Forget Spinach, Popeye is now the face of hot sauces & coffee

Popeye's Classic Comics #34 cover (Image credit: Bud Sagendorf (IDW Publishing))

Comic strip character Popeye the Sailor is getting back into the food business, and some of his friends (and even an enemy) are joining him.

EC Segar's iconic Popeye the Sailor franchise, now owned by King Features Syndicate, will be the face of a line of hot sauces and coffees called Popeye's Signature, produced by the Florida-based food and beverage company Jade City Foods.

"Popeye has always been a love of mine from the early Fleischer cartoons to more recent IDW comics," Jade City Foods founder Cliff Wiener says in the announcement. "It's really fun to dig in and create foods inspired by the characters we know and love."

The Popeye's Signature hot sauces are:

Popeye's ‘Strong to the Finish Hot Sauce' (Jalapeño Spinach)
Eugene the Jeep's 'Jeep! Jeep! Magic Hot Sauce' (Pineapple Habanero)
Wimpy's 'I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday for Some Burger Sauce Today' (Sweet & Smokey Sriracha)
Bluto's ‘You Can't Handle My Hot Sauce, Runt!' (Reaper, Scorpion & Ghost Peppers)

The Popeye's Signature coffee blends are:

Popeye's 'Blow Me Down Blend!' (a Courageously Strong Dark Roast)
Olive Oyl's 'I'm Too Kind-Hearted Blend' (a Clean & Fruity Light Roast)
Bluto's 'No Good Sailor Blend' (a Bombastic & Balanced Medium Roast)

"The Jade City team knows good food and they really connect with the Popeye brand," says King Features VP of North American licensing Jarred Goro. "Their focus on delivering top quality products that taste good paired with their creative approach to the development process — from ingredient selection to packaging — makes them the perfect partner to release this unique line of hot sauce flavors and signature coffee blends. We are thrilled to kick off the launch and can't wait to see how fans respond."

Segar's Popeye family of characters has a unique connection with foods - Wimpy's name was used for a line of fast food hamburger restaurants in the first half of the 20th Century, and Popeye himself was the mascot of the fried chicken chain of the same name up until 2006.

Of course, Popeye Spinach is still being sold in grocery stories, as it has been for decades by the Allen Canning Company.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)