Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050014
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: BUSINESS EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Combine Americans' taste for soft drinks and craze for coffee and what do you get? Coffee cola - a concoction brewing as the latest entrant in the soda wars
A Virginia man is a partner in a company that wants to market the definitive coffee soda. Zyde (pronounced ZIE-duh) Coffee Co. of New Orleans hopes its Zydekola can compete with some of the nation's biggest soft drink makers who also are experimenting with joe-flavored cold drinks.
``Kids love colas, grown-ups love coffee,'' said Cabell Harris, a Richmond creative consultant whose company is developing the drink's look and advertising campaign. ``So there's a real variety in who will go for it.''
The explosion in popularity of gourmet coffee houses around the United States has created a good market for carbonated coffee drinks, said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a management consultant agency in New York.
Most new drinks fail on the mass market, but Pirko said beverage makers think coffee soda could follow the success of canned teas - such as Snapple and Lipton.
``Coffee is the flavor of the season,'' he said.
Coffee cola isn't new. It dates back to at least the 1920s but apparently dropped out of favor, said Robbie Robertson, a former New Orleans advertising agency executive who invented Zydekola. The drink is a play on the word zydeco, a zesty music native to Louisiana.
In Japan, ready-to-drink canned coffee was introduced about 20 years ago, Pirko said. The Japanese version is more akin to iced coffee than soda, he said.
Robertson said Zydekola, with 66 milligrams of caffeine for 12 ounces, has more caffeine than colas (Pepsi has 37) but less than coffee (which averages 80 to 115 milligrams per 5 ounce cup.)
Zydekola, which is being offered at first only in selected spots in New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, Mo., isn't alone in its quest to corner the canned coffee market. Some of the biggest companies around are developing their own brews.
PepsiCo and Starbucks Coffee Co., the popular Seattle-based coffeehouse chain, are test-marketing Mazagran in Santa Monica, Calif. The cold, carbonated beverage is named for a drink imbibed by the French Foreign Legion 150 years ago in Algeria.
``We've gotten very favorable response from consumers,'' said David Egner, a Pepsi spokesman. ``A lot of people find it a refreshing midday beverage.''
Coca-Cola Co. and the Nestle Beverage Co. earlier this year launched a limited test in Burlington, Vt., of Nescafe, a noncarbonated cold drink that comes in four flavors.
It's in the best interest of small drink-makers for Coca-Cola and Pepsi to take their products on the national market, Pirko said. Soft drinks are a $50 billion-a-year business in the United States.
by CNB