If you're not from New England, chances are you may not have heard of Moxie or know about this soft drink's connection to Maine and New England.
Moxie 
is a sweet yet "distinctively different" soft drink that at one time outsold Coke and Pepsi in America. Today it's bottled by the Monarch Beverage Company. Monarch sells a great deal of Moxie here in New England.
Moxie was the brainchild of Dr. Augustine Thompson. The good doctor marketed the original concoction as a patent medicine in 1876 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Dr. Thompson was a native of Union, Maine and to this day Union is famous for being the birthplace of Moxie.
The early version of Moxie was a spoon fed elixir that could supposedly cure a wide range of ills ranging from dementia to impotence.
Moxie has been modified several times since then. In 1884 Moxie was reformulated, repackaged and re-introduced to America as a carbonated soft drink. Sales soared, and according to "Maine Farmhouse Journal" Moxie was America's most popular soft drink right up to the early 1920's.
Today, early Moxie bottles and Moxie advertising pieces are collectors' items and probably worth considerably more than they originally cost. Former Red Sox slugger Ted Williams endorsed the product and his tins and advertising signs have become quite collectible.
There's even an annual Moxie Festival, and a Moxie Musuem has been proposed. Several books have been written about Moxie, including The Moxie Mystique. The mystery today may be in finding a can of Moxie. Ask your favorite beverage store if you're having trouble buying some.
Most Moxie drinkers will tell you that Moxie is an acquired taste. The flavor is, as the can says, "distinctively differerent". We suggest you try some for yourself. You'll be experiencing a taste of living Americana.
- Richard Rock for MELiving.com
