Buckhead soda company bubbles up with offbeat brands

By Jaclyn Turner

Atlanta may always be equated with Coca-Cola, but a Buckhead-based soda company adds some pop to the market by keeping unusual and regional favorites alive.

Monarch Beverage Company produces such old-school brands as Kickapoo Joy Juice and Ramblin’ Root Beer for a market that includes fans of the new “craft soda” trend and people seeking a taste of nostalgia.

Founded in 1965 in Atlanta by Frank Armstrong, a former CocaCola executive, Monarch operates from a local office in the 3630 Peachtree Road tower and an international outpost in Paris.

The company seeks out drinks with a regional market that could capitalize on having a distinct popularity and loyal following, according to Mariam Diallo, head of marketing. Its two main brands in the U.S. are Kickapoo and Ramblin’.

More than 99 percent of Monarch’s beverages are consumed overseas, mostly in Asian, African and Latin American countries.

“It can be very hard to compete with Coke,” Diallo said, “but we differentiate ourselves with specialty drinks that can be regionally adapted, like a horchata ... or tamarind drinks in Africa.”

Kickapoo and Ramblin’ Root Beer are bottled in Coca-Cola facilities. Monarch holds the international rights, but not the domestic rights, to other brands, such as American Cola, Bubble Up and Nesbitt’s.

Kickapoo Joy Juice was based on the newspaper comic strip “Li’l Abner,” which launched in the 1930s and continued until the 1970s. The drink debuted in the United States in 1965. Kickapoo Joy Juice was also the first brand Monarch introduced internationally, and is currently the number one citrus soda drink in Malaysia and Singapore.

The comic branded the mixture as a “volatile brew” that Al Capp, the cartoonist, described as “a liquor of such stupefying potency that the hardiest citizens of Dogpatch, after the first burning sip, rose into the air, stiff as frozen codfish.”

For fans of the comic, the drink’s recipe remained an enigma. Through the years, the comic-strip drink supposedly contained anything from live grizzly bears to panthers to kerosene, horseshoes and anvils.

That’s not the Joy Juice of today, or reality, however. The citrusy original debuted in 1965, has flavoring similar to Mountain Dew, is made with real sugar and has more caffeine than its soda counterparts.

In 2014, in efforts to revive the brand, Monarch released three cocktail-inspired varieties: Fuzzy Navel, Fruit Shine, a sangria flavor, and Maliblu, a blue piña colada soda.

Ramblin’ Root Beer began in 1979 with a commercial featuring a very young Sarah Jessica Parker. The Coca-Cola Co. originally distributed it, until they obtained the rights to Barq’s root beer.

Monarch acquired and revamped the brand in 2008, and recently added more flavors to the line-up, with rose cream, butterscotch and maple varieties.

“Craft soda sales, which is the market we are in, are rising,” said U.S. sales manager Ted Hatcher. “It’s not that people don’t want to drink soda. It’s that they are tired of the regular, everyday [flavors]. People are wanting a different flavor, and that’s where we come in.”

Monarch aims Kickapoo Joy Juice at three target audiences: the nostalgia audience that grew up with the Li’l Abner comics; craft soda lovers who are seeking an artisanal experience; and a young population wanting something unconventional.

“Part of the customer base is nostalgia, but sodas are also a young person’s drink. Mountain Dew works with extreme sports and connecting with young people. We chose the video games and geek subculture,” said Diallo.

The goal is for these young adults to think, ‘It’s a quirky, funny brand that speaks to me. I’ve made it my own and I share it with my friends.’”

“One of the things we struggle with as a small company is finding distribution,” said Hatcher. “We work with a lot of partners to get where we are. We’re really a niche in a hidden market that is somewhat saturated. We are having an interesting time in the U.S. getting our products out there, because Coke and Pepsi are such big players, and there are others. We want to start in Atlanta and expand outwards.”

Kickapoo Joy Juice and Ramblin’ Root Beer now can be purchased on Amazon.com and through small merchants such as Rocket Fizz in Decatur, H-Mart in Chamblee, Cracker Barrels, and many package stores. Monarch is in talks to get its products sold through large chain retailers, such as Publix grocery stores and Sam’s Club big-box stores.

Monarch has also set up tastings at local festivals and promoted its drinks at Georgia Tech games.

After realizing that Kickapoo Joy Juice mixes well with alcohol, company officials have held events at bars and are a sponsor of Dad’s Garage, an Atlanta theater company, which offers a “Dad’s Juice” cocktail of Joy Juice, vodka and cranberry juice.

Construction on the long-delayed Georgia Proton Treatment Center facility in Midtown is set to resume, according to a report from the Midtown Alliance. The state-of-the-art cancer treatment center, which broke ground back in 2013, is now set to open next year. Construction of the facility on the block bounded by Peachtree Street, Juniper Street, North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue is currently 80 percent complete and is set to resume in the near-term. Work is expected to include exterior treatments to the building façade to enhance visual interest at street-level. For more info on the project, visit GeorgiaProton.com.

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Lenox Square has announced the additions of Amazon Pop-Up , offering all of the online giant’s devices like the Echo and Kindle, and casual men’s apparel brand UNTUCKit . Also on the way: pop-ups from local Atlanta favorites including Crafted, Elk Head Clothing and The Merchant. These announcements come on the heels of the recent news that the Buckhead shopping landmark will soon welcome Hammer Made and Sweet Hut Bakery & Café.

Hottie+Lord , the readyto-wear contemporary women’s brand, has opened its first storefront at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta.

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Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank will receive the Atlanta Sports Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Coca-Cola at the 2017 Atlanta Sports Awards on July 13 at the Rialto Center for the Arts.

Colony Square’s new bike valet, called C-Cycle, opened to office tenants on April 19 on the Concourse level of Building 100 off 14th Street. C-Cycle encourages office tenants to bike to work and safely store their bikes at no charge. The bike valet also offers office tenants access to lockers and showers.

Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) have hired Ansley Whipple as the new Woodruff Park Project Manager. Whipple will be CAP/ ADID’S point person for the Park with regards to planning and strategy, budgeting and financial management, programming, special events, operations and maintenance, and capital projects.

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