The Return of an Old Favorite

History is littered with the corpses of products that are no longer made.

Some of them have been rescued from the chopping block at the eleventh hour (Hostess/Twinkies), while others have been resurrected from the ashes. This is one of those stories.

The tale begins in May 2015. Bridget was scrolling through Facebook, as she too often does ... and came across a post that sent her clicking through to IndieGoGo -- which, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a crowdfunding site.

A favorite from -- well, not childhood, exactly, but young adulthood for sure -- was coming back -- if it got enough support.

The thought of an ice-cold bottle of Wild Cherry Clearly Canadian was enough for her to pull the trigger.

She ordered a single case (12 bottles). For $30, she was in. It was May 27, 2015.

But that was just the beginning. Not long after she ordered, FoodandWine.com published an article about the old favorite's return:
Clearly Canadian Is Back in Production, Set to Arrive By August

But clearly, it wasn't that easy.

As detailed on the Clearly Canadian Facebook page, problems ranged from their original bottler shutting down to the final issue -- a delay in receiving the shipping boxes. Angry crowdfunders whined, complained, made threats, and cajoled. Early on, a single Facebook admin deftly responded to the replies. Later, Bridget read that a team of volunteers had taken on the task. Still, it was a difficult task -- appeasing customers who had waited years -- in almost all cases -- for the product they had ordered (actually, to be fair, on a campaign they had funded…they knew it wasn't like ordering a case from Amazon).

It's in such demand, in fact, that a single case of Wild Cherry Clearly Canadian was -- as of this writing -- available on eBay for $200. That's crazy. But that's how desperate some people are to get their hands on this clear elixir. (To be fair, that case hasn't sold yet. But that's what they're selling it for!)

All was forgiven late Tuesday afternoon when the UPS truck pulled up in front of our door.

This is what the box looked like:

It included these clever hashtags:

... which Bridget couldn't wait to tweet about:

I've been waiting 18 months for this! #soworthit #ClearlyCanadian #ClearlyInMyHands pic.twitter.com/rOT8eM376X

— Bridget Weide Brooks (@bridgetabrooks) December 6, 2016

I then proceeded to unbox it:

And then we took photos of the bottles before trying it. Wild Cherry had always been her favorite flavor. Clearly Canadian will be produced in five flavors: Wild Cherry, Mountain Blackberry, Country Raspberry, Orchard Peach, and sparkling water.

Love the logo!

The distinctive glass bottles were back!
The manufacturers said they could have chosen plastic bottles,
but that wouldn't have been authentic to the brand. 

Bridget said it was as good as she remembered. I'm writing this on Day 3 after receiving it, and we still haven't finished the remains of the first bottle. We're savoring it.

Because Clearly Canadian isn't back in stores yet.

That's their next step. They are asking supporters to give this flier (below) to local grocery stores and big box retailers. National distribution is the plans.

But it might be a little while before the distinctive glass bottles make their way to your local Wal-Mart or Hy-Vee store. After all, it took just about 18 months to fulfill our IndieGoGo order. Bridget hopes they'll have it in Omaha by the time the pool opens next summer. Because there's nothing that says "young adulthood + summer" like Clearly Canadian.

Enjoy this early 1990s Clearly Canadian commercial. The YouTube caption says it was one of the first full CGI commercials that ran on television.

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