Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge soda is a

zero-calorie Diet food (or dietetic food) refers to any food or beverage whose recipe is altered to reduce fat, carbohydrates, and/or sugar in order to make it part of a weight loss program or Dieting, diet. Such foods are usually intended to assist in weigh ...

aspartame Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. 200 times sweeter than sucrose, it is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with brand names NutraSwe ...

-sweetened carbonated soft drink canned and distributed by the A.J. Canfield Company of

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and Kane County, Illinois, Kane counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is located northwest of Chicago along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River. As of the 2020 United Stat ...

, United States, a division of Select Beverages. Production for the midwestern United States is handled by the American Bottling Company, a subsidiary of

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 ...

and distribution by Kehe Foods of

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History

Beginnings

The beverage was introduced in 1972 by 32-year-old Alan B. Canfield, senior vice president of

-based A.J. Canfield Beverages, a company founded by his grandfather. Canfield was a regular dieter and chocolate lover, and got the idea the year before and brought a two-pound box of

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to Manny Wesber, the company's chief chemist. Wesber succeeded in creating a saccharin-sweetened chemically created concoction, entirely artificially flavored. The drink sold moderately well among Canfield's other brands, with sales remaining steady over the next 13 years.

1984 reintroduction

Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge was, by this time, sweetened with

. When ''

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'' reporter

Bob Greene Robert Bernard Greene Jr. (born March 10, 1947) is an American journalist and author. He worked for 24 years for the ''Chicago Tribune'' newspaper, where he was a columnist. Greene has written books on subjects including Michael Jordan, Alice C ...

reviewed the product and described it as tasting "like a calorie-free hot fudge sundae," sales went from lukewarm to highly successful in the soft drink market practically overnight. By 1985, regional bottlers across the United States were seeking franchise rights. With these rights in place, more than 200 million cans of Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge soda were sold in 1985. As competition from other makers increased, Canfield's grew increasingly protective of their "Chocolate Fudge" moniker, going so far as to sue rival maker Vess Beverages over their use of the name, "Vess Diet Chocolate Fudge." A federal district court judge ruled in favor of Canfield and issued a

preliminary injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable reme ...

disallowing the use of the word "fudge" on their packaging. Though the injunction was later overturned, the case, known as ''Canfield v. Honickman'', continues to be used as an example during the study of trademark product law. Spinoffs proved less successful. 1987 saw the introduction of "Diet Cherry Chocolate Fudge" and "Diet Peanut Chocolate Fudge," both of which are still sold today in limited numbers.

Sale of brand

In 1995, the A.J. Canfield Company was sold to Select Beverages for an undisclosed sum. The company's plant in Elgin, which had been operating since the 1930s, closed the following year. Production of the Diet Chocolate Fudge drinks was moved to another plant. 2025: Keurig Dr. Pepper discontinued Canfield's Chocolate Fudge soda, along with the rest of the Canfield product line, around 3 years ago. Canfield's was acquired by Select Beverages in 1995, which was later acquired by the American Bottling Company and eventually by Keurig Dr. Pepper. The company's Chicago plant was closed in 1995, and Keurig Dr. Pepper no longer produces Canfield's products.

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