Disgusting drings that kids just love

Avery’s Beverages in New Britain, Conn., has bottled some disgusting new soda.

And they admit it.

In fact, that’s the whole point of the three new flavors – Swamp Juice, Toxic Slime and Dog Drool. As the labels say, they are “Sodasgusting.”

Avery’s – which has been bottling pop for the past 101 years from its red-hued barn along Corbin Avenue in the west end of New Britain – launched the gross flavors in July to rave reviews from its target audience: 10-year-old children.

Truth be told, it was the little tykes who invented the new brew.

At the end of the tour of the old-fashioned soda factory, kids get the chance to use six more traditional soda flavors – strawberry, lemon, pineapple, orange, blue raspberry and kiwi – to create their own carbonated concoctions.

When one small visitor mixed all six flavors together, it produced an inky-green drink that an adult in the group suggested should be called Swamp Juice.

“The name stuck, and people kept telling us that we should market the drink,” said Rob Metz, manager of the soda factory. “But we knew if we were going to do that we needed more than one flavor.”

So Avery’s once again turned to the youngsters from the school groups, Scouts and birthday parties who visit the factory to come up with more revolting names for the disgusting soda line.

“Nine- and 10-year-olds go to bathroom humor pretty quick, so 90 percent of the names we couldn’t use because they dealt with some kind of poo,” Metz said.

But it wasn’t long before the factory was rolling out Dog Drool, a whitish pink-hued drink made from orange and lemon, and Toxic Slime, a light blue soda made by combining blue raspberry and lemon.

The company has sold more than 400 cases since July, and is on its second order of 2,500 bottles, boosting overall sales at the factory by about 4 percent.

The drinks, which sell for $5 for a six-pack, were highly sought after in October for frightful Halloween parties.

“It’s certainly helped our bottom line,” Metz said. “And it’s brought a lot of new customers to us that hadn’t found us otherwise.”

Bringing in new customers is just one way that a small business such as Avery’s survives among soda giants such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, said Priscilla Cale, director of the Family Business Program at the University of Connecticut School of Business.

Staying true to the original product is also important, she said.

“Even when you change a very small ingredient, people will notice,” Cale said, noting Avery’s decision to use glass bottles, which some customers swear help improve the taste of sodas.

“But they are also selling a product that does bring up nostalgia,” she said.

“People will say, ‘I remember drinking this as a kid,’ and you remember how it tasted and you want to capture that again.”

The company says the audience for the drinks are 9-year-olds to 15-year-olds “who love to gross out the parents.”

But they’ve also been surprised by the number of adults who have come back for seconds.

“One of the first questions is, `What do they really taste like?’ ” Metz said.

Two years ago at Thanksgiving, Jones Soda in Seattle launched its turkey-and-gravy soda — it tasted like slightly sweet, watered-down turkey gravy. Now that was really disgusting.

“So the bottom line was we had to make ours taste good,” Metz said.

The company does not expect the new disgusting drinks to outsell longtime favorites, such as red cream soda or birch beer, the two most popular flavors.

But they do see room for growth by adding new gross-out flavors.

There’s only been one problem: offended cat lovers.

“Dog fans love the dog drool,” Metz said. “We got a letter from a lady who was serious when she said because we have something for the dog people we need one for the cat people.

“She suggested Kitty Piddle.

“We’ve had lots of suggestions for future names, so this could be lots of fun.”