Over the course of two years and tens of thousands of taste tests, by 1939, he had developed a flavor that he believed was superior to all other grape sodas available at the time.

Owen and an assistant ran a local contest to come up with a name, but this failed to produce any suitable results.

In search of further inspiration, Owen then traveled to Washington, D.C. in 1939 to look through the trademark files of the United States Patent Office.

It was here that Owen learned of Rube Goldstein, a man who owned a trademark for the name "Grapette", "Orangette", and "Lemonette".

Further research determined that Goldstein owned a small bottling firm that produced a drink that used one of Fooks' grape flavors, called "Tiny”.

By March 1940, Fooks and Owen had met with Goldstein in Chicago, Illinois to purchasing the Grapette, Orangette, and Lemonette names for a total of $500.

Grapette was sold in a six-ounce clear glass bottle, which served to show off the beverage's purple color.

With the success in sales, marketing of Grapette was expanded to much of the United States, and the slogan "Thirsty or Not" was developed for use in advertising.

When World War II began, Fooks dropped many of his other brands, such as Botl-O and Sunburst, in order to focus on Grapette.

In 1942, R. Paul May, an Arkansas oil tycoon, persuaded Fooks to allow him to market Grapette in Latin America, citing a lack of soft drink options in the area.

[citation needed] Despite this setback, Rice continued to grow Grapette's market share elsewhere in the world, with sales in the tens of millions in countries in South America and the Pacific Rim.

In 1986, Rice was able to meet with Sam Walton, in order to discuss creating a line of private label soft drinks for Walmart.

In 1989, nearly three years after the initial meeting, Grapette International began producing a line of soft drinks for Walmart under the Ozark Farms name.

[citation needed] In 2000, Rice walked into the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas, in order to personally deliver the news to David Glass: Monarch was finally selling the Grapette name.