HawaiiStories: Mmmm, POG

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Posted by ali on April 5, 2002 4:22 PM:

Haven't tried it but it sounds good. If Minute Maid ever does make a juice with Ka'u oranges it'll be way out of my price range for sure. There aren't many orchards out there. Only one that I know of, though there might be others. Speaking of POG --anyone know if those POGs that were so popular a ways back are worth anything?

Posted by Ryan on April 5, 2002 5:40 PM:

There was an article in The Advertiser about a month ago that they're making a small -- very small -- comeback, originating in the very same school from which they exploded years ago.

The piece noted that the kids used to play with marbles, but the kids started using expensive marbles then getting into fights when they lost them in games. Banning marbles and bringing back pogs cooled things down again. And the good thing was, there was no shortage of the old caps. (Which, to answer your question, would probably mean they're probably not worth much.)

I looked downstairs for the Minute Maid pseudo-POG drink, but no one had it. I guess it hasn't caught on enough to spread outside of supermarkets. Sounds interesting, though.

Dammit, the world needs another ridiculous fad that ends up turning a cottage Hawaiian industry into a superstar...

Posted by Vivi on April 5, 2002 5:56 PM:

POG (the drink, not the cardboard disc) is still made, AFAIK. I keep seeing bottles of it for sale at Paradise Palms Cafe at UH. One of the only good things at that place, IMO. Bleah...for most everything else... :)

Posted by Stella on April 5, 2002 7:50 PM:

Paradise Palms has always had better food than Kahea`ai, quite frankly. I'm still a fan of their $2 loco moco, only because the cooks there make hamburger patties that don't taste like grilled Styrofoam.

That said, if you're talking about Meadow Gold's passion-orange-guava, that stuff has always been around. My friends from Maui swear by Haleakala Dairy's own fresh P-O-G blend, which is also available here in town.

As for Minute Maid's O-P-G (so called b/c it's heavier on the OJ), I actually found it in the Foodland at Market City. (I've always wondered about that Foodland in Makiki - for a branch that has an R. Field in it, it's totally lacking in everything else.) Though I haven't checked in there myself, I think Times, Safeway, or even Star Market may have it as well.

A bar-tending ex once introduced me to the combo of POG and Malibu (coconut rum) on ice, which actually worked OK. Now I'm wondering if POG will also work with champagne POG mimosas... or, better yet, vodka, for POG screwdrivers. Paaarrr....tay?

Never learned how to play the Pog game myself, though - the craze never caught on in Southeast Asia, and by the time I started attending the American schools out there everyone else had moved on to Magic: The Gathering.

Posted by bunny on April 8, 2002 7:56 AM:

Any of these "tropical" juice blends that I've tried by Minute Maid, Torpicana, etc. just don't taste right to me. They're missing the essence of the tropics. That being said, I haven't tried this new one, although I have seen it. I don't want to be disappointed.

I do have a POG story for y'all, though. My grandmother worked for Haleakala Dairy and the story she told us about POG goes something like this:

The dairy wanted to bottle a juice blend, so they held a mini internal contest to come up with the best flavor and my grandmother's flavor won. They asked her what was in the juice and she said it was Passion Fruit, Orange and Guava juices. Thus POG was born.

It was my favorite drink when I was a kid although I didn't know about this whole history until a few years ago. I still remember the smell of refrigerated stainless steel and milk as we walked through the post-bottling area with my grandmother. We were always allowed to grab a pint of (chocolate) milk or POG off the conveyer belt on the way.

Speaking of childhood juices, did anyone drink Exchange with any regularity? Our family didn't.

Posted by Vivi on April 8, 2002 7:06 PM:

All I remember about Exchange were those cheesy commercials...and the cans themselves. I can't...for the life of me...remember how it tasted...

Posted by Stuart on May 8, 2002 7:50 PM:

Is there anywhere that real POG (from Maui) can be bought on the mainland? In specific, the LA area of S. California?

Posted by Stella on May 8, 2002 8:17 PM:

If you're looking for Haleakala Dairy's POG, I'm not sure if they'll have it in California just yet - Meadow Gold currently owns the Haleakala Dairy brand, and so far the distribution is mainly Hawaii-based. That said, you may want to contact Meadow Gold through their site just to ask.

Posted by Muriel on March 14, 2003 2:59 PM:

I just returned from the beautiful island of Kauai. Anyway I fell in love with POG and miss the beloved drink. There is no where to find it in MI but there is still hope

Posted by Bonnie on April 14, 2003 2:15 PM:

We were just on maui and loved POG. Where can I get some here in the mainland?

Posted by Bonnie on April 14, 2003 2:16 PM:

We were just on maui and loved POG. Where can I get some here in the mainland?

Posted by raevyn808 on April 15, 2003 9:25 PM:

Bonnie I used to find Hawaiian Sun brand POG (frozen) at Safeway and King Sooper's in Colorado. The other substitue, though diluted, was Ocean Spray Mauna La'i - their version of POG with an emphasis on the O.

Posted by buddy on April 22, 2003 12:29 PM:

i have e-mailed to meadow gold in honolulu to see if they can ship pog to the states. we enjoyed it so much last year that we have planned a trip back in july!!! we got it from hawaiian airlines. there is nothing like it anywhere.

Posted by BUDDY on April 24, 2003 10:53 AM:

POG IS AVAILABLE!!!!!
i have been able to get ahold of the company in hawaii that makes pog juice and they can ship it to the u.s. by fed express. e-mail if you would like the info.
buddy

Posted by Sin on April 24, 2003 11:59 PM:

Wow. Mainland version of POG? That's a trip. My friends from the mainland always go to the store and buy a couple of gallons of it while they're here so maybe this will quench their fiending for it if they Minute Maid's making it now. I always thought it was a travesty when the local airlines (forgot if it was hawaiian or aloha) stopped serving POG and switched to some generic version of it instead.

Posted by Gazzile McFrizzles on June 1, 2003 5:31 PM:

No way, pog is the sweetest? You've got it wrong. P is for people! Pog is made from people. People Orange Guava! Oh, horsechutney! Its people!

Also, Gilmore Girls is a great show.

Posted by Liz on June 11, 2003 6:26 AM:

I LOVE POG...i went to Hawai'i with my school and we stayed with families and we had POG for breakfast every morning...where can i buy it in the states??

Posted by Teresa on June 18, 2003 3:56 AM:

Motts has a line of juice under the name of Mauna La'i. The flavor Paradise Passion is guava and passion. Just add a splash of oj and you have pog.. It is wonderful but hard to find.

Posted by Nancy on July 5, 2003 10:59 PM:

EXCHANGE ORANGEADE - who made it and what happened to it? Remember some people used to use the cans as hair rollers! LOL!

Posted by Ipolani on July 21, 2003 2:55 PM:

POG is manufactured under the Orchards Hawaii brand for west coast distribution by Haleakala Dairy. It is available in the Northwest in Albertsons, QFCs and some Thriftways as well as Uwajimaya Asian store in Beaverton Oregon. It is sold in the 1/2 gallon carton in the refrigerated juice section for $2.39 - $2.59. This is the real stuff! They invented POG the juice and the bottle caps that became a game craze. The hold the registered trade mark.

Posted by Ellen on August 1, 2003 6:14 AM:

Had POG at Dennys in Oahu.
Loved it. Does anyone know
where I can get it in NYC?

Posted by Alvin on August 2, 2003 3:07 AM:

Does anyone know the inventor name for famous game called POG. I know the game was actually invented in Hawaii.

Posted by buddy on August 5, 2003 10:30 AM:

INFO ON HOW TO GET POG IN MAINLAND. I have had numerous requests on how to get pog so here it is now. This is a very excellent product, almost as good as the real thing, and costs about the same. Was just over there for the last two weeks and was able indulge in my favorite pasttime -- drinking pog.

***** From Meadow Gold *****

At the present time we don’t have a retail distributor in your area; however we do have shelf stable products that are packaged for our institutional food service market. These are great products that taste just like the refrigerated juice, but they are much easier and less expensive to ship as constant refrigeration is not required. Many of our customers who live outside our retail area have tried these products and have liked them so much they have reordered numerous times.

These products are currently sold only by the case. They are a 3:1 concentrate and each case contains six half-gallon cartons. Each carton makes 2 gallons of juice. This is a lot of juice, but if it is kept chilled or frozen, it will last from 6 months to indefinitely.

A case of POG® is $29.00; a case of Guava Nectar is $33.00. Shipping and handling charges are $20.00 for one case, $15.00 for each additional case. The total cost works out to be about $4.00 to $4.42 per gallon - very competitive with the retail price of a tropical juice.

Because of the many requests we have received from loyal tropical juice lovers across the country, we are in the process of developing smaller packages of these same products that would lend themselves more easily to retail use and would be sold over the Internet and by mail order. However, we do not expect the new products to be available for several more months.

At present, for those diehard tropical juice fans, we would be happy to arrange a full case shipment of either our POG® or Guava Nectar shelf stable 3:1 concentrate products. We accept Visa or Master Card for your convenience. All product is shipped FedEx.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance in your quest for high quality, great tasting tropical juices.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us via e-mail or on our toll free line at 888-875-8999.

Aloha

Posted by 7train on August 7, 2003 7:24 AM:

Thanks for the info. I hope they come out with smaller size cartons soon, I think my roommates would complain about a 2-gallon container of POG in the fridge(or start cockaroaching it, lol)...
Now if I could only get Hawaiian Sun drinks here, especially the lilikoi. You can get guava nectar on the East coast, especially in Indian or Latino stores, but I haven't lilikoi anywhere.

Posted by 7train on August 7, 2003 7:26 AM:

Oops, I meant 'I haven't seen lilikoi anywhere...

Posted by heather on September 7, 2003 2:28 PM:

I live in Southern California--Orange County. Does anyone know where I can buy lilikoi fruit here??
Thanks!

Posted by Geri on December 3, 2003 7:46 PM:

My family and I just got back from our 6th trip to Maui. We had POG everyday. When we would go out to eat, my husband and my son would only get POG for their beverage. We had gallons of in in our condo. My daughter and I love it too. We brought 6 pint size bottles of it home. It was sold in the Kahului Airport Restaurant. We have 1 bottle left...I wonder who will get the last bottle with out pulling each others hair out...LOL!! POG rules!!

Posted by Delta on April 13, 2004 7:18 AM:

Returned from Maui about 10 days ago & brought back 12 x 16 oz (plastic) containers of POG. LOVE IT! American Air didn't even charge me for the box either. Went to Foodland about 3 days before coming back home; the manager was happy to place an order for me and save me a sturdy box for shipping.

Posted by 7train on April 14, 2004 2:31 AM:

I still get 6 cans Hawaiian Sun POG from my last trip home for the holidays-rationing it cuz I don't know when I'll be back. Hawaiian Sun will ship cans to the mainland but it's expensive- something like $55.00 to ship 24 cans by surface mail, $65.00 by air. Just Google 'Hawaiian Sun drinks' if you like da info... I too poho fo' find da link ;-)

Posted by Laur on May 20, 2004 4:18 PM:

Every time I go to maui I always buy atleast a gallon of pog to start of the vacation right. You cant go wrong with pog. I havent met anyone who has tried it and doesnt love it.

Posted by buddy on June 9, 2004 12:11 PM:

just got hit with pog fever again. going to have to book a flight over there soon. wish i would have never discovered pog. it has cost me an arm and leg for trips to hawaii the past 6 years, but it is well worth it. will let you know how it was when i return.

Posted by Feldonia on October 1, 2004 8:13 AM:

I tried POG for the first time while in Hawaii 2 weeks ago. I am hooked! Back in Dallas we don't have anything like it. My sister works for Schepps Dairy in Dallas and was sent for a month to work at Meadowgold on Oahu. We took a half gallon to the beach, it was just yummy under the hot sun! I am going to put in requests for Central Market and Whole Foods grocery stores to carry it in my area! If they don't, I may have to use a juicer to make it at home. Haven't tried it with Rum yet, but I bet it is good! POG-less in Big D

Posted by Maui guy in WA on October 2, 2004 3:38 AM:

Just moved here from Maui. I found POG at the QFC store in the University Village shopping mall.

Posted by LEE on October 5, 2004 10:22 AM:

Been going to Maui every year since '89 and always use POG in our 'special MaiTais' Get tall glass, 4-5 ice cubes, 1/3 cup POG, 1/3 cup Mr&Mrs T's MaiTai mix, 1/4 cup each dark and light rum, 2 pcs of pineapple(if you like pineapple), stir and enjoy. Vary amounts according to taste, after awhile you'll get it right. Have not been able to get POG in Nebraska(I know Where?) thus far, but hoping.

Posted by hi on November 7, 2004 11:36 AM:

this is for buddy i wanted to know the info to get pog shipped to me

Posted by Frank on November 14, 2004 11:14 AM:

Arizona Ice Tea Brand Orangeade and Grapeade tastes exactly like Exchange Orangeade and Grapeade.....if you drink it straight out of the can.

If I remember correctly Exchange bankrupted cause their tin cans had lead in them and ironiclly the changing of the cans to non-lead/non-tin supposedly "changed the taste" for some people....lol

Posted by Diana Fortier on January 6, 2005 1:14 PM:

I recently went to Kauai for a wedding and purchased some guava juice. I thought it was great! I would like to find out if I can purchase some in the states. I live in Illinois. Thanks, Diana

Posted by Kit McD on January 10, 2005 5:15 PM:

I was just recently introduced to POG in California. It comes concentrated in large cartons from a restaurant supplier. It's NOT Minutemaid. Does anybody know how to get hold of it? Can't even get a web address.

Posted by tRiX on January 28, 2005 11:41 AM:

can anyone tell me how I can get some POG shipped to Vegas!?! I'm orginally from Maui, so everytime I visit there I bring a whole cooler home. The problem is, i go there once in a great blue moon. I LOOOVE POG!!! anyone got the info, lemme know. email me, ii7trickmama8ii@yahoo.com. thanXs.

Posted by JJC on February 1, 2005 3:32 PM:

How come peeps on the east coast dont have this pog stuff I see all types of variations, in a diverse city such as new york they just cant put these 3 things together, mind you I was never a juice drinker until I went to maui I'm sufferin' for some g$$amn POG MAN Haleakeala dairy pog or hawaiin sun passoguav will do. any frrickin variations of dis stuff in NY anyone??? POGLESS FROM THE CAPITAL OF THE FRICKIN' WORLD.NY

Posted by Ryan on February 2, 2005 11:55 AM:

This post is now closed. To continue the conversation, or for general talkstory, please visit HawaiiThreads.com.

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Mmmm, POG

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