Nerve Food

This is an old advertisement from my great-grandfather's local store, The Golden Rule. Closed after his death in 1955, it washed down the river in the early '60s in a hurricane. We have some advertising items and photos left, some I'll link below. The carpenters found this perfectly preserved sign in the attic rafters when we were modernizing the house in 2007.

I happen to love Moxie, and I'm not a soda drinker. It's not sweet like Coke or Pepsi and I find it refreshing now and then, but it's certainly not an item that jumps off the store shelves these days! Our vacation here is soon over, I best stock up for the traffic shock that awaits us back home. It's 60 miles here to the closest traffic light.

The Golden Rule, Moxie signs on the front windows

Business Stationery



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today. It is the main ingredient in the New Englander cocktail.
Moxie has a unique flavor that is not as sweet as that of most modern soft drinks and that is described by some as "bitter."

Moxie originated as a patent medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food, which was created around 1876 by Dr. Augustin Thompson. Thompson claimed that it contained an extract from a rare, unnamed South American plant, which had supposedly been discovered by a friend of his, Lieutenant Moxie, who had used it as a panacea. Moxie, he claimed, was especially effective against "paralysis, softening of the brain, nervousness, and insomnia

After a few years, Thompson added soda water to the formula and changed the product's name to "Beverage Moxie Nerve Food." By 1884 he was selling Moxie both in bottles and in bulk as a soda fountain syrup. He marketed it as "a delicious blend of bitter and sweet, a drink to satisfy everyone's taste.

A lawsuit was filed in 1907 by the Moxie Nerve Food Company of New England against the Modox Company and others, alleging that they had copied the ingredients of Moxie and were using the name "Modox,] which closely resembled "Moxie," and were infringing upon patents and trademarks. The suit was dismissed by the judge, who said the court could not protect the legitimate part of the plaintiff's business in this case. In a later case in New York, the Moxie Nerve Food Company won a lawsuit against Modox, which subsequently went out of business.

President Calvin Coolidge was known to favor the drink, and Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams endorsed it on radio and in print. The company also marketed a beverage called "Ted's Root Beer" in the early sixties. Author E. B. White once claimed that ?Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life. Currently, one of the ingredients of Moxie is ?Gentian Root Extractives,? which may contribute to the drink's unique flavor.
The brand suffered a significant decline in sales during the 1930s, which is thought to have been caused by the company's decision to expand its sugar reserves at the expense of its popular advertising campaign.

Due to competition from Coca Cola, demand for Moxie has waned in recent years, although the brand persists in New England.
Sugar-free Diet Moxie was introduced in 1962.