How Did That Happen?

This week I look at Arizona Iced Tea and try to find out its true origins. Hint: its not Arizona. Come along for the ride this week as I ask ,Arizona Iced Tea, how did that happen? Arizona Iced Tea was created by two men named Don Vultaggio and John Ferolito in 1992. The company is based out of New York. They were in the beer business before that doing both distribution and brewing. They made malt liquor with names like Crazy Horse and Midnight dragon. They would end up being sued for Crazy Horse by the Sioux Nation in litigation that lasted atleast 10 years.  But vultaggio had the idea for Arizona the year before when he was at a store in Manhattan unloading his beer and he saw a Snapple truck unloading its cargo as well. He said that if they were selling iced tea in the winter time then it must be worth getting in that market.  The idea of it coming in a can also comes from their beer days, kind of. When looking for the vessel that would hold their tea they tried the same variety as Snapple but figured that consumers would see no reason to switch to his tea over Snapple if they were already Snapple customers.  Then he noticed that gatorade was being sold in 24 ounce tallboy cans at the time and that schlitz malt liquor used them as well. they decided to sell them for the same price as Snapple at the time which was 99 cents, but you would get 24oz instead of 16oz. They decided on the name Arizona because it conjured an image of dry air and healthy living. The different colors on the can were mainly to stand out on the shelves. The logo was designed by his wife. The logo was said to resemble a water cooler the couple had in their house which had a southwest motif.  The southwest motif would almost lead to trouble in later years because much of the public believed that the company was based in Arizona. I must admit I don’t know if I thought they were in Arizona, but at-least somewhere on the west coast. I mean it’s like a company in California calling them selves New York. The first Arizona teas were lemon tea and raspberry tea. They were a hit and Arizona continued to grow and add flavors throughout the 90’s including their green tea which is the best seller according to vultaggio.  In 2002 the famous Arnold Palmer came out. By the 2000’s they were selling more tea than Snapple. Today Arizona sells more than 1 million cans of Arnold Palmers in a single day. To keep the price at 99 cents the owner says that he has had to thin the cans by 50%. they even say he has stock in some aluminum producing companies. And to keep shipping costs down he makes his drivers drive at night when there is less traffic. The two owners had a big feud that ended in 2015 with Ferolito being paid for his half of the business and leaving. The amount was confidential but said to be in the neighborhood of $1 billion. There is more to this story, but its just a lot of drama; at one point Ferolito even tried to dissolve the entire business. We almost lived in a world with Arizona iced tea. I shutter to think.  Its out there though if you’re interested. They mention things like armed men coming to the office for intimidation and other odd things you wouldn’t expect from people who sell green tea. Arizona is sold in all of North America as well as some parts of Latin America like Columbia. They are in European markets like Sweden and Norway in addition to the UK.