Jolt Cola

by Jolt

1985 – 2009 RARE REVIVALS

A three-time zombie. The original all-sugar cola died in the 2009 bankruptcy; brief Dollar General (2017) and Redcon1 (2025) relaunches keep the name alive, but today's Jolt is a reformulated zero-sugar energy drink, not the sticky-sweet original.

The unapologetic 1980s soda whose entire pitch was 'all the sugar and twice the caffeine' — official fuel of all-nighters, arcades, and questionable decisions. It went bankrupt in 2009 over a disastrous can order, then spent the next decade dying and rising on a loop.

🧾 One more thingJolt's 2009 collapse came from a contract that forced it to pay for 90 million custom cans it couldn't hope to sell. It flickered back in 2017 as a Dollar General exclusive, vanished again by 2019, and in 2025 supplement maker Redcon1 revived the name — this time as a zero-sugar energy drink with four times the caffeine of a Coke, the exact opposite of the sugar bomb that made it famous.

Filed under: Drinks & Sodas · the ’80s

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