Orbitz was a short-lived non-carbonated fruit-flavored beverage produced by The Clearly Food & Beverage Company of Canada, makers of
Clearly Canadian. It was introduced in 1997, then quickly discontinued due to poor sales. The drink was sold in five flavors, and made with small floating edible balls. Orbitz was marketed as a "texturally enhanced alternative beverage" but some consumers compared it to a potable
lava lamp
A lava lamp is a decorative lamp, invented in 1963 by British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker, the founder of the lighting company Mathmos. It consists of a bolus of a special coloured wax mixture inside a glass vessel, the remainder of which ...
.
The small balls floated due to their nearly equal density to the surrounding liquid, and remained suspended with the assistance of
gellan gum
Gellan gum is a water-soluble anionic polysaccharide produced by the bacterium '' Sphingomonas elodea'' (formerly ''Pseudomonas elodea'' based on the taxonomic classification at the time of its discovery). The gellan-producing bacterium was disco ...
. The gellan gum provided a support matrix and had a visual clarity approaching that of
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
, which increased with the addition of
sugar. The gellan gum created a very weak yield stress which has been measured to be ~0.04
Pa.
The product's website was bought by the Internet-based travel agency named
Orbitz
Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Background
Origina ...
.
Unopened bottles from the drink's original launch have become a collector's item, appearing on online auction websites.
The Clearly Food & Beverage Company states that the proprietary equipment that made Orbitz broke down and the trademark is no longer owned by the company.
In July 2013, Clearly Canadian stated that it was considering producing a limited run of new products to satisfy "nostalgia demand", with the possibility of annual issues thereafter based on consumer reception of the initial batch.
Flavors
Several flavors of Orbitz were produced:
*Raspberry Citrus
*Blueberry Melon Strawberry
*Pineapple Banana Cherry Coconut
*Vanilla Orange
*Black Currant Berry
*Charlie Brown Chocolate
See also
*
Bubble tea
Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; , ) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially ...
*
Basil seed drink
*
List of defunct consumer brands
This is a list of defunct consumer brands which are no longer made and usually no longer mass-marketed to consumers. Brands in this list may still be made, but are only made in modest quantities and/or limited runs as a nostalgic or retro style i ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Extinct Beverage Tasting: raSpbeRrY CitRus OrbitzBevNET: OrbitzClearly Canadian launches Orbitz in CanadaBrad Tries: Orbitz
Soft drinks
Defunct drink brands
Products introduced in 1997
Canadian drinks