Sales of OCHS Student-Made Soda Hit Milestone

Retail sales of Knightro Fusion, a cherry-vanilla soda developed by Oak Creek High School students, have reached a milestone: the 1,000-case mark.

Those high sales have raised a sizable amount of money that will go toward scholarships for Advanced Placement chemistry and marketing students. Since the summer, the soda has been available at stores in the Oak Creek-Franklin area including Pick 'n Save, Woodman's and Gary's Beer & Liquor.

The school district says a new soda flavor is in the works and will be released at the Taste of Oak Creek in March.

Knightro Fusion is the work of students in Jim Buss's advanced placement chemistry class as well as students of marketing teacher Michael Burden. The school worked with Oak Creek-based Black Bear Soda Company on the project.

The AP chem students spent six weeks mixing ingredients, conducting taste tests and adjusting the formula. When it was done, they passed it onto Burden's class, which conducted a naming contest, created a bottle label and formulated a marketing plan.

The entire school voted on the soda's name before it was unveiled at the Taste of Oak Creek in February.

Click here for a 2011 Oak Creek Patch story about how the project got started.