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Jolt Cola: The Story of the Original Energy Drink
How do you market the bad boy of cola
What’s your go-to caffeine source each day? Probably coffee, but if you’re an energy drink fan, a cola from the 80s started the entire movement.
Jolt Cola came out in 1985 and targeted younger people, students, and young professionals. The soda became an underground hit for containing twice the caffeine of regular colas.
If you grew up in the 80s, taking your first sip of Jolt was like a rite of passage. Everyone also heard about the kid who died after drinking too much of it because of a caffeine overdose. This story was a classic urban legend, but it was word of mouth like this that helped propel this cola into the mainstream.
Before Red Bull, before Monster, and even before Four Loko; Jolt Cola was the godfather of energy drinks.
The Beginnings of Jolt Cola
1985 was a big year in the cola world. It brought us the disaster that was New Coke and also Jolt.
C.J. Rapp was the man behind Jolt Cola. Rapp was a sociology major at SUNY Potsdam in Rochester, and he observed something while going to school there.
He noticed that his fellow students were concocting beverages to stay awake, study longer, complete term papers, research projects, and also rage during all-night keggers.
This was Rapp’s light bulb moment.
The Changing World of Cola
Diet Coke was introduced in 1983, as people were more aware of sugar and calories. Consumers understood that drinking cola was like drinking a liquid chocolate bar because of the sugar content.
This is where the connection with New Coke comes in. Consumers were getting used to the sweeter version of Diet Coke, and they changed the regular formula for Coke to accommodate this.
New Coke was trying to make itself taste like diet cola as the zero-calorie alternatives were taking over the landscape.
Other beverage companies were also promoting the idea of less is better, using slogans like taste great, less filling. Rapp wanted to take things in a different direction. Instead of saying his…
