Before Kentucky's best-known soft drink, Ale-8-One, bubbled into being, there was Roxa Kola. Roxa Kola and Ale-8-One ("A Late One") were both developed by George Lee Wainscott — Roxa Kola in 1906 in honor of his wife, Roxanne, followed by Ale-8-One in 1926. The company itself, based in Winchester, was founded in 1902.
While Ale-8-One has long been a Kentucky favorite, celebrating its 95th anniversary in 2021, the company is reintroducing its Roxa Kola with a limited run released in early November and just in time for the holidays.
Kevin Price, Ale-8's chief marketing officer, and Daphne Phipps, director of product excellence and innovation, recently shared some of the behind-the-scenes processes that led to the reinvention of Roxa Kola for a new generation.
Before Wainscott invented Roxa Kola, he made distilled water and fruit-flavored sodas.
"Fruit-flavored sodas were not his recipes, so he decided he needed to have his own recipe — something that was his," Phipps said.
The result was Roxa Kola, which enjoyed a more than 50-year run until it was discontinued in 1969. A few years ago, the idea surfaced to breathe new life into the beverage as a tribute to family and traditions. (Ale-8-One Bottling Company is now in its fourth generation of ownership and is the oldest privately held bottler in the country still owned and operated by its founding family.)
"I actually started developing Roxa Kola soon after I started working here," Phipps said.
She began making small batches by hand in the lab until she thought the mixture was good enough to present to the new product development team, which tastes and reviews all new products and is trained in sensory evaluation.
The team sampled the mixture, noting likes and dislikes through several rounds of adjustments.
The resulting formulation and newly designed label pays homage to the original without exactly replicating its look and taste.
If anyone doubted the company's dedication to detail, Roxa Kola's relaunch was even delayed a year until the drink was deemed right, technically making it "A Late One," too.
"When you look at the packaging, you'll notice it's the 121st anniversary," Price said. "The truth was that it was originally meant for [the company's] 120th anniversary."
If we're treating Roxa Kola like a fine wine or bourbon, what are the tasting notes?
Phipps obliged, saying, "It reminds me of a nostalgic cola," she said. "When people taste it, it brings us back to our childhood of these older colas that came in glass bottles. It will catch you by surprise."
And speaking of bourbon, Price said he tests each new flavor offering mixed with spirits, particularly bourbon, and this one fits the bill nicely.
Roxa Kola will be on shelves in the bottler's core 20-county distribution area this month.
If successful, might Roxa Kola make an occasional surprise reappearance, à la the McRib?
"If it's a hit, we'd look at a 'McRib opportunity' because I think that's kind of a perfect comparison," Price said.