V8 (beverage)
V8® Vegetable Juice is a
trademark name for a beverage made from the juices from either eight
vegetables or a mixture of both fruit and vegetables. The brand is owned by the
Campbell Soup Company.
The original
V8 Vegetable Juice is made mainly from
tomatoes and the juices from seven
vegetables, specifically:
beets,
celery,
carrots,
lettuce,
parsley,
watercress, and
spinach. Tomato juice dominates the
formula. The brand is owned by the
Campbell Soup Company.Campbell's makes several varieties of the drink, such as Original, Spicy, Lemon and Low-Sodium (for those monitoring their
salt intake).
The brand is the ancestor of the "
V8 Splash" brand, which features drinks made from a blend of
fruit and vegetable (specifically carrot) juices (high fructose corn syrup and fruit being dominant) instead of just vegetables.
History
V8 Vegetable Juice was invented by W.G. Peacock, the founder of the New England Products Company, which manufactured individual vegetable juices under the brand name Vege-min. Having had only mediocre success in selling them, in
1933 Peacock began blending the Vege-min juices into one and selling this new concoction as "Vege-min 8." A grocer in
Evanston, Illinois recommended that he shorten the name to simply "V-8."
The new V-8 was a success, and in
1948 the
Campbell Soup Company acquired the brand. It has been in continuous production since.
Cocktail
A few
cocktail drinks use V8, most famously the "bloody eight" or "eight ball", which is a
Bloody Mary with V8 instead of tomato juice.
Campbell's, in the UK also make V8 100% Fruit & Vegetable Juice, combining vegetable juice with fruit juices. This is now available elsewhere as V8 Fusion.
This brand extension may only include one vegetable in the mix, for example the
Orange and
Mango variety only contains carrot in addition to the main two flavours stated on the carton and 5 other fruits.
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V8 Beverages site
