1976, Canfield's switched to a plastic quart bottle with a unique shape resembling a vintage glass "milk bottle with cream top". This change coincided with Canfield's "Come Taste The Rainbow - Canfield's Rainbow Of Flavor And Fun" advertising campaign. A wide variety of fruit flavored sodas were added to the product line at this time. Canfield's was a large scale advertiser on Channel 9 in Chicago until 1995, when the company was sold to Select Beverages. Its largest plant, on the south side of Chicago at East 89th Place, was closed in December 1995. In 1998, Select Beverages was acquired by the American Bottling Company, a joint venture company owned by

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational corporation, multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods, Inc., Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest c ...

and the

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

. Ownership would eventually be taken over by

Keurig Dr Pepper Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ( ), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1979–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and ...

Products

* Canfield's 50/50 was a

grapefruit The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The flesh of the fruit is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark red. Grapefru ...

- and

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

-flavored

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the 50/50 soft drink brand was bottled at Laurel Packaging, Inc. (now Pepsi Bottling Group), Johnstown, PA, and was distributed by the Will G. Keck Corporation (Kecksburg, PA) and also by D & M Management, Inc. (Davidsville, PA), an independent beverage distribution firm, in the West Central Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, DC, and the Northern Virginia areas. *

* Canfield's Dry * Grandpa Graf's * Swiss Creme Soda * Mickey Melon, a watermelon drink made in association with

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...

* Club soda * Tonic water * Anna Banana * Honee Orange * Hula Punch

References

{{Keurig Dr Pepper brands Drink companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in Chicago Manufacturing companies based in Chicago