BS: Moxie Bottle

Subject: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 05:33 PM

I don't consider it BS, but is sure ain't music. I need help from a bottle collector or New Englander, please. I have a Moxie bottle that is pale green, about 11 1/2" high with a porcelain/swing top or bail stopper. Can anybody help me find out what it might be worth?

Moxie was the first soft drink mass marketed in the US in the late 1800's. Coke nudged it out of 1st place but it is still marketed in New England.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 05:36 PM

Sorry for such early thread drift, but Moxie and Bottle are the slang words for courage from either side of the pond. What's the odds, hey? ;o)

Sorcha, You can go to E-Bay and search for a similar item and see what it's going for.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:11 PM

No, I tried that. Nothing similar at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:13 PM

Their slogan was "It takes moxie to drink Moxie"

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:23 PM

The Moxie Collector's Page is here: Moxie Collectors . It includes a contralto rendition of a moving nineteenth century piece of pure schmatz, "Just Make It Moxie....". LOL!!!

Sorry I can't be more help!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:36 PM

I have e mailed someone there, Amos. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: curmudgeon
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 06:50 PM

Sorcha -- Is this one like yours? Note that there are no bids, yet, but also note the "buy it now' price. I know a couple of bottle collectors, but can't get in touch with them easily. I'll find out what I can -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 07:25 PM

These folks do a good job of appraising, if you don't mind spending ten bucks: What's It Worth To You?. An antique dealer in town recommended them, as there are no appraisers here. They give you a good bit of history and identifying info, plus replacement and sale value.

Good luck,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 07:51 PM

You just missed tha annual Moxie festival, held somewhere here in Maine. I will see what I can find out.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 09:42 PM

Moxie is the worst tasting soft drink I ever tried. When I was a boy, I poured some sugar into it, and it went clear to the ceiling.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 10:52 PM

The annual Moxie Festival was the weekend before last, as I recall, in Lisbon Falls, Maine. The guy who concocted the stuff apparently lived there, and I think used to produce it there early on.

Originally, it had all sorts of exotic ingredients, including as I recall opium, gentian root, and several others I've forgotten about. It was pretty potent stuff!

Moxie was once advertized as "Nerve Food" and was supposed to have some miraculous medicianal effect. Some folks opine that it does taste a little "medicinal", actually. Over the years the Government made them omit a few of the more psychogenic / addictive ingredients.

About the only place Moxie is distributed is in Maine, New Hampshire, and I think a select few places in MA - but it has a certain cult following all over. Some Moxie fans have some shipped out occasionally to wherever their fortunes may have led them away to; there ain't nothin' quite like it anywhere else.

In attempting to describe the unique taste, about the best I can manage is to suggest a mixture of cherry Coke and root beer, with about half of the sugar that is routinely dissolved into mainstream carbonated beverages.
One of the reasons I like it is that it is not as "sticky" sweet as more popular beverages. Some fellows refer to it as "Recovering Alchoholic's Beer".

Not only is Moxie a very regional phenomenon, it is certainly a "bipolar" one as well.

You either intensely love Moxie, or you utterly loathe it (as seems to be the case with Kendall, sad to say).

A couple of examples of people and things that seem to eliciet a similar bipolar reaction in others might include Rush Limbaugh or Bagpipe Music. Ye love 'em, or ye hates 'em; hardly anyone who has had contact with Rush, Heiland Piping, or Moxie is at all "iffy" about them, are they?

There was a time when I wondered mightilly if Pipers or Mr. Limbaugh liked Moxie, or each other for that matter.

If there was a pattern there, I was looking for it to emerge.

Then I thought some about applying for a Federal Grant to do a demographic survey and study this phenomenon, but then got obsessed with something else before all the paperwork was in order.

Another famous old Moxie motto: "Moxie Makes Mainers Mighty!".

Too bad that Kendall is on the "non-liking" side of the issue.
Some time back I was daydreaming about what kind of advertizement I would write for Moxie had I the opportunity. Cpt. Kendall would be perfect for the starring role, delivering the laconic, deadpan line in his famous DownEater dialect while sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of a rustic Country Store; - "Moxie; it ain't for everyone, ye know."
Of course in the background is some dandy "Summer Complaint" (Tourist) gagging, spitting, and retching like blazes after his or her first (and probably last) taste of Moxie.

Trouble is, Moxie (or one of the big beverage conglomerates that owns the franchise on it) has not bothered to advertize, as far as I know, for over 30 years (correct me if I'm wrong).

If you like Moxie, you'll want Moxie.
And you'll know right where to go to git it!

But if you are "from away", then you might just have to take our word for it.

Good luck on the bottle; some people have entire collectons of MOXIE memoribilia; bottles, posters, signs, delivery crates etc.. mostly from days gone by.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 11:38 PM

Well, I have heard from the Moxie Collectors webmaster--my bottles are only worh about $10 max apiece. Oh well. I was really hoping for the $175 one..........then I would be assured of getting to the Yorks Gather/Wedding.

Subject: RE: BS: Moxie Bottle
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jul 03 - 11:50 PM

Well, I drank it a few times as a kid in Boothbay, and I liked it all right. Not enough to chase after it, though.

A