Moxie

Moxie, which originated in New England, is the oldest carbonated soft drink and outsold Coca-Cola until the 1920s. Aficionados describe Moxie as extremely potent root beer, although it is a cola drink, but detractors find it unappealing and medicinal. Perhaps because of its strong flavor, Moxie became known as a drink with an attitude, and the word “moxie” has come to mean a “can-do” character. Calvin Coolidge is said to have used Moxie to toast his swearing in as president in 1923.

Moxie was invented as a patent medicine in 1876 by a pharmacist, Augustin Thompson, who sold it over the counter as Moxie Nerve Food in his Lowell, Massachusetts, drug store. Thompson claimed that Moxie, made with gentian root, a nerve-calming ingredient, cured everything from upset stomach to dullness of the brain. In 1910, however, the newly formed U.S. Food and Drug Administration put a stop to the claims.