Written By: Christopher Bacon
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September 18, 2014
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Posted In:
Let’s begin this adventure in the year 1996. Like much of the decade it was a year of aggressive, in your face, hardcore, “XTREME” things. Music had a certain awareness, more people watched wrestling than ever before and your pants sucked if they didn’t hide the top of your shoelaces. This was the market Coca Cola wished to tap into with a new product which had come to be loved by so many today… Surge.
Coca-Cola’s answer to Pepsi’s Mountain Dew, which was being marketed to youth culture with the slogan “Do the Dew!,” Surge was originally labeled MDK during development, an acronym for Mountain Dew Killer. When it first blasted onto the scene of fizzy beverages it was pretty successful. Surge showed a great popularity and sales were good, but after a few years sales slipped and in 2002 cans and bottles were discontinued and finally laid to rest in 2003.
After its short-lived life, Surge had a spiritual successor under the name Vault. Unfortunately, Vault was also short-lived. Interestingly enough, Surge has been sold in Norway this entire time under the name Urge, though it lacks the green coloring of its predecessor.
For the past couple of years people would post “recipes” on how to recreate Surge (some pretty spot on) or spend ridiculous amounts of money on VERY expired sodas simply because there is a deep rooted love for this beverage. You could say that there’s a “Cult of Surge,” though it isn’t labeled as such… it has that kind of dedicated following. Now, I’m not talking about people in robes burning funny smelling stuff while chanting hymns of destruction towards Mountain Dew. No, what I refer to as the “Cult of Surge” is a grass roots driving force online that has respectfully, but relentlessly, lobbied the Coca Cola company for Surge’s return.
Days were planned to flood Coke’s hotlines requesting the product’s return, mail was sent, constant posts on social media were logged and even a billboard was bought outside of the Coke headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The group, collectively known as The Surge Movement, was going to win this battle… and it looks like they finally have:
On September 15th 2014 the administration of the Surge Movement announced to the world that fans of the caffeinated, green, sugary, bubbley nectar could yet again purchase they’re beloved soda, but (for now) exclusively through Amazon. The product quickly sold out online and in 30 minutes time it became the most bought grocery item on Amazon for the entire month. Don’t worry though, Coke is restocking supplies as you read this—avoid evil eBay scalpers at all cost!
So… is it the same wonderful product it was 12 years ago? Yup! This stuff is still as every bit of awesome as it was when I was in high school. I love that they went back to the product’s first label design as well, instead of the one they had in the early 2000′s. I think that may have hurt they’re sales, along all the crazy rumors that it had so much caffeine it was making kids hearts and chest explode. It was about marketed as an energy drink of sorts, as the “fully loaded citrus soda.” Now it actually comes in a can that we normally associate with energy drinks, a 16 ounce can.
For the time being Surge is only available through Amazon, $14 for a 12 pack and all orders over $35 receiving free shipping (for the people without Amazon prime). Currently they’re out of stock, but be patient. Surge is back!
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