Stewart's Beverages is best known for its premium soft drinks that evoke a nostalgic experience through such old-fashioned flavors as Root Beer, Cream Ale, Grape, Cherries N' Cream, Orange N' Cream, Key Lime, Ginger Beer. Offering its soft drinks in long necked or barrel-shaped glass bottles, Stewart's also markets a line of gourmet diet sodas under the S brand name. An independent company under the parentage of conglomerate Triarc Companies Inc. until June 2000, Stewart's was spun off as a part of the Snapple Beverage Group, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes plc in October 2000.

While the history of Stewart's beverage production line may be traced through the formation of the Cable Car Beverage Corporation in the 1980s, the history of the original Stewart's root beer reaches back to 1924, when a schoolteacher named Frank Stewart decided to make some extra income by selling root beer. Stewart perfected a recipe and opened a stand in his hometown of Mansfield, Ohio, at which he sold mugs of Stewart's root beer. The beverage remained a popular fountain drink for 66 years, during which time a franchise of Stewart's Drive-Ins was born with outlets in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic United States.

Stewart's root beer was not bottled for mass consumption until 1990, when the Cable Car Beverage Corporation acquired the bottling rights. Cable Car had undergone several corporate transformations and had its origins in the reorganization of Great Eastern Energy Corp., a Denver-based oil and gas exploration and production company. Great Eastern sold its oil and gas properties in 1984 and hired consultant Samuel M. Simpson to examine other business opportunities. After studying over 100 businesses, Simpson steered the company toward the food and beverage packaging line industry. The company was renamed Great Eastern International Inc., and Simpson was named vice-president of the company. (He would eventually become CEO.) Great Eastern entered the food and beverage business with the support of its parent company, ATS Resources, Ltd., of Australia, and with funds from a private offering of stock. Simpson and other officers of the company formed Capvest Limited as their shareholding entity.

In 1986 Great Eastern purchased Quinoa Corporation of Boulder, Colorado, a natural foods company involved in importing quinoa, a highly nutritious South American grain. The company sold whole grain quinoa and quinoa flour under the brand name Ancient Harvest to health food stores and grocers, primarily in Colorado and Southern California. Quinoa Corporation intended to distribute the grain, grown in Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico, nationally and internationally.

Great Eastern's 1986 revenues, $93,873, were derived solely from the Quinoa Corporation. After its first full year under Great Eastern's parentage, in June 1987, the company reported $453,427 in revenues with a net loss of $790,432. Private label bulk sales accounted for 30 percent of revenue. In fall of 1987, the company introduced three new quinoa products, flat and spiral shaped dry pasta and wheat-free dry pasta.

Great Eastern's entry into the beverage business began with the June 1987 acquisition of Sheya Brothers Distributing, Inc., a Denver-based distribution company that focused on all-natural premium juice and beverage production line , flavored and unflavored seltzers, and carbonated and non-carbonated mineral waters. The company served retail stores in Denver and Colorado's other main cities along the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

The August 1987 acquisition of Old San Francisco Seltzer, Inc. (Old SF) complemented the Sheya Brothers acquisition. Old SF marketed naturally flavored and naturally sweetened seltzer waters. Most bottling and distribution was conducted by independent companies; Old SF sold the concentrated flavor syrup for mixture with seltzer water to regional bottlers under its licensing agreements. Old SF also used contractors for bottling and distribution. The products sold in grocery stores, convenience stores, and liquor stores in the United States and western Canada.

Simpson soon realized, however, that the company's scope had become too broad. An 82 percent share of the company's interest in the Quinoa Corporation was divested in June 1988, as total net losses for the year reached $1.4 million on revenues of $3.2 million. As Great Eastern did not have an outside line of credit and depended on funds from operations and from its parent company, Capvest (which had acquired a majority interest in Great Eastern in 1987), the sale of Quinoa Corporation allowed Great Eastern to concentrate its limited resources in one business.

In streamlining operations, Simpson organized the company under the new name Cable Car Beverage Corporation. He also began hiring a management team with experience in the beverage production line industry. James Lutz, formerly general manager of Royal Crown Bottling, joined Cable Car as vice-president of sales in 1988, while James Fox, brand director for Coors Light, joined the company as senior vice-president of sales the following year.

While searching for opportunities to expand, Cable Car cultivated its existing businesses. The company expanded distribution of San Francisco Seltzer (as it was renamed) in Canada through a ten-percent stake in San Francisco Beverages, an independent bottler. Through that deal, Cable Car received a five-percent gross royalty on that company's sales of the product. In June 1989 Sheya Brothers acquired Arrowood Distributing Company, a beer distributor in the Denver metropolitan area.

Cable Car's greatest inroads in the beverage production line industry, however, were realized when Simpson approached Stewart's Restaurants to produce, bottle, and distribute Stewart's brand root beer. By that time, Stewart's Restaurants was franchising some 70 Stewart's Drive-In Root Beer stands in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. After six months of discussions with Michael Fessler, owner of Stewart's Restaurants, Simpson obtained an exclusive licensing agreement in July 1989.

Cable Car supported expansion into branded beverages with private and public securities offerings in October 1989 and June 1990, raising a net total of $2.3 million. In addition to developing the Stewart's root beer brand, the company acquired Aspen Mineral Water Corporation in November 1989. Cable Car added unsweetened flavorings to the product line and repackaged it for sale beginning in August 1990.

After nearly a year in development, Cable Car launched Stewart's Original Root Beer in spring 1990. Cable Car packaged the soda in old-fashioned, long neck, amber bottles with the Stewart's logo fired thereon in white ceramic. Initial test marketing took place along the East Coast, particularly in New Jersey, where a proven customer base for Stewart's root beer already existed. Marketed for the premium beverage packaging line category, the 12-ounce bottles sold for approximately one dollar each, primarily at delicatessens and convenience stores. Using San Francisco Seltzer's method of selling beverage concentrates to bottler-distributors, Cable Car sold 200,000 cases of Stewart's Original and Diet root beers in 1990. Sales of Stewart's beverages surpassed 500,000 cases in 1991.

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