The A-Treat Bottling Company is a beverage company, with headquarters in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania in the United States, that manufactures and bottles the regionally-popular A-Treat brand of carbonated soft drinks.

[edit] History

A-Treat was formally established in 1918 by Joseph C. and John L. ("Jack") Egizio.^[2] Their father, Gioacchino Egizio, started a beverage business in the family home in the 600 block of Front Street in Allentown, and later built a small manufacturing facility behind the home.^[3] Their mother, Vincenza Munjone, also came from a family involved in the beverage business in Allentown. In 1932, the Egizio brothers moved the business to Union Boulevard in East Allentown,^[2] where it remains to this day. Joseph C. Egizio served as the board chairman of A-Treat Bottling Co. until retiring in 1989. He died in 2000, at the age of 96.^[4] John L. Egizio, who had started working at the company at the age of 13 delivering sodas on his bicycle, served as vice president and co-owner until his death in 1990.^[3]

In 1991, the company was the subject of regional news coverage when a smear campaign was launched against A-Treat as it tried to sell its sodas in New York City. The campaign, which targeted African Americans, claimed that certain brands of carbonated beverages - including those produced by A-Treat - were actually manufactured by the Ku Klux Klan and contained stimulants that would "sterilize the black man."^[5] Investigations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and New York City's Department of Health found the claims to be unsubstantiated and untrue.^[5]

[edit] Products

The company formerly distinguished itself by producing sodas in the traditional manner (e.g., using essential oils and cane sugar, rather than extracts and high fructose corn syrup). Today, the company uses both cane sugar syrup and high fructose corn syrup. A-Treat produces soft drinks in at least sixteen different flavors, including Big Blue (Blue Raspberry), Birch Beer, Black Cherry, Champagne Kola, Cola, Cream soda, Fruit Punch, two kinds of Ginger Ale (Pale Dry and Golden, formerly Peppery Golden), Grape, Grapefruit, White Birch Beer, Pineapple, Sarsaparilla, two kinds of Orange (regular and Orange Dry), Lime (formerly Tom Collins Mixer), Tonic Water (formerly Quinine Water), Treat-up, and Root Beer. Most, if not all, of these flavors are also produced in a diet formulation.^[6] A-Treat Birch Beer and Sarsaparilla are rated highly by connoisseurs of these types of beverages.^[7]

[edit] Distribution

A-Treat beverages have limited distribution throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and as far away as Bermuda but only large-scale distributors tend to carry the less ordinary flavors.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• A-Treat website