Happy Birthday, Faygo: 5 Things to Know About Detroit's Iconic Pop

DETROIT, MI — Detroit’s first beverage is getting long in the tooth. Faygo pop, which Detroiters will defend to the death as the elixir of life, turned 109 Friday.

It’s a Detroit thing. If you’re an out-of-towner, just go along with it. And if you absolutely can’t fathom drinking a Faygo, whether the famous Creme Soda or flagship flavors Rock & Rye or Redpop, pepper your conversation with phrases like “diabetic coma” and roll your eyes like you could go down at any minute.

The reason we know Faygo is a Detroit thing is that taste testers from California (mhmm, the state where lots of people won’t eat anything with a face and want to legislate bovine flatulence — yes, this is a real thing, too) were harsh in their criticism of Faygo.

“It tastes like someone took a couple of Jelly Bellys, left them in cream soda for a science experiment, died and then we tasted it 10 years later, something like that,” one of the taste testers, someone named Maggie, said on a Movoto real estate video.

• See Also: Watch Californians’ Hilarious Reaction to Eating Michigan Foods

But what do Maggie and the other Faygo-haters know? Detroiters are unapologetically pro-Faygo, which comes in about 50 flavors. We could tell you 109 things to love about Faygo, one for each year it has been quenching the thirsts of Detroiters, but, let’s face it, you’re going to click out of the story before you get to No. 11.

So, briefly, here are 5 things you need to know if you want people to think you’re all about “the Faygo”:

1. That won’t fit on the bottle: Feigenson (pronounced Fay-gin-sin) was the surname of the two Russian immigrant brothers, Ben and Perry, who founded the company on Nov. 4, 1907. Their last name — let alone their company name, Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works — was too long to fit on a bottle, so they shortened it to Faygo.

2. How pop popped into pop culture: This is basic onomatopoeia (bonus points if you know what that is). Faygo was the first to use a twist-off cap, and when the carbonated beverage was opened, it made a “pop” sound. The Feigenson brothers claim rights to coining the term pop, which, depending on where you live, is what you call carbonated beverages.

3. Thanks for the earworm: The Faygo Kid commercial is in the Advertising Hall of Fame, and the music prompted in the Boblo Boat commercial was put on a single in the 1970s.

4. Faygo showers are a real a thing: Ever since Insane Clown Posse — which, no matter how you present it, cannot be compared to the Faygo Kid — threw a Faygo bottle into a crowd of hecklers, the Metro Detroit rap duo now stock up on Faygo, shake the liter bottles all about like they’re some doing some punked up version of “The Hokey Pokey,” and then spray the Juggalos, who love it so much. It’s a generational thing. We’re not judging.

5. Thanks, science: Back in the day, you could only get Faygo pop in Detroit and Michigan because of its short shelf life. But then trained chemists got involved and now Faygo will last and last and last and is available in 49 states and parts of Canada. We don’t know what state has been a slacker about getting on the Faygo bandwagon, and we’re not saying definitively that it was taste-tester Maggie’s home state. But what the heck. Let’s watch that hilarious video of West Coasters taste-testing Faygo and some of Michigan’s favorite foods one more time.

Photo by Angie Linder via Flickr Commons