Who’s Old Enough to Remember Nehi Soda? 🥤🍑🍇

The Birth of Nehi: A Bold Idea in 1924

The story of Nehi begins in Columbus, Georgia. It was 1924, and the Chero-Cola company (which later became Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola) decided it was time to create something different.

While Coca-Cola had cornered the cola market, there was still room for innovation. People wanted flavors beyond just cola. So, the company launched Nehi — a line of brightly colored fruit sodas.

The name “Nehi” (pronounced knee-high) was a cheeky play on words, suggesting the tall bottles the soda came in. And it worked. People loved the novelty of grape, orange, and peach sodas — flavors that were unique and exciting at the time.

A Rainbow of Flavors

What made Nehi special wasn’t just the taste — it was the variety.

By the 1930s and 40s, Nehi offered more flavors than almost any other soda company. Some of the most iconic were:

🍇 Grape Nehi – sweet, fizzy, and unforgettable
🍑 Peach Nehi – a Southern favorite, bursting with fruity flavor
🍊 Orange Nehi – bright, bold, and refreshing
🍓 Strawberry Nehi – a rare treat that felt like summer in a bottle

Each flavor came in glass bottles with bold labels that stood out in any store cooler. For kids, spotting a bottle of Nehi was like spotting treasure.

Nehi in Pop Culture

Nehi wasn’t just a drink — it made its way into American pop culture.

In the hit TV show MAS*H, Radar O’Reilly (the lovable company clerk) was often seen sipping a Grape Nehi instead of a beer. It became his signature.
Old radio and magazine ads for Nehi promised “The Drink of the Nation” — making it feel like more than a soda, but a part of American life.
In the South, Nehi became almost legendary, especially peach flavor, which you’d still find in diners and country stores decades later.

Ask anyone from Georgia, Alabama, or Mississippi who grew up in the 40s or 50s, and chances are they’ll tell you about gulping down an ice-cold Nehi on a hot summer day.

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