“Barq’s has bite!”

While most people recognize the now-famous tag line, few know why it was chosen: unlike other root beers, Barq's is caffeinated!  The creation of New Orleans-born chemist, Edward Barq, this refreshing root beer has found a huge following over the last 110 years, and a lot of it has to do with its very famous bite.

After forming the Barq’s Brothers Bottling Company in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, Edward Barq dabbled with soda concoctions such as Orangine, his 1893 award-winning orange-flavored soda.  On the tail of Orangine’s success, he moved to Biloxi, Mississippi and opened a new bottling company, Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works.  Two years later, according to the company, Barq’s was introduced.  It would be a number of years before Barq’s was called a root beer.  This was, in part, due to Hires Root Beer, who was attempting to acquire a trademark on “root beer,” as well as the fact that Barq’s is made with a tasty sarsaparilla base that was common in older root beers.  With considerably less sugar and lacking the thick foam head of other root beers, it almost made sense to not call it “root beer.”  And perhaps that’s a part of the distinction of Barq’s compared to other root beers.  In addition to their root beer, Barq’s has long offered Barq’s Red Crème Soda.  In New Orleans, where they’ve been drinking it for generations, it’s known simply as Barq’s Red Drink.

Barq’s has had “bite” in their commercials for over a decade now.  Before that, commercials featured a number of jingles, including the unforgettable “Barq’s couldn’t afford lyrics” commercials in the early 1990s.  Before that and for many a decade, Barq’s was marketed with the simple phrase, “Drink Barq’s.  It’s good.”  Sounds easy enough, right? 

In 1976, after the company was purchased by John Oudt and John Koerner, Barq’s found itself in the midst of a massive marketing campaign, with the slogan “Barq’s Got Sparks,” again playing into its caffeine content.  They even offered other flavors of soda, such as lime-green and grape.  Today, Barq’s is distributed by the Coca-Cola Company.  They offer the original root beer flavor as well as a Diet Barq’s that’s free of sugar as well as caffeine.  Red Crème Soda continues to be sold to this day, as well as French Vanilla Crème Soda, ensuring that no matter what your style is, you’re always able to get a little bite from Barq’s.

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