Back in the Age of Aquarius, some guys from Brooklyn had a crazy idea to sell natural juice to health food stores in New York City. They called their endeavor Unadulterated Food Products, Inc. and over the next fifteen years they built their company up to a beverage behemoth flanking the big soda companies engaged in a cola war to beat them both with a natural brewed iced tea introduced in 1987.
You might not know them by that (let’s admit) clunky name but you do know them by the much catchier brand that they once gave to a failed flavor and then adopted for the entire company: Snapple.
Here we present some historical and crazy facts about Snapple.
History
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Snapple was founded by Leonard Marsh, Hyman Golden, and Arnold Greenberg in 1972
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Apparently, there was a fourth investor who got out amid some controversy right before the company took off
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The company was originally called Unadulterated Food Products
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The drink company was only a part-time venture for the trio
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None of the founders had any experience in the juice-making business before starting their company
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Leonard Marsh once said that he knew "as much about juice as about making an atom bomb"
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Marsh and Golden had a window washing company, they were also brothers-in-law
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Greenberg owned a health food store in the East Village in Manhattan
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They created the company to sell beverages to health food stores in New York City
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The name Snapple was adopted later from a failed product flavor
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Snapple is an mashup of the words “snappy” and “apple”
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The name “Snapple” was already owned by a small company in Texas
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The founders bought the name for $500
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The company had come out with a new drink called “Snapple” which was a carbonated apple flavor
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Snapple’s apple soda drink caused the tops to pop off because of fermentation in the bottles
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They began to understand why their “Snapple” juice was so popular, it was unintendedly becoming alcoholic
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Golden said in an interview, “We’d made Champagne.”
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In the 1980s the company saw an explosion of growth and sales more than doubled every year
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A major driver of Snapple’s growth was the introduction of its brewed ice teas
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In 1987, Snapple introduced its Lemon Iced Tea
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Founder Arnold Greenberg told the New York Times, "We came up with the first real brewed tea that was cooked”
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In 1989 revenue from noncarbonated beverages increased by 600% in the first six months of the year
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In 1991, Snapple moved its HQ from Brooklyn to Long Island
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Snapple had a series of live radio commercials featuring controversial DJs Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh
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Stern and Limbaugh both pitched Snapple from before they became infamous shock jocks
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In the early 1990s the company was subject to vicious rumors that caused it a PR nightmare like a story that said Snapple supported the KKK
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Snapple's brand slogan is "Made from the Best Stuff on Earth."
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Snapple’s IPO in 1992 was a hit and the stock was sold at $20 a share
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Four million shares were sold and the company's stock price rose to $33 per share
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In 1994 Quaker Oats agreed to acquire Snapple for $1.7 billion, or $14 a share, in cash
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At the time Snapple was recording annual sales of about $700 million.
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Quaker sold Snapple in 1997 for $300 million to RC Cola maker, Triarc
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Sadly, all three founders of Snapple have passed away
Wendy the Snapple Lady
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In the early 1990s, Snapple’s famous television commercials featured the “Snapple Lady”
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The Snapple Lady was an actual Snapple employee, Wendy Kaufman
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As the Snapple Lady, Kaufman would read and answer customers’ letters
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Kaufman started out in the ordering department at Snapple and used to answer customers’ letters to the company because no one else was doing it
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This drew the attention of Snapple’s ad agency and they promoted Kaufman to pitchwoman
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Her resume read at the time: “Order Department Administrator, Marketing Associate, original Letter-Opener and official Snapple Lady”
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She was featured in 36 commercials
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Kaufman graduated from Lawrence High School in Cedarhurst
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She said that an unanswered letter she sent to the actor who played Greg Brady on the TV show inspired her to answer Snapple fan mail out of the goodness of her heart
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Snapple fan mail increased to 500 letters a day
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The company actually hired another woman named Wendy Kaufman to answer mail so people wouldn’t know the difference
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In 2016, Kaufman admitted to a drug habit that almost killed her before she became the iconic commercial star
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Watch one of the classic Snapple Lady commercials below
Here's another one featuring former NYC mayor Ed Kotch:
Flavors
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At one point, Unadulterated Food Products offered 59 different varieties of drink
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Peach Tea is consistently ranked the number one Snapple flavor
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Failed flavors include Papaya Colada and Lime Green Tea
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New flavors took anywhere from six months to one year to create
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Their Guava Mania flavor was almost called either Guava Vavoom or Guava Nagila
Snapple Facts
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According to reports, the company hatched the idea one day during an run-of-the-mill marketing meeting
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In 2002, Snapple began printing their numbered “Real Facts” on the bottom of their bottle caps
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They wanted to take advantage of the “unused real estate” under the cap with something that would amaze and amuse Snapple drinkers
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The first Snapple Fact on a bottle cap was, “A goldfish's attention span is 3 seconds”
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That fact has been retired
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There have been almost 1,100 facts with 256 in circulation at any given point
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Over time, thanks to follow up research and consumer feedback, other “Real Facts” have also been retired
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Snapple tries to bring in 75 to 100 new “Real Facts” every year from a variety of sources
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The list of "Real Facts" are available on the company’s website
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Some examples of Snapple’s Real Facts include:
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#10 Mosquitos are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
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#53 The average woman consumes 6 pounds of lipstick in her lifetime.
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#66 Americans, on average, eat 18 acres of pizza everyday.
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#108 Licking a stamp burns 10 calories.
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Several of the facts on Snapple caps have been found to be outdated, incorrect or exaggerated
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Some media outlets have fact-checked the Snapple Real Facts
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You can text “REALFACT “ to 762-775 to get real facts delivered daily