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Yoo-Hoo dates back to the 1920s, when Mr. Natale Olivieri sold Tru-Fruit soft drinks in his small store. Mr. Olivieri thought he could produce a chocolate soft drink and make profits. He liked to produce soft drinks that were all natural, without any types of additives.
Mr. Olivieri was at his home's kitchen with his wife, who was preparing her home-made tomato sauce one day when Mr. Olivieri thought he could preserve chocolate beverages by using the same method his wife used to make the sauce. He asked his wife to use the process on six of the chocolate drinks he had prepared. Three of the drinks got spoiled, and Mr. Olivieri thought agitation would also be needed to produce an all natural chocolate drink. Because of that, he bought a rotating pressure retort . Soon after, his first group of chocolate drinks was sold.
The name Yoo-Hoo was already being used for Mr. Olivieri's other fruit drinks, so naturally, he applied Yoo-Hoo to his chocolate flavored drink too.
(Sources in the beverage industry claim that Yoo-Hoo owns its famously open-ended shelf life to a steam sterilization process that takes place after the bottles are filled and capped, but before the labels are applied. As long as it's sealed, Yoo-Hoo cannot go sour.)
Yoo-Hoo would soon begin to be bottled by an important bottling company and to be sold at supermarket stands.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Yoo-Hoo went through a very large promotional campaign that included Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees officially sponsoring the drink. The image of Berra drinking a bottle of Yoo-Hoo while wearing a suit, in particular, became famous.
Also during the '50s, B.B.C. Industries took over Yoo-Hoo. They held ownership until 1976, when it was bought by Iroquois Brands , which, in turn, sold Yoo-Hoo in 1981 to a group of private investors.
In 2002, Yoo-Hoo was sold to Cadbury Schweppes.
The soft drink company's headquarters are in Carlstadt, New JerseyCarlstadt is a borough located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2000 census, the borough had a total population of 5,917. Geography Carlstadt is located at 40°50'11" North, 74°4'52" West (40. 836473, -74. According to the United States Census Burea, with plants in Hialeah, FloridaHialeah is a city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 226,419. It produces Orangina. Geography Hialeah is located at 25°51'38" North, 80°17'38" West (25. 860474, -80. According to and Opelousas, LouisianaOpelousas is a city located in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 22,860. Opelousas is a center of Zydeco music. History The name of the city comes from the Opelousas tribe of Native Americans. There wa.