Fizzies are a tablet that, when added to water, will create a soft drink.

History

Origin

In the 1950s, chemists at Emerson Drug Company, creators of Bromo-Seltzer antacid medicine, worked to create a drink tablet that when added to water, would create instant soda pop. Lem Billings, best friend of President John F. Kennedy invented the idea for Emerson by adding a fruit flavor that children liked. Once perfected, they named their invention Fizzies. The small tablet was dropped into a glass of water, they fizzed and created a sweet, effervescent drink.

The formula for the product changed with the times and as various artificial sweeteners were banned by the FDA - It had been sweetened with cyclamates, sucaryl, and saccharin. While the brand was owned by Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, it was sold unsweetened with the instructions calling for the addition of "one tablespoon of sugar and ice."

1990s

After the introduction of NutraSweet, the brand was resurrected by Premiere Innovations, Inc. in the mid-90s but its availability was short-lived and the company disappeared.

Present

As of 2006, Fizzies are once again available in seven flavors — sour apple, lemon-lime, root beer, cherry, orange, blue razz and fruit punch. Fizzies are manufactured by Amerilab Technologies in Plymouth, Minnesota, and are marketed as a nostalgic drink to the baby boomer market. In this present incarnation, the product is sweetened with a mixture of sorbitol, acesulfame potassium and sucralose, and contains Vitamin C (in the form of Ascorbic Acid).

Cultural References

In the motion picture National Lampoon's Animal House, Dean Wormer reads a list of pranks committed by members of the Delta House fraternity, which included dumping an entire truckload of Fizzies into a swimming pool during a meet.

Related Topics

• Bromo-Seltzer
• Carbonation
• Soft Drink
• Tablet
• Little Mikey

See also

• Creamola Foam, a similar drink produced in the UK

External links

• Manufacturers Web Site
• A History of Fizzies Drink Tablets