Squirt is a grapefruit-flavored soda created in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1938. Light, tart, and less sweet than many of its competitors, it grew from a Depression-era regional product into a nationally distributed soft drink and became especially well known as a mixer, most famously in the grapefruit cocktail known as the paloma.
Born in Depression-era Arizona
Squirt was invented in 1938 by Herb Bishop, a bottler working in Phoenix. Bishop’s aim was practical as well as commercial. During the Great Depression, ingredients were costly, and he set out to develop a soft drink that used less fruit and less sugar than typical sodas of the day. The result was a grapefruit-based beverage that delivered a bright, tangy taste while keeping production economical.
The drink went through an early name change before settling on the one it is known by. It was initially sold under a different citrus-themed name and was later rebranded as Squirt, a title meant to capture the lively, squirting quality associated with grapefruit. Production in Arizona drew on the region’s grapefruit crops, and the soda’s concentrate was made from grapefruit juice and oils, tying the brand to the citrus agriculture of the Southwest even though the finished drink contained only a small proportion of actual juice.
A tart, less-sweet grapefruit taste
Squirt is defined by its grapefruit flavor, which gives it a tartness and a lightness that distinguish it from sweeter, heavier sodas. Its comparatively lower sugar profile at creation was part of its original design, and the crisp, citrus-forward taste became the brand’s signature. Rather than the deep sweetness of a cola or a fruit soda, Squirt offers a sharper, more refreshing character that many drinkers associate with grapefruit specifically.
That flavor profile is central to the drink’s identity and to its long career as a mixer. The clean grapefruit taste pairs naturally with spirits, which helped Squirt develop a second life beyond being a standalone soft drink.
Growth beyond the Southwest
From its Arizona origins, Squirt expanded steadily. The brand developed a recognizable mascot in the early 1940s, a character used in advertising that helped build its public image, and it grew its distribution over the following decades. What began as a regional grapefruit soda spread across the country and beyond, becoming a widely available brand rather than a strictly local product.
Squirt found a particularly strong market in Mexico and among communities across the Southwest, where grapefruit soda enjoyed lasting popularity. In Mexico the brand became well established, and its presence there reinforced its close association with the grapefruit-and-tequila cocktail tradition.
The paloma and the mixer tradition
Much of Squirt’s enduring fame rests on its role as a cocktail mixer. Its tart grapefruit flavor made it a natural partner for tequila, and it became a staple ingredient in the paloma, a popular grapefruit cocktail widely enjoyed in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. For many drinkers, Squirt is as closely linked to the paloma as it is to being a soda on its own.
This mixer role gave the brand a durable niche and a cultural presence that extended past the soft drink aisle. The connection to a beloved cocktail helped keep Squirt relevant across generations and regions, particularly in areas with strong grapefruit-drink traditions.
Present-day status
Squirt remains in production and is still widely sold, now as part of the portfolio of a large modern beverage company. It continues to be a staple in the Southwest and in Mexico, both as a standalone grapefruit soda and as a key mixer for the paloma. More than eight decades after its creation in Phoenix, Squirt endures as one of the most successful grapefruit sodas in the Americas, a brand that grew from a resourceful Depression-era formula into a lasting name. Its tart, refreshing taste and its deep ties to grapefruit-cocktail culture have kept it firmly established well beyond the Arizona backyards where it began.
Squirt’s trajectory also sets it apart from many regional sodas of its generation. Where numerous local brands remained confined to their home markets or disappeared entirely as the industry consolidated, Squirt broke out of its Southwestern origins to become a genuinely international product, with a particularly strong second home in Mexico. Its practical, cost-conscious origins during the Depression, its early adoption of a memorable mascot and advertising, and its lasting role in cocktail culture all contributed to a longevity that few grapefruit sodas have matched. More than eight decades on, it remains both a widely sold soft drink and a fixture of the paloma tradition, a rare combination that has secured its place among the enduring citrus sodas of the Americas.
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