In 1920, Charles L. Grigg left Vess to create his own soda company, Howdy, which is also based in St. Louis. Howdy's original offering was Howdy Orange Drink, later Howdy Orange Soda. It took a reported 11 years to complete his formulation for a lemon-lime flavored soda that was originally called Lithiated Lemon-Lime. Lithiated referred to the chemical lithium citrate, a pharmacological mood altering drug. Before you jump out of your skin at that thought remember that many early sodas were first developed as health tonics by pharmacists and there were others using lithiated citrate at the time as well. Lithiated citrate was removed from the recipe in 1948.
The name was later changed to 7 Up Lithiated Soda and then changed again to just 7 Up. The name 7 Up was arose along with early advertising, which called it "7 natural flavors blended into a drink with a real wallop." 7 Up eventually became the star of the Howdy Corporation so the entire company became the Seven-Up Company.
In a strange act of diversification, Westinghouse purchased the company in 1969 and then sold it to Philip Morris, the tobacco company, in 1978. Hicks & Haas bought 7 Up in 1986 which later led to merging with Dr Pepper and then with Schweppes.
Although the recipe is different from the original, they currently use high-fructose corn syrup, which somewhat contradicts their claims of being 100% natural depending on your stance of what "natural" means. Among their advertising successes are the "Fresh Up, the "Un-cola" and Spot. I think if most people were asked what the "Un-cola" they'd say it was 7 Up. That tagline actually came out in the 60's but must have become popular again during the cola wars providing people with an easy alternative. For people in my age group, I think we can all remember Spot advertising in the early 90's. Spot as a cartoon character took on the role of company mascot in advertising and appeared on merchandise, there was even a Nintendo NES video game featuring Spot.
In terms of taste, I'm not sure I need to describe to most people what 7 Up tastes like. It's got a pleasant lemon-lime scent and middling carbonation. In terms of carbonation levels in the two most popular lemon-lime sodas I will still give Sprite the edge. I personally feel 7 Up has a more lime-like aftertaste. Overall, it isn't a soda I drink that often but can still enjoy. Although I generally pair lighter flavored sodas with light meals... I can also say that this can pair well with something like barbeque sauced dishes because of the palate cleansing aspect it can have.
