7UP: The mood-lifting beverage that was born during the Great Depression of America 

What was your go-to soft drink while growing up? Some would say Coca Cola, others would go for either Pepsi or Thumbs Up, not to forget Sprite and Limca. Wait, are we missing anything? Oh yes, 7UP! This non-caffeinated, lime-flavoured, colourless cold beverage that was born in the USA, is now a global favourite among people of all ages. After all, it’s fruity, refreshing and an instant mood-lifter. Wait, mood lifter? How’s that possible? Let’s dig into the journey of 7UP to find that answer.  

7UP: The brainchild of Charles Leiper Grigg 
The name Charles Leiper Grigg is almost inseparable from 7UP, not just because he was the one who invented the drink, but it was his life and career that led to this creation. Turns out, this Missouri-bred boy was introduced to the carbonated beverage business very early on in his life as he lived in a small town of St. Louis where several soft drinks had their warehouses.  

So, it was no surprise when Grigg joined a local soft drink manufacturing company named Vess Jones as a sales and advertising representative, right after his graduation. In fact, within just a few months, Grigg both invented and marketed his first soft drink for the firm. It was an orange flavoured drink by the name Whistle. But when the company failed to give Grigg his due credit, he moved on to their rival Warner Jenkinson Company and started specialising in flavouring agents for soft drinks. Here, he invented a double orange flavoured soft drink and called it ‘Howdy.’ In fact, learning from his prior mistake, he made sure to patent its rights to himself. But, as expected, this didn’t sit well with the management and he was laid off, along with his friend and colleague (in finance) Edmund G. Ridgway who helped him through the process.  

Together the duo moved on and founded the Howdy Company, named after the drink. Once settled, Grigg wanted to do something out of the box. He had already developed two orange flavoured drinks. So, it was time for him to focus on other flavours. Long story short, after spending a decade in the soft drink industry and learning the secrets of the trade, in 1929, Grigg shifted his emphasis to lemon-lime flavoured drinks. And the rest, as they say, is history. By the end of that year, Grigg had successfully launched a brand-new drink called “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas.” Realising that the name was too technical for the public to remember, he altered it to 7UP Lithiated Lemon Soda. But that didn’t stick either. So, in 1936, he permanently renamed it to just plain but catchy 7UP. Guess we all know how that turned up, isn’t it? 

Lithium, the mood booster and the name 7UP: What’s the connect? 
Remember we had said that 7UP was an instant mood-lifter? Well, it’s because it contains a lithium composition called lithium citrate that has been used throughout the history of medicines to treat manic-depressions and improve mood. In fact, people in the USA believed so much in the psychological healing power of lithium that they used to visit lithium-containing springs such as Lithia Springs in Georgia or Ashland in Oregon. Now, guess what? Grigg, the inventor of 7UP was well aware of lithium’s fame, which is why he included the original formula into his soft drink. His intention was simple yet noble: Not only to make a cold beverage that would be limey and tasty, but also stabilise moods of people, especially office goers, in the middle of the day, and keep them charged up till the end of working hours. What worked wonders was that the soft drink debuted at a time when America was suffering from Great Depression (crash of the stock market in Wall Street). 

As for the name 7UP, the first half was derived from the atomic number of lithium which is seven or the seven main ingredients of the drink, while the up refers to “cheering up in times of crisis.” Interestingly, today’s 7UP no longer contains the mood-lifting chemical composition as it was banned globally to use in beverages.  

Over the years, 7UP changed a lot of hands when it comes to ownership. Currently, both the formula and the brand are owned by American beverage firm Keurig Dr Pepper, although it is internationally distributed by PepsiCo.