Type Citrus soda Color Light Green | Country of origin United States Manufacturer The Coca-Cola Company | |
 | ||
Introduced February 7th, 1997
2014 (Amazon-exclusive)
2015-present | ||
Surge (sometimes styled as SURGE) is a citrus flavored soft drink developed by the New Products team at Coca Cola Atlanta in 1997. Surge was first produced by The Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew during the 1990s. Surge was advertised as having a more "hardcore" edge, much like Mountain Dew's advertising at this time, in an attempt to further take customers away from Pepsi. It was originally launched in Norway as Urge, and was so popular that it was later released in America as Surge. Lagging sales caused production to be ended in 2003 for most markets, and by 2014 Norway was the last country where either Urge or Surge were still sold.
Contents
However, popular fan bases such as Facebook's "SURGE Movement" led Coca-Cola to re-release the soft drink on September 15, 2014 for the US market via Amazon.com "Prime" in 12-packs of 16 oz. cans. In February 2015, Coca-Cola initiated a test market for the beverage in stores primarily in the Southeastern United States, and concluded in May 2015. Some locations outside of the test region have also been found to sell Surge. Surge was re-released to stores in the Southeast, Northeast, parts of the Midwest, and the Mountain States of America in September 2015.
Early years
In 1997, Coca-Cola started production of Surge in the United States, with its original whitepaper name being "MDK," or "Mountain Dew Killer." It was developed to converge with Mello Yello as a means of slowing Mountain Dew growth. Coke's attempts to draw users away with divergent products like OK Soda or with similar ones like Mello Yello had not succeeded. Surge was intended to improve on Mountain Dew by using maltodextrin for a longer-lasting blast of energy and with bolder, brighter presentation. Its release was accompanied by a 50 million dollar nationwide marketing campaign that led to initially high sales and popularity. A few years after the release, sales began to slip. Surge continued to be sold in vending machines, bottles, cans and as a fountains drink until its eventual discontinuation in 2003.
While preparations for the US launch were underway, a cry for help came in from the Norwegian Division, who were battling a successful launch of Dew in their market. Because the Surge brand was already registered by another party, the product was launched as "Urge". Local food regulation prevented the bright green color being used, so it was launched with a pale, more natural juice drink look and given a slight orange taste to match the flavor with the color.
Until September 15, 2014, when Coca-Cola re-released Surge, Norway was the only country where one could still buy a similar soft drink in any form, as the original Surge recipe is still popular there.
Surge was widely associated with the extreme sports lifestyle, with television commercials similar to those used by Mountain Dew at the time. Coca-Cola also used provocative catchphrases to market Surge to extreme sports enthusiasts and teenagers alike. Some of these catchphrases included "Feed the Rush", "Life's a Scream" and the references to Surge as "A Fully Loaded Citrus Soda." Further touted was the fact that Surge had a considerable number of carbohydrates, hence the "with carbos" tagline that was occasionally used in the marketing campaigns to emphasize the fact that Surge was supposed to be more than a soda, but an energy drink as well.
After its inception, Surge's logo was updated and redesigned to a sharper and more modern look by a graphic designer/marketer Colin Nekritz.
Trademark
In 1997 Coca-Cola settled trademark dispute with Babson Bros., an industrial cleaning product company whose cow-milking machine has been known as Surge since 1925.
ReSURGEnce
After the discontinuation of Surge in cans, a community was formed by web designer Eric "Karks" Karkovack entitled "Save Surge". The community initially mapped the locations at which Surge could be purchased in fountain form. Upon cancellation of the fountain syrup, the community continued, adopting an approach of activism that led to the creation of the citrus soda Vault in June 2005. Vault was discontinued in 2011.
As a result of Vault's discontinuation, a group was started on Facebook called the "Surge Movement". The group repetitively posted requests on Coca-Cola's Facebook page, and encouraged its members to call Coca-Cola's consumer affairs hotline at 1-800-GET-COKE to voice their desires further, once every month. The movement gained around 200,000 Facebook "likes" in the months after it was started and continues to grow.
On September 15, 2014, Surge was re-released as an Amazon.com exclusive in packs of twelve 16 oz cans.
On February 10, 2015, Coca Cola announced that it had begun test-marketing Surge with independent resellers and vending machines across the Southeast United States. Coca Cola plans to re-introduce Surge to other regions in the US pending successful sales in test markets. The test run ended in late-May 2015..
On July 30, 2015, Coca-Cola announced that it was preparing for a large-scale Surge retail release across the Eastern United States. Surge was re-released at convenience stores across the Eastern United States on September 7, 2015..
On November 16, 2015, Burger King restaurants released a slushy version of the beverage called "Frozen Surge" as a limited edition slushy.
In late 2016, Valero Corner Stores partnered with Icee to release an Icee form of Surge at select locations.
On January, 11, 2017, Cinemark theaters released a slushy version of the beverage called "Surge Frozen".
Formulation
Comparisons of Surge have been made to a later Coca-Cola product, Vault, which was first released in 2005—around two years after the discontinuation of Surge. Vault has also been discontinued as of December 2011. The two drinks are noted to have had similar taste, although Vault contained higher levels of caffeine at 70.5 mg per 12 fl. oz serving and contained artificial flavors in its recipe. The caffeine content of Surge was comparable to that of other citrus soft drinks in the American market during its time at 51 mg per 12 fl. oz serving.
Below is a listing of the ingredients of Surge, per the label on the canned and bottled versions, as well as the ingredient listings from both a Surge fountain syrup box, and a Surge Frozen Carbonated Beverage box. All four differ slightly; however, more information regarding the Surge formulation can be gleaned from both syrup variations, as they were to be mixed using a ratio of 4.4 parts cold, carbonated water to 1 part syrup.