Page 37 - Winter 2021

Oconee resident Mark Parsons discovered historic soda bottles while cleaning a house in Bishop.
Grapette was licensed to be packaged at this Seven-Up facility. The bottling site sat roughly where the Oconee County Chamber of Commerce now sits.
In addition to the grape-flavored soda, the Watkinsville company bottled Sunburst and Mr. Cola sodas.
Sunburst was a Grapette line of several soda flavors released after World War II. Mr. Cola came out in 1962.
The bottle of Mr. Cola said, “Pepsi too sweet. Coke too extreme” and then the words “just right” describing the soda itself, Parsons said.
“The reason that the Mr. Colas and Mo’ Cola sodas were so popular was the 16-ounce bottles,” he said. “Everybody else was using six and 10-ounce bottles.”
While the Mo’ For Less bottle was not specifically linked to Grapette, it was packaged at the same Watkinsville facility. Perhaps, it was a drink unique to Northeast Georgia.
The Watkinsville bottling plant closed in the late 1960s.
The Grapette Company was sold in 1970 and continued to switch hands until the early 2000s when Sam’s Choice Grapette and Orangette both became available exclusively in Walmart.
While many of Grapette’s previous flavors and facilities may not have endured, the soda itself has.
The glass soda bottles serve as a reminder that history is in the palm of our hands, or perhaps our fridges.
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WINTER 2021 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | PAGE 35