yoo-hoo

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Yoo-hoo is the name of an American chocolate-flavored beverage.

History

Yoo-hoo dates back to the 1920s, when Natale Olivieri sold Tru-Fruit soft drinks in his small store. Olivieri thought he could produce a chocolate soft drink and make profits.

Olivieri was at his home's kitchen with his wife, who was preparing her home-made tomato sauce one day when Olivieri thought he could preserve chocolate beverages by using the same method his wife used to make the sauce. He asked his wife to use the process on six of the chocolate drinks he had prepared. Three of the drinks got spoiled, and Mr. Olivieri thought agitation would also be needed to produce an all natural chocolate drink. Because of that, he bought a rotating pressure retort. Soon after, his first group of chocolate drinks was sold.

The name Yoo-hoo was already being used for Mr. Olivieri's other fruit drinks, so naturally, he applied Yoo-hoo to his chocolate-flavored drink too.

Sources in the beverage industry claim that Yoo-hoo owes its famously open-ended shelf life to a steam sterilization process that takes place after the bottles are filled and capped, but before the labels are applied. As long as it is sealed, Yoo-hoo cannot go sour.

Yoo-hoo would soon begin to be bottled by an important bottling company and to be sold at supermarkets.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Yoo-hoo went through a very large promotional campaign that included Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees officially sponsoring the drink. The image of Berra drinking a bottle of Yoo-hoo while wearing a suit, in particular, became famous. The catch phrase that was coined by Yogi Berra as he held the bottle next to his face saying with a smile, "It's Me-He for Yoo-Hoo! "

Also during the '50s, B.B.C. Industries took over Yoo-hoo. They held ownership until 1976, when it was bought by Iroquois Brands, which, in turn, sold Yoo-hoo in 1981 to a group of private investors, which in turn sold Yoo-Hoo to Pernod Ricard in 1989.

In 2001, Pernod Ricard sold Yoo-hoo to Cadbury-Schweppes, with production responsibilities falling to CS's Mott's group, and marketing and advertising responsibilities under Snapple. This led to an increased awareness of the once popular beverage. This also led to the change in the size of the Yoo-Hoo box. Yoo-hoo hired two spokespeople named Josh & Nathan who were actually just devout fans of the drink to tout the beverage on TV, radio, and major concert tours such as the Warped Tour.

The soft drink company's headquarters are in Rye Brook, New York, with plants in Carlstadt, New Jersey and Opelousas, Louisiana.

Yoo-Hoo apparently owns other chocolate drink brands, including Choc-Ola, Kayo, Brownie, and Chocolate Soldier ^[1].

Flavors

Double Fudge flavor of Yoo-Hoo drink

Current

• Chocolate
• Double Fudge
• Strawberry
• Yoo-hoo Lite

Discontinued

• Vanilla
• Island Coconut (same as Koko Blanco)
• Eggnog
• Chocolate-Banana
• Chocolate-Strawberry
• Chocolate-Coconut
• Chocolate-Mint
• Chocolate-Raspberry
• Chocolate-Orange
• Chocolate-Cinnamon
• Koko Blanco
• Banana
• Chocolate Cow
• Chocolate Extreme
• Chocolate Lite
• Cookies & Cream
• Dyna-Mocha

Cultural References

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In his song "Dead Muthafuckas" rapper Cam'ron rapped "I'm in the Range, same color as Yoohoo//yeah I know, that's the same color as Doodoo".
• "Yoo hoo" (the slang phrase) probably comes from the earlier "yo ho" and was popularized by cartoonist Clare Briggs in 1913.[1]
• In the mid-1990s, Yoo-Hoo was extensively parodied by Nickelodeon. During this period, several Nicktoons (primarily The Angry Beavers, but also Hey Arnold! and others), featured the fictional beverage brand Ya-Hoo! Chocolate Soda.
• In the movie Big Daddy, while sitting with 'Frankenstein's' friends on the playground, Adam Sandler says "We all love Yoohoo, especially Yoohoo with a little rum."
• Myron Bolitar, hero of a series of books by Harlan Coben, loves Yoo-Hoo and drinks almost nothing else.
• In an episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld named The Bubble Boy, the bubble boy's father drives a Yoo-hoo delivery truck for a living and when complimented on the drink's quality responds, "Yes, it's a fine product."
• Yoo-hoo is mentioned by the punk band Bouncing Souls in the song "Shark Attack".
• In the movie Clockers, the character Strike drinks a chocolate beverage named Chocolate Moo a parody on the YooHoo brand.
• In the Kenny Chesney song, "Summertime," he mentions a "Yoo-Hoo bottle rollin' on the floorboard" in the chorus.
• On the sitcom Friends, Yoo-hoo is often seen being drunk by the characters, usually Chandler and Joey.
• In the movie A Few Good Men Daniel Kaffee played by Tom Cruise says he only has "Yoo-Hoo and Cocoa Puffs" in his apartment.
• A Yoo-hoo bottle serves as an object for female masturbation in An' my girlfriend, she digs it with a hot Yoo-hoo bottle. It is a line from the song What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are on the album Fillmore East - June 1971 by Frank Zappa.
• Beastie Boys start their song "Sure Shot" with the line "I got a brand new doodoo, guaranteed like Yoo-Hoo".
• The Emotron frequently uses Yoo-Hoo in his music videos such as "Username"
• In the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Vince Vaughn's Character is seen brushing his teeth and washing his mouth out with Yoo-Hoo at the start of the movie

References

External links

While current Yoo-hoo bottles have the site www.drinkyoo-hoo.com on their label, their website has recently been changed to www.yoo-hoo.com. The former URL is currently held by a third party.

• http://www.yoo-hoo.com – Yoo-hoo

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