Fritz-kola (stylized as fritz-kola) is a soft drink made in north Germany and shipped to many nations in the European Union. It has a relatively high caffeine content and is sold in glass bottles with labels which were originally black and white, using the faces of the two founders in the logo.

Fritz-Kola
TypeCola
Country of origin Hamburg, Germany
IntroducedFebruary 28, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02-28)
Websitefritz-kola.com/en

History

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Two students from Hamburg, Lorenz Hampl and Mirco Wiegert, started selling Fritz-kola in 2003.[1][2][3] They had a brewery help them develop a cola recipe, choosing to use less sugar and more caffeine (25mg of caffeine per 100ml[1]) than Coke or Pepsi, and adding lemon flavour.[2] They polled people outside a shopping centre to choose the company name. To save money, they used black and white labels and a photoshopped version of pictures of their heads as a logo; they sold the first crates to bars on a returnable basis, and did not establish an office for three years.[2]

Hampl left the business in 2016. As of August 2020, Wiegert heads the company and owns two-thirds of it. The company employs 280 people. Five bottling plants produce the cola, which is sold in a number of European countries; in 2019 its 330ml bottles outsold all brands except Coke, and its other major markets are the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, and Austria.[2] Sales in 2015 were €7.4 million.[4]

Varieties

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Through the years Fritz-kola has offered many variants of its cola as well as different kinds of soft drinks, including:

  • Fritz-kola:[5]
    • Fritz-kola[6]
    • Fritz-kola kola-coffee-lemonade[7]
    • Fritz-kola sugarfree[8]
  • Fritz-limo:[9]
    • Fritz-limo orangeade[10]
    • Fritz-limo melon[11]
    • Fritz-limo lemonade[12]
    • Fritz-limo apple, cherry and elderberry[13]
  • mischmasch kola-orange-lemonade[14]
  • Fritz-spritz:[15]
    • Fritz-spritz organic cloudy sparkling apple[16]
    • Fritz-spritz organic sparkling grape[17]
    • Fritz-spritz organic sparkling rhubarb[18]
  • fritz-mate (discontinued)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Sean Williams (2 January 2015). "The New and the Next: How Fritz-Kola Took on Coke (and Kind of Won)". Ozy.
  2. ^ a b c d Lorelei Mihala (17 August 2020). "Business: The two students who took on Coke and Pepsi". BBC News.
  3. ^ James Clay. "Fritz-Kola – the Hamburgian original proves soft drinks can be done better". www.jamesclay.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-08-27. Clay gives the founding year as 2002.
  4. ^ "Der erste Fritz" (in German). Forbes Austria. 14 August 2015. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  5. ^ "fritz-kola Archive". Fritz-Kola.
  6. ^ "fritz-kola". Fritz-Kola.
  7. ^ "fritz-kola kola-coffee-lemonade". Fritz-Kola.
  8. ^ "fritz-kola sugarfree". Fritz-Kola.
  9. ^ "fritz-limo Archive". Fritz-Kola.
  10. ^ "fritz-limo orangeade". Fritz-Kola.
  11. ^ "fritz-limo melon". Fritz-Kola.
  12. ^ "fritz-limo lemonade". Fritz-Kola.
  13. ^ "fritz-limo apple, cherry and elderberry". Fritz-Kola.
  14. ^ "mischmasch kola-orange-lemonade". Fritz-Kola.
  15. ^ "fritz-spritz Archive". Fritz-Kola.
  16. ^ "fritz-spritz organic cloudy sparkling apple". Fritz-Kola.
  17. ^ "fritz-spritz organic sparkling grape". Fritz-Kola.
  18. ^ "fritz-spritz organic sparkling rhubarb". Fritz-Kola.