Kist
Kist is one of the earliest fruit sodas ever marketed in America, out of Chicago’s Citrus Products Company — beaten to the punch only by Crush. IDI acquired the brand in 2009 and rebuilt it for how people drink now: a zero-calorie sparkling water with real juice and nothing else.
The story
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1920s
Citrus Products Company, Chicago
Kist comes out of the Citrus Products Company — a Chicago business formed in 1919 — as one of the first orange sodas marketed nationally to American consumers. The brand has carried 1929 on its packaging ever since, and still does.
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1932
The sliced-orange bottle
Kist introduces glass bottles molded to look like a sliced orange — an identifying feature for decades — and expands into ginger ale, lemon, and grape.
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2009
Home to Detroit
IDI acquires Kist and begins producing it in Michigan, later relaunching the brand as a sparkling water line that has become a staple in school and vending channels.
Kist flavors
Availability varies by retailer and season.
- Strawberry Watermelon
- Cherry Pomegranate
- Orange Mango
- Blackberry Raspberry
- Kiwi Strawberry
- Raspberry Lemonade
- Lemonade
- Category Sparkling water
- Package 17 oz bottle
- Nutrition Zero calories, real juice
- Ownership IDI house brand since 2009
The rest of the family
Towne Club
The Detroit pop that families bought by the wooden case. Still made with pure cane sugar, still bottled in glass.
Towne Club story
Catonsville, Maryland, 1939Frostie
A genuine American root beer with an origin story you could not invent — and a craft soda line that grew out of it.
Frostie story
Want Kist in your store?
We run our own trucks on our own routes across Southeast Michigan. Getting stocked is a phone call.