So Which Came First?

[bottlebugs]

My KiK caps came in the mail today. I was thrilled.They were a perfect match to my America Dry bottle from the 1930s. Noticed something odd. Seeing as they were maybe from 1933 or 1934 , they had an address of the bottler and not the company name on the skirt. Later versions show the bottler's name only. This seems to be consistent with other sodas from Montreal.

Nevertheless they are the oldest KiK caps that I have ever seen!

Another company called HIT was located just down the street. They made citrus flavoured drinks with a HIT! I noticed another strange parallel. The KIK caps from that era had both orange/black fonts like Orange-Crush, and red/tan fonts like Coca-Cola. These older KiK caps only came in red/tan, and had scripted twirly ends like Coca-Cola. KIK caps were orange, citrus and cola coloured. So were the ones from HIT, sort of.

What? NO COLA?

The HIT BOTTLING COMPANY seemed to refuse to add caramel or cola to their beverages, and as such, disappeared from the market for a few years. Was Coca-Cola somehow involved? In the early 1940s, a new product, supplied by Coca-Cola in Toronto surfaces by the name of HIT COLA. It uses the same baseball player theme. It was a budget belly wash cola just like KIK.

Coincidentally, when Orange-Freeze of Montreal releases its HIT beverage, Kik drops its archaic script and adopts the bold block letters just like HIT. Both began as citrus beverages, probably with a HIT/KIK of caffeine. As the 1940s plod on, both HIT and KIK drop the price tag and come up with a more generic cap. KIK however, continues to make a large bottled, budget flavoured line.

I think I might know what happened.

 

[bottlebugs]

In the beginning, there was only Coke. In Brunswick, GA a bottler was producing
a larger, budget brand soda to align with its Coca-Cola products. It was called Big Hit.

Big Hit was marketed all across the US and sometimes contained a caffeinated citrus pop. Caffeinated citrus pops were not allowed in Canada. A large, albeit more generic bottle was
adopted in the 1920s. It was still bigger than a Coke and called BIG HIT, this time in block
letters.

Now doesn't that bottle look familiar. It should. The parent company of KIK began its bottling as AMERICA DRY, an extension of the NYC company of the same name. This NYC based company also bottled many different flavours, including a cola, orange and a ginger ale. Their bottles were complete copycats.

When KIK was introduced beyond its growing Quebec market, they updated their look. So did
HIT. Who came first?