In 1852 Kreuzberg bought a vineyard in Germany’ Eifel region and was disappointed when its grapes did not thrive. On investigation he found the soil had an exceptionally high concentration of carbonate. Literally wanting to get to the bottom of things, he dug down fifty feet and discovered an underground spring of naturally carbonated mineral water.
Kreuzberg named the spring after St, Apollinaris, a patron saint of wine. By the following year he had obtained a sales license and began filling clay jugs with the mineral water.
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| Lancet 1874 |
By 1881 million jugs and bottles of Apollinaris water were sold each year. The English Frederick Gordon acquired the Apollinaris companies in Germany and England in 1897 but in 1956 Apollinaris became a German Company once more through the sale to the Dortmunder Union Brauerei.
By 1900, over 27 million bottles of Apollinaris were sold, of which over 25 million were exported. Consumption by the German did not exceed exports until the 1950s.
In 1902, arguments about naturalness had arisen. Apollinaris was taken to court for claiming that is was a ‘natural mineral water’, when the composition in the bottle did not exactly match that in the spring.
Apollinaris spring water
