Philadelphia Coke has started distributing the Fuze line. It's popping up everywhere now. I could only find it in 7-11 prior to this.

But I can't help but wonder.. is this a sign of things to come? Will Coke buy Fuze out, and then run it into the ground like they did with Mad River?

I've had 6 or so flavors of Fuze. So far I haven't been disappointed.

well, seeing as how fuze is another product that could compete with sobe, i dont think coke would hesitate to do the same as they did with mad river. what a shame. i liked mad river.

coke and pepsi gobbledygook. drink fukola

fuze white tea is very excellent, tastes like sobes zen blend with a different tea base. both are orange/ginger and scrumptious

Since the FUZE guys are mostly ex-SoBe folks my bet is that they are building it to sell.

I say forego it altogether and get "Circuit Breaker" or I suppose they would purposely misspell it "Sirkit Brayker" or something like that. Build it up to sell... just like cheap condos; I knew I didn't ever get interested in that drink line for a reason!

Yeah, I liked Mad River too. I think Marc Johnson wasn't really "building it to sell it" but when Coke came along and offered him so much money I suppose he figured the stress and cutthroat activity in this industry had made the deal look sweet. Of course all the distributors got screwed but what else is new?

Yep, sometimes the pile o' money looks a whole lot better than the opportunity.

Well, it took 2.5 years, but it finally happened.

NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co. plans to buy Fuze Beverages LLC, maker of several brands of juices and flavored teas, Coca-Cola said on Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Fuze is really good stuff and my hope is that Coke doesn't misshandle it Mad River style. As far as being the anti-SoBe; well SoBe is a great brand but Pepsi has done nothing with it. Sales are no longer growing at the massive rate pre-Pepsi and all this despite the increased retail presence. I think if they really made it a spotlight brand they could see huge volume gains but I think with Fuze getting picked up their chances of taking the market fully are dwindling. Only time will tell though since we all know Coke is great at messing up a good thing.

I'm trying to remember what happened with Mad River. I remember we had a fruit drink called Zo in HerbCo Coca-Cola. Then Mad River came along and replaced that for awhile. But then what replaced Mad River? Was it additional flavors of Fruitopia? And then we got several new flavors of Minute Maid 20 oz. somewhere in that timeframe. And now some of those Minute Maids (Tropical Citrus, Strawberry Passion, etc.) have been discontinued in our area. This is all kind of running together in my mind. Anyway, Fuze seems to be a better quality drink than Mad River was so hope Coke makes a go of it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Fuze has a MUCH bigger sales base (both retail and consumer) than Mad River.

People seem to think that Coke is a giant, stupid behemoth that likes to kill small companies for the fun of it.

Well, the FTC has OKed the buyout. I suspect we'll see Fuze on CCE trucks very soon.