Surge is a citrus flavored soft drink made by the new products team. It was released in late 1996, and then later discontinued in 2003. On September 15th, 2014, SURGE was re-released again due to very high demand.
History
Surge was first produced to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew during the 1990s. Surge was advertised as having a more "hardcore" edge, much like Mountain Dew's advertising at this time, in an attempt to further take customers away from Pepsi. It was originally launched in Norway as Urge, and was so popular that it was later released in America as Surge.
Lagging sales caused production to be ended in 2003 for most markets, and by 2014 Norway was the last country where either Urge or Surge was still sold. However, popular fan bases such as "SURGE Movement" led Coca-Cola to re-release the soft drink on September 15, 2014 for the US market via "Prime" in 12-packs of 16 oz. cans.
In February 2015, Coca-Cola initiated a test market for the beverage in stores primarily in the Southeastern United States, and concluded in May 2015. Some locations outside of the test region have also been found to sell Surge. Surge was re-released to stores in the Southeast, Northeast, and parts of the Midwestern United States in September 2015.
Slushy versions
On November 16, 2015, Burger King restaurants released a slushy version of the beverage called "Frozen Surge" as a limited edition slushy. Burger King reintroduced it in their restaurants as a fountain drink in August, 2018.
In late 2016, Valero Corner Stores partnered with Icee to release an Icee form of Surge at select locations.
On January 11, 2017, Cinemark theaters released a slushy version of the beverage called "Surge Frozen" for a limited time before being discontinued in Spring 2017.
Trademark
In 1997 Coca-Cola settled a trademark dispute with Babson Bros, an industrial cleaning product company whose cow-milking machine has been known as Surge since 1925.