Jolt Cola

Jolt Cola is a carbonated soft drink produced by Wet Planet Beverages. It was created in 1985 by C. J. Rapp as a highly caffeinated cola. It is targeted towards students and young professionals, stressing its use as a stimulant in a similar manner as energy drinks. The 140 mg of caffeine in the modern "battery bottle" is comparable to that in a 230 ml cup of coffee, and is twice as much caffeine as the same amount of Coca-Cola, which has 34 mg in a 355 ml can.

Jolt Cola in the US
Jolt Cola was originally made by The Jolt Cola Company of Rochester, New York, which has since changed its name to Wet Planet Beverages, reflecting a more diverse product line. From the outset, Jolt's marketing strategy centered on the caffeine content, billing the drink as a means to promote wakefulness. The initial slogan was, "All the sugar and twice the caffeine." This slogan was dropped when they began using high fructose corn syrup as the sweetener instead of cane sugar.

Jolt Cola later diversified into additional flavors named Cherry Bomb, Citrus Climax, Orange Blast, White Lightning (grape), Red Eye, and Electric Blue. A Jolt 25-Calorie Cola was also briefly available, which used a combination of sugar and artificial sweeteners.

In 2003, the name was licensed to a Hackensack, N.J. company named Gumrunners, Inc., which manufactures a line of caffeinated gum bearing the distinctive Jolt label and the slogan "Chew More, Do More." The gum comes in two flavors: spearmint and icy mint.

In 2005, Jolt Cola revamped its product line. Jolt Cola has a new logo, and is now packaged in "Battery" bottles (23.5 oz / 695 ml resealable aluminum bottles; the body of the bottle is similar to that of a standard aluminum can, but the top has a twist-off aluminum cap with a plastic gasket liner), and in more traditional "Quick Fix" cans (8.4 oz / 250 ml single-use pull-tab aluminum cans, similar to those used for Red Bull) and "Battery" cans (16 oz / 473 ml single-use pull-tab aluminum cans). The Jolt Cola website claims that the "Quick Fix" sizes are available at establishments that serve "adult beverages," for use as a mixer. The flavors of Jolt offered have also changed. Available flavors are Cola, Blue (blue raspberry), Cherry Bomb (cherry cola), Silver (lemon-lime), and Ultra (which is a diet drink, utilizing Splenda as its artificial sweetener, also containing guarana, ginseng, taurine, and vitamin B complex). Jolt Cola is also packaged in glass bottles under licence by the 7 Up bottling company of California. These are sold on the west coast where laws are stricter to encourage use of refillable bottles.

Because of the high concentration of caffeine, Jolt is a favorite energy drink among many gamers, computer programmers, and hackers, and is popular at LAN parties. In fact, Jolt Cola was even featured in Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park, in a scene which shows computer programmer Dennis Nedry's work station covered with Jolt Cola cans & bottles. It was also shown in several scenes in the film Hackers; in one scene, infamous hacker media-icons Razor and Blade refer to it as, "Jolt Cola: The soft drink of the elite hacker." Jolt Cola made a cameo in the movies Deep Impact and Gremlins 2 The New Batch. It is also mentioned in Wayne's World 2, when Garth attributes a hallucination to his excessive intake of the drink.

Jolt Cola worldwide
Jolt Cola is also manufactured under license in Germany, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Sweden and formerly (and briefly) in the United Kingdom, where it was a budget cola. The German and Swedish supplier uses the old logos, branding and formulation, and only sells the original flavor. Jolt Cola is also available in the Netherlands and Finland. However, Jolt Cola Netherlands is a subsidiary of Jolt Cola Germany. Jolt Cola is sold in 500 ml bottles in most Eurospar's and Dunne's Stores.

In Australia ("bottled under the authority of the Jolt Company Inc. by Jolt Corporation Australia Pty Ltd, 1 Barrpowell Rd Welland" South Australia) Jolt is sold in the traditional cola flavor, as well as black cherry, root beer, cream soda, and orange flavors. It generally comes in 615 mL bottles, with 196mg of caffeine. In 2006 bottle capacities were reduced to 600mL (in some cases, without vendors being aware of the change). With a caffeine concentration of 32mg per 100mL, these bottles contain a claimed 192mg.