Sun Drop is a citrus-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 ...

produced 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 ...

with a yellowish-green color. Among soft drinks, it is known for its high

caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness pr ...

content.

Orange juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange (fruit), orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As ...

concentrate is an ingredient in the drink. Bottled Sun Drop uses real sugar cane, which contains some "pulp" giving Sun Drop its distinct flavor and appearance. Sun Drop competes primarily against

the Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

Mello Yello Mello Yello is a highly caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink produced, distributed and created by the Coca-Cola Company that was introduced on March 12, 1979, to compete with PepsiCo's Mountain Dew. According to Donovan, songwriter and perf ...

and

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

Mountain Dew Mountain Dew, stylized as Mtn Dew in some countries and colloquially known as Dew in some areas, is a soft drink brand owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage Bottler (company), bottlers Barney and A ...

History

Sun Drop was developed in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

by Charles Lazier, a salesman of beverage concentrates. While riding around town in the family car, Lazier quickly scribbled a recipe for a new soft drink on a small piece of paper which he handed to his son, Charles Jr. The younger Lazier worked as a lab technician at his father’s plant, and soon began work on the formula. Two years later, in 1951, Sun Drop Cola debuted at the American Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages Conference in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

The Sun Drop formula was patented on April 15, 1930. Gastonia, NC was the headquarters for bottling Sun Drop for over 50 years till 2016. The drink was marketed in several Southern states under names such as "Sundrop Golden Cola" or "Golden Girl Cola." The brand was acquired and standardized by Crush International in 1970. Crush International was purchased by

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

in 1980, which sold its soft drinks holdings to

Cadbury Schweppes plc Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

in 1989. Cadbury Schweppes demerged in 2008, with its beverage unit becoming

, which currently produces Sun Drop. Prior to the sale to Cadbury Schweppes, Procter & Gamble introduced several new Sun Drop flavors in 1985, including a reformulated Diet Sun Drop brand using aspartame instead of saccharin. A third brand, Cherry-Lemon Sun Drop, was introduced that same year. In February 2002, the brand introduced Caffeine-Free Sun Drop to the portfolio after the company received numerous requests from loyal consumers for a caffeine-free version of their favorite citrus soft drink. A diet variant of Cherry Lemon Sun Drop was introduced 2014. Sun Drop has maintained popularity in many parts of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

, especially in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and parts of the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

, including

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and western

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Similar to other regional drinks with a cult following, fans outside bottling areas have been known to pay large amounts to have the drink shipped to them. Families have sent it to U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Sun Drop is sometimes used as a mixer for drinks with hard liquor. Sun Drop is the official drink of the nationally recognized " Fancy Farm Picnic" in

Fancy Farm, Kentucky Fancy Farm is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Graves County, Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern re ...

. In the 1970s until the early 1990s, the drink was promoted in the American South by

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

driver

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

. His son

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and broadcaster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative ...

was also sponsored by Sun Drop in the

late model Late Model stock car racing, also known as late model racing and late models, refers to a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other primarily on oval tracks. This type of racing was early-on ...

series in 1993; they will reunite for the

CARS Tour The zMAX CARS Tour (formerly known as the USARacing Pro Cup Series, USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, CARS Pro Cup Series, Rev-Oil Pro Cup Series, CARS X1-R Pro Cup Series) and the SPEARS CARS Tour West are a pair of stock car auto racing series in the ...

race at

North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro Speedway is a paved oval Oval track racing#Short track, short track in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The track has hosted a variety of racing events since its inaugural season of racing in 1947; primarily races sanctioned by ...

on August 31, 2022. The soft drink was a leading sponsor for racecar driver

Ryan Hunter-Reay Ryan Christopher Hunter-Reay (born December 17, 1980) is an American professional racing driver best known as a winner of both the Indianapolis 500 (2014) and the IndyCar Series championship in 2012. He currently competes part-time in the IndyC ...

in the

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for

Andretti Autosport Andretti Global is an American motorsports organization with teams competing in the IndyCar Series, Indy NXT, Formula E, and joint entries in IMSA and the Australian Supercars Championship. Starting in 2026, Andretti will also operate the Cad ...

from 2011 to 2013. Carolina Beverage Corp. bought Sun Drop Bottling Co. of Concord effective December 1, 2016. The

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

plant closed.

Expansion

Keurig Dr Pepper distributed Sun Drop nationwide beginning in 2011, with a new campaign that features an updated web site, a Facebook page, and a promotional deal with MTV. The Sun Drop marketing plan is a component of Keurig Dr Pepper's efforts to expand its non-cola soda sales and is targeting drinkers of PepsiCo's

brand of soft drinks in the United States. Sun Drop's expansion occurred several months after Coca-Cola brought its high-caffeine citrus drink

nationwide. Dr Pepper Snapple entered into an agreement with Scratch, MTV's marketing agency. Scratch will develop new Sun Drop advertising and branding, including a new design for the can. MTV will also feature Sun Drop in programming, including on its

reality series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

The Real World ''The Real World'' (known as ''Real World'' from 2014 to 2017) is an American reality television series produced through MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions that most recently aired on Facebook Watch after airing on MTV from 1992 to 2017. It wa ...

''.

Varieties

There are six varieties of the drink: * Sun Drop (green can, green label, 64 mg caffeine per 12 fl oz can; 105 mg caffeine per 20 fl oz bottle) * Diet Sun Drop (white can, white label, 68 mg caffeine per 12 fl oz can; 114 mg caffeine per 20 fl oz bottle) * Caffeine-Free Sun Drop * Caffeine-Free Diet Sun Drop * Cherry Lemon Sun Drop (64 mg caffeine) * Diet Cherry Lemon Sun Drop Sun Drop that is bottled in glass bottles is typically sweetened with sugar instead of corn syrup, providing a slightly different taste.

References

External links

* {{citrus sodas Caffeine Citrus sodas Cuisine of the Midwestern United States Keurig Dr Pepper brands Products introduced in 1949 Soft drinks