Investing.com -- Nearly one year after Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) re-released the popular soft drink Surge onto the online marketplace, the Mountain Dew knockoff returned to shelves on Tuesday on a limited basis throughout the United States.
In 1996, Coke launched production of Surge as a mechanism for providing strong competition for Pepsi's Moutain Dew beverage. By the early 2000s, however, Surge sales began to wane in spite of robust earnings in the late 1990s. As a result, the company ended production of the citrus soda in 2003. For a period of more than 10 years, it was difficult to find the beverage in anywhere but Norway – where it originally entered the market as Urge years before.
But in 2011 a movement to revive the citrus beverage began thanks to a web developer who started a "Save Surge," campaign online. Within several months, the movement gained steam after receiving 200,000 likes on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). Last September, the product became available on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) in packs of twelve 16 oz. cans. The online marketplace reportedly charged up to $14 for the 12-packs of Surge.
The beverage will be available in close to two dozen states throughout the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast regions of the country. In addition, Surge will be available at select independent re-sellers in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Texas.
Last month, a member of the Surge movement posted a shipment of hundreds of cans of Surge at a warehouse in Akron, Ohio. Once the release is complete, Surge will be available for sale in more than one-third of U.S. states around the country.
Shares in Coca-Cola gained 0.37 or 0.96% to 38.89.