Yoo-Hoos history dates back to the 1920s, when Mr. Natale Olivieri sold Tru-Fruit sodas in his small store. Mr. Olivieri thought he could produce a chocolate soda and make profits. He liked to produce sodas that were all natural, without any types of spoilages.
Mr. Olivieri was at his home's kitchen with his wife, who was preparing her home-made tomato sauce one day when Mr. Olivieri thought he could preserve chocolate beverages by using the same method his wife used to make her tomato sauce.He asked his wife then, to use the same proccess she had used on her tomato sauce, on six of the chocolate drinks he had prepared. Three of the drinks got spoiled, and Mr. Olivieri thought agitation would also be needed to produce an all natural chocolate drink. Because of that, he bought a rotating pressure retort. Soon after, his first group of chocolate drinks was sold.
The name Yoo-Hoo was already being used for Mr. Olivieri's other fruit drinks, so naturally, he applied Yoo-Hoo to his chocolate flavored drink too.
Yoo-Hoo would soon begin to be bottled by an important bottling company and to be sold at supermarket stands.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Yoo-Hoo went through a very large promotional campaign that included Yogi Berra and the New York Yankees officially sponsoring the drink. The image of Berra drinking a bottle of Yoo-Hoo while wearing a suit, in particular, became famous.
Also during the '50s, B.B.C. Industries bought over Yoo-Hoo. They held ownership until 1976, when it was bought over by Iroquois Brands, which, in turn, sold Yoo-Hoo in 1981 to a group of private investors.
In 2002, Yoo-Hoo was sold over to Cadburry Schweppes.
The soda is headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, with plants in Hialeah, Florida and Opelousas, Louisiana.