RC Cola: The South's Other Cola

There were three colas in the American South for most of the twentieth century, and the third one has a better story than the other two.

RC Cola started because a grocer got into an argument with a salesman. That is not a marketing legend — it is what happened.

Columbus, Georgia, 1905

Claud A. Hatcher ran a wholesale grocery business in Columbus, Georgia. His company bought Coca-Cola syrup in volume, and at some point Hatcher decided he was being overcharged. The story, as it has been told for a century, is that a Coca-Cola salesman refused to give him a better price and Hatcher decided to make his own.

He started in the basement of the family grocery with a line called Royal Crown ginger ale. The cola came later. By 1934 the company had reformulated and launched Royal Crown Cola — RC — and by then Hatcher had built a genuine regional competitor out of a pricing dispute.

The company became Nehi Corporation, named for its fruit-flavored line, and later Royal Crown Company. But in the South it was always just RC.

RC and a MoonPie

This is the part that made RC a cultural object rather than a beverage.

The MoonPie — graham crackers, marshmallow, chocolate coating — was made by Chattanooga Bakery starting in 1917. Sometime in the following decades, Southern working men figured out that a MoonPie and an RC Cola together made a substantial lunch for very little money.

RC came in a larger bottle than Coke for the same nickel. The MoonPie was another nickel. Ten cents bought you sugar, calories, and enough caffeine to finish a shift. Mill workers, farm hands, and truck drivers across the South ate this combination for decades.

It got a name, "the working man's lunch," and eventually a 1951 country song by Big Bill Lister called "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moon Pie." Bell Buckle, Tennessee, has held an RC Cola and MoonPie Festival every June since 1994.

That is a remarkable amount of cultural weight for two products that were popular mainly because they were cheap.

The innovations nobody credits them for

RC did several things first, and got remembered for none of them.

Diet Rite, 1958 — the first mainstream diet cola in the United States, five years ahead of Tab and seven ahead of Diet Pepsi. By the mid-1960s it was among the best-selling soft drinks in the country.

The first aluminum can, 1964. RC put cola in an all-aluminum can before Coke or Pepsi did.

The first canned diet cola, also 1964.

Three genuine firsts in the industry, and the two larger companies got the market. There is a business school lesson in there about distribution mattering more than innovation.

Why it tastes different

RC is generally described as sweeter than Coke, with more vanilla and a softer, less sharp finish. Coke has more bite; Pepsi is sweeter than Coke but sharper than RC.

People who prefer RC usually cite that rounder, more vanilla-forward profile. It is also the cola most associated with being served very cold in a glass bottle, which is not nothing — temperature and glass genuinely change how a soda tastes.

Why it is all over our walls

The Garage is a 1970s-themed garage and diner in downtown Ocean Springs, in a building that used to be Kwitzky's. Roll-up doors, Golden Tee in the corner, a Smokey and the Bandit mural, and vintage signage throughout — including RC.

The signage is period-correct for what we are building. A garage in the rural South in 1975 had an RC sign on it, not a Coke sign, because RC was the cola of small-town filling stations and country stores. Coke belonged to soda fountains and drugstores. RC belonged to places with a gravel lot.

We also make a cola-based barbecue sauce, which is a genuinely Southern technique — the sugars caramelize, the acid tenderizes, and the vanilla notes work with smoke and pork. Ours is CA Cola BBQ Sauce, and it is in the sauce collection.

Where RC is now

Royal Crown went through decades of corporate ownership changes and ended up under Keurig Dr Pepper in the United States. Distribution has thinned considerably — in much of the country RC is hard to find, though it remains available across the South and is genuinely popular internationally, particularly in parts of Europe and Asia.

If you find it in glass, buy it in glass.

The same Southern-diner thinking runs through the rest of the menu — comeback sauce, the fried bologna sandwich, and everything that comes out of a beef tallow fryer.

Common questions

Who invented RC Cola?
Claud A. Hatcher, a grocer in Columbus, Georgia, who began making his own soft drinks in 1905 after a pricing dispute with a Coca-Cola salesman. Royal Crown Cola specifically launched in 1934.

What does RC Cola taste like compared to Coke?
Sweeter and more vanilla-forward, with a softer, less sharp finish than Coca-Cola.

Why is RC Cola associated with MoonPies?
Both cost a nickel and RC came in a larger bottle, so a MoonPie and an RC made a filling lunch for a dime. The combination became known as the working man's lunch across the South and is still celebrated at an annual festival in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.

Was RC Cola first with anything?
Yes, several things. Diet Rite in 1958 was the first mainstream American diet cola, and in 1964 RC was first to put cola in an all-aluminum can and first to can a diet cola.

Is RC Cola still made?
Yes. It is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper in the United States, with much thinner distribution than Coke or Pepsi but continued availability across the South and internationally.