Nehi An American Classic

Americans love soda s bad as it is for us.It's encoded into our modern DNA. One of the most beloved is Nehi which was a part of American life and snacking for a long time. It also introduced the US ot fruit flavored soft drinks, a departure from Coca Cola.

Nehi first started in 1924, at the height of Prohibition and the Jazz Age. Chero Cola and Union Bottle Works introduced this alternative to cola with the different flavors of grape, root beer, peach and orange. Watermelon and cherry were later added. It hit a low in sales during the Depression but increased in sales during the Second World War. Glamourous celebrities from Hedy Lamarr to Joan Crawford became spokes models pushed it , .The name came from a salesman Claude Hatcher describing a competitor's bottle as being knee high hence the unusual name.It captured people's attention back in the Seventies when MASH character Radar O'Reilly  loved drinking grape NeHi.

Since it's not being mass produced as it once was, Nehi is kind of hard to find. Some sorts around the country do sell it. However fans can also buy it via Amazon and a site called Hometown Favorites. This last offers the drink as low as 79 cents a bottle along with peach and orange flavors along with grape. .Southern candy  stores and sweet shops also sell it and even make ice cream sodas with it. None of the newer sodas compete with it. Unfortunately it's original parent company Royal Crown doesn;t feature it on its' site.

Nehi is one of those American classics that satisfied millions of Americans during the last century.it was a sweet way to pass a summer afternoon or evening.It was a wonderful drink for a time slower than we know today.