Moxie is the uniquely New England soft drink, former nostrum and “nerve food”. Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine, first marketed Moxie as a patent medicine in 1876 in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was guaranteed to cure multiple ills, including “loss of manhood, paralysis and softening of the brain”. As a nostrum, it was dispensed a spoonful at a time.

Dr. Thompson changed Moxie to take advantage of the new and growing soft drink market at the time. He put it on the soft drink market in 1884 as “Beverage Moxie Nerve Food”. Later it became known simply as “Moxie”. It has a core of dedicated fans in Maine.

 

Moxie synonymous with good times and the “vigorous” life that drinking the product was supposed to sustain. Moxie was the nation’s first mass-marketed soft drink.