Eat My Globe

Pop Quiz: The History of Soda Drinks

Simon Majumdar (“SM”):

Hey April.

April Simpson (“AS”):

Yeah, Simon.

SM:

What did the weasel order at the bar?

AS:

I don’t know, Simon. What did the weasel order at the bar?

SM:

Pop, said the weasel.

AS:

Oh.

SM:

[Laughter]

Love that.

INTRO MUSIC

SM:

Hi everyone.

My name is Simon Majumdar and welcome to Eat My Globe, a podcast about things you didn’t know you didn’t know about food.

And on today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about soda. I can’t believe that I have never talked about these on an episode before.

But, hey, ho. I’ll make up for that today.

Today, we will talk about classic sodas like the brands, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. We will talk about how these drinks developed through history and, how revenue for carbonated soft drinks are worth $412.74 billion worldwide in 2025 alone.

And, we will talk a whole lot more about all things soda. . .  or soft drinks, or pop, or fizzy pop, depending on when you live.

I would suggest, as I always do, to look at where the names where “soft drink,” or “soda pop,” come from. And also names that I liked to use when I was young, like “pop” or “fizzy pop.”

I want to get these out of the way now and then concentrate on one term, “soda,” otherwise this episode may become too confusing.

So, what is a “soft drink”?

Our chums at Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “soft drink” as,

Quote

“a usually carbonated nonalcoholic beverage.”

End quote.

They are “soft” so they can be distinguished from “hard” or alcoholic drinks.

So, what is “soda pop”?

Our friends at Merriam-Webster define it as

Quote

“a beverage consisting of soda water, flavoring, and a sweet syrup.”

End quote.

It was first used in 1863.

But, the term “soda” itself comes from the Italian word, “soda,” which comes from the Arabic word, “suwwād,” which are, according to Merriam-Webster,

Quote

“any of several saltworts from the ashes of which sodium carbonate is obtained.”

End quote.

And, as a fun fact, the word “sodium,” came from the word, “soda.” Isn’t that fascinating?  

The term, “carbonated,” means that it has carbon dioxide and was first used around 1805.

And, what about the word, “pop”?

Well, this is believed to have come from the sound of popping that the bottle made when it was opened.

We believe that the term came from the mouth of an English poet by the name of Robert Southey, who said in a letter in 1812 about his supper,

Quote

“a new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because 'pop goes the cork' when it is drawn.”

End quote.

And, what about “fizzy pop”?

That’s a term that I used for sodas when I was a kid in England. This came about in the early 19^th century when people used to call these drinks that name because of the sound they make when opened.

I recall, when I was a young lad in England, the “fizzy pop” or the “Pop Man” arriving from the Co-op – a store – coming to our house and others along the street selling various styles of “pop” in bottles. I think he came every Thursday and he would exchange bottles for the old bottles, which we had from the week before.

As Historic UK says about these,

Quote

“The ‘Pop Man’ came around weekly selling soft drinks, Dandelion and Burdock, fizzy drinks and so on. Children would wash out and return the empty bottles to the pop man in return for money: a ha’penny a bottle in the 1920s, rising to 10p by the 1980s.”

End quote.

Very happy times when we knew that the “Pop Man” was going to be coming. Particularly when he had bottles of Dandelion and Burdock, a drink that I loved. But we’ll talk about that later.

So, enough of me reminiscing. Now that we know what all these terms mean, let’s talk about the history of soda.

Hippocrates tells us that the ancient Greeks have been drinking soda – as in, if you recall from our definitions earlier, from saltworts, that kind of plant in the amaranth family. Indeed, he talked about soda water as being the next worst kind of water after stagnant water.

Quote

“The next worst will be those whose springs are from rocks. . . or from earth where there are hot waters, or iron is to be found. . . or soda.”

End quote.

Oops.

In her book, “Soda and Fizzy Drinks: A Global History,” Judith Levin notes that ancient Romans have also been drinking bubbly water from natural springs.

Writer Emily Pawley at the Science History Institute further notes that

Quote

“Ailing Romans drank from alkaline springs to rid themselves of tumors and from acidic springs to destroy gallstones.”

End quote.

And, in the Middle Ages, we get

Quote

“‘Holy wells,’ first associated with pagan divinities and later reassigned to Christian saints, took the place of the Roman baths.”

End quote.

And by the 17^th and 18^th centuries, Europeans frequented springs in places like Bath, Malvern and Epsom in England, modern day Karlovy Vary in Czechia, Eger in Hungary, and more. There, they not only bathed in the springs but drank the waters.

Also, in the 17^th century, a company in Paris, France, known as the “Compagnie des Limonadiers,” sold water that was sweetened with honey and flavored with lemon juice. Parisians loved the drink. And if you may remember from our earlier definition of soda pop, the ingredients for this Parisian lemonade is eerily similar to soda pop. This lemonade, however, did not have a pop or a fizz.

The origin of soda drinks or soft drinks is often credited with the invention of carbonated water.

If you may recall from the Eat My Globe episodes on the history of Champagne and the history of beer, carbonated alcoholic drinks have been around for a long time because the yeast used in those drinks produced carbon dioxide. But now, we are talking about non-alcoholic drinks.

On March the 13th, 1733, Joseph Priestley was born in a town called Leeds in Yorkshire, England. You know I already like this chap as he is a Yorkshireman, like me.

Priestley grew up to become an ordained minister, which is appropriate given his last name, and he also became a political thinker and a scientist. On December the 19th, 1765, he met Benjamin Franklin at a coffeehouse that is near my flat in London for the meeting of a philosophical club Franklin called, Club of Honest Whigs. Yes, we are talking about the American Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, who was also a scientist and an inventor. At that meeting, Priestley brought up electricity and Franklin encouraged him to conduct experiments.

Back in Leeds, Priestley started conducting experiments on vapors, which wafted from the brewery next door. Apparently, he was intrigued by the bubbliness of the beer. The carbon dioxide in beer was previously discovered in the 1750s by another scientist called Joseph Black, who referred to the gas as “fixed air.” Priestley put the sulfuric acid and chalk together, which produced the fixed air or carbon dioxide. But then, he stored the carbon dioxide in a pig’s bladder then released the gas in bottles with water and moved the bottle around.

According to writer Emily Pawley, Priestley later wrote that the result was

Quote

“an exceedingly pleasant sparkling water, resembling Seltzer water.”

End quote.

That’s water from the mineral springs of Seltzer in Germany that produces carbonated water, not the type of water we now call Seltzer.

Priestley later invented a device that created carbonated water, which he exhibited in 1772 at the London’s College of Physicians, and which he hoped would cure scurvy, cancers and other diseases.

While Priestley’s scientific work didn’t really cure these diseases, it led to him being awarded the Copley medal, which was the Royal Society’s highest award.

And, for our purposes, it also led to Priestley being recognized as

Quote

“the father of the soft drinks industry.”

End quote.

The next person who would be vital for our story would be someone whose name is even now connected with the drinks industry. I’m talking about Johann Jacob Schweppe.

Schweppe was born in Hesse in southern Germany. Later, he moved to Geneva and became a professional watch maker and jeweller, and an amateur scientist. After Priestley was able to create carbonated water, Schweppe started experimenting with them. By 1783, Schweppe gave up his watch and jewelry business to start selling carbonated water as medicine.

As Simon Difford of the Difford Guide says,

Quote

“It is fair to say that Jacob Schweppe founded the world’s soft drink industry as he was the first to invent the equipment capable of carbonating water to a level that matched or exceeded natural mineral waters, and in the quantities necessary to make his water commercially viable.”

End quote.

Schweppe’s carbonated water tasted similar to the mineral waters found in Vals, Pyrmont and others. Then, in 1792, he moved to London to expand the business. Around 1794, his carbonated drinks did receive the endorsement of Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin’s grandfather.

By 1798, Schweppe used the phrase, “soda water,” in his advertisements. Although The Irish Times claims that Augustine Thwaites, who created Thwaites’ Soda Water, first used and patented the phrase, “soda water.”

Anway, back to Schweppe. That same year in 1798, he sold part of his company and kept one-eighth for himself and his daughter. And in 1799, he retired and then went back to Switzerland. Despite his retirement and subsequent death in 1821, the Schweppe brand continues to flourish and still exists to this day.

In the USA, in 1810, Charles D. Simmons and J.J. Rundell of Charleston, South Carolina secured a patent for the

Quote

“means of mass manufacture of imitation mineral waters.”

End quote.

And in 1819,  American physician, Samuel Fahnestock, patented the first soda fountain, which he designed to be hidden behind the counter.

In 1832, British born New Yorker, John Matthews, invented an efficient soda fountain that allowed for bottling the sodas.

Another patent for a soda fountain was issued to Ohioan Jacob Ebert and West Virginian George Dulty in 1833.

In 1863, Gustavus D. Dows of Lowell, Massachusetts, patented a soda fountain made of Italian white marble and came with an ice shaver. And in 1879, he created another soda fountain in the style of a Doric temple.

At some point, American pharmacists started adding flavors to carbonated water. According to Mary Bellis in her article for ThoughtCo, Dr. Philip Syng Physick from Philadelphia may have started that trend in 1807.

According to the Detroit Historical Society, one of the first American sodas is created by Vernor’s Ginger Ale, which debuted in 1866. Pharmacist James Vernor first invented the drink by adding ginger, vanilla and spices to help with stomachaches and coughs. He then served it at his pharmacy using his soda fountain. As the drink’s popularity grew, he started selling his drink to others. Indeed, Cadbury-Schweppes bought Vernor’s in 1993, and is currently under the Keurig Dr Pepper brand of family.

By the 1920s, almost all pharmacies in the US had a soda fountain. And along with it, the soda jerk, which The New York Times described as

Quote

“an archetypal American, a young, wisecracking, argot-slinging ice cream and soda dispenser in a white peaked cap who, according to his image, could simultaneously make a malted, a cherry Coke and a banana split without missing a beat from the jukebox.”

End quote.

These “soda fountains” became so popular that during Prohibition from 1920 to 1933 when alcohol was legally banned in the US, many saloons found themselves pivoting to soda fountains. 

And here’s a fun fact to bore people with at dinner parties. The word, “teenager,” began to be used in the 1910s and was first seen in print in 1913 in “Everyday Evening Commerce,” which was a newspaper that came out of Wilmington, Delaware. These “teenagers” would often be found at the soda fountains, now being able to hang out at former saloons turned soda fountains.

By the 1960s and 1970s, soda fountains have almost disappeared.

But nowadays, there are some of these “Soda Fountains” still around. You can still find them at “Eddie’s Sweet Shop” in Forest Hills, New York. Or, The Pickwick in Greenville, South Carolina. If you ever get chance, do try to “pop” in – see what I did there – and give them a try.

Soon though, we began to see bottled soda water being sold to the public.

And we begin to see what now-famous brands began to form.

Two of the most famous are, of course, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. Now these have been covered so many times, so I don’t want to cover their whole life story. So, first why don’t we just cover what their names mean.

According to Merrian-Webster, “cola” means

Quote

“a carbonated soft drink colored usually with caramel and flavored usually with extracts from kola nuts.”

End quote.

Coca-Cola was created in 1886 by an Atlanta pharmacist named John Stith Pemberton, who lived from 1831 to 1888. His original drink, whose contents are still unknown except to just a few people at their headquarters in Atlanta, was originally aimed at those who wanted to become more healthy. And its contents allegedly included cocaine from the coca leaf and caffeine from the kola nut. Thankfully, the cocaine was removed from the mixture in 1903.

The penmanship that is their logo actually came from their bookkeeper Frank Robinson, who also came up with the name. Apparently, Robinson liked the ingredients’ names – coca leaf and kola nut – so he used coca from coca leaf, used the kola in kola nut but changed the K in kola to a C, added a hyphen, and wrote it in cursive. And voila, we’ve now got Coca-Cola. Now, this company owns over 500 drinks around the globe and its brand is possibly the most famous brand on the planet.

Pepsi-Cola is not far behind on the brand side of things. Nowadays known as PepsiCo, Inc., it began its journey in 1898. The owner was a pharmacist by the name of Caleb D. Bradham, who hailed from New Bern, North Carolina. Originally, he had a drink named, “Brad’s Drink,” sold in his store. According to writer Mary Bellis, the drink was a combination of

Quote

“a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, kola nuts, nutmeg, and other additives.”

End quote.

In the end, he decided to give his drink a better name. Since the drink was meant to ease indigestion, also known as dyspepsia, he took the word, Pepsi, from dysPEPSIa and named the drink Pepsi-Cola. By 1902, he had incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Company.

In 1923, Pepsi-Cola went into bankruptcy. Caleb D. Bradham was forced to sell the company to the owner of The Loft Candy Co, Charles G. Guth. This new owner decided to sell Pepsi-Cola at half the price of Coca-Cola. Its “Nickel Nickel” campaign was a huge hit. In 1939, Pepsi decided to run a nationwide radio advertisement using the jingle, “Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot.” This was the first nationwide radio advertisement ever used in the United States.

One of the things that Pepsi did to keep its momentum going was to have major celebrities give a shout-out to the drink. In the 1950s, one of the hugest stars, actress Joan Crawford married the president of the company and began to sell their product. By the 1980s, another huge star, Michael Jackson, was selling it.

In fact, when MJ had an accident and caught his head on fire in a Pepsi commercial in 1984, it became leading news all over the world. As the BBC tells it

Quote

“The 25-year-old entertainer was singing his hit ‘Billie Jean’ for a Pepsi-Cola commercial in Los Angeles when the special effects went wrong.”

End quote.

The other thing that Pepsi-Cola also did was to take its “bitter” rival – see what I did there? I said bitter. Anyway, Pepsi took their competitor, Coca-Cola, to the streets starting in 1975 and began to do a taste comparison it dubbed the Pepsi Challenge. In these commercials, they won 50% of the time. Who knew?

As I said earlier, there’s so much to be said about these two behemoths that I could be here all day. And there are lots and lots of books about their rivalry.

So instead, let me catch up on some of the other drinks from around the world that I really like.

One of my favorites is Britain’s “Dandelion & Burdock.” This is still a fizzy pop that I might have with my plate of Fish & Chips. Apparently, the British have been drinking “Dandelion & Burdock” since the 13^th century. And, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the famous theologian and philosopher from the 13^th century whose writings still influence modern day Roman Catholicism, is said to have invented the drink.

Mark Davoren O.P., writing for the Dominican Friars, described how, in 1265, Saint Thomas Aquinas came up with the drink.

Quote

“It is said that Thomas, during a bout of writers’ block, had a sleepless night praying for inspiration from God. He was moved to get up and walked straight into the countryside. After a while he developed a thirst. Trusting in God to provide he made a drink from the first plants he came across and it was this drink that aided his concentration when seeking to formulate his theological arguments that ultimately culminated in the Summa Theologiae.”

End quote.

That is incredible.

As Mark Davoren says, this is probably an apocryphal tale. But, a good one nevertheless.

Fentimans, an English seller of fizzy drinks, tells us that the drink is now made with

Quote

“Carbonated water, pear juice from concentrate, fermented ginger root extract (water, glucose syrup, ginger root, pear juice concentrate, yeast), sugar, colour: caramel (E150a), natural flavourings, sweetener: steviol glycosides from stevia, acid: citric acid, herbal infusions (dandelion root, burdock root).”

End quote.

Probably not the same ingredients as when St. Thomas Aquinas used to drink it, but I still love it with my Fish & Chips. One of the joys of my youth.

Another of Britain, in fact, Scotland’s most popular drinks is “Irn Bru,” which is I R N B R U, which for those of us who don’t know the Scottish accent means “Iron Brew,” which is I R O N B R E W. The name was given to it by its owners, Barr’s, when the drink came out in 1901. There were other “Iron Brew” drinks available before 1901, including one from 1889 that started in New York, of all places. But the American invention was considered a medicinal drink with a sweeter taste. In contrast, according to writer Sarah Wilson of The Scotsman, the Scottish version,

Quote

“hit upon the magic 32-flavour recipe in 1901, a secret so preciously guarded that a mere three people currently know the complete ingredients list: Irn-Bru’s former chairman Robin Barr, his daughter Julie Barr and a director.”

End quote.

In 1946, a new truth in advertising law required that any product released by a company had to be true. And because “Iron Brew” did not have iron and was not brewed, the company changed the name to “Irn Bru,” I R N B R U, which was the Scottish vernacular.

As Wilson says

Quote

“Along with tartan, Nessie and bagpipes, this distinctive orange drink has firmly established itself as a symbol of Scotland - and all that’s great about it.”

End quote.

I love Irn Bru.

Let’s head to France and North Africa.

I wonder how many people know of a French drink known as “Orangina”?

Anyone?

The drink was originally sold in France and North Africa in a very stylized glass bottle where the bottom of the bottle was fashioned to look like an orange. Orange, as the name suggests, is the main part of the drink and its distinctive pulp.

This drink was initially called Naranjina by its Spanish pharmacist creator, Dr. Trigo. It originally contained oranges, carbonated water, sugar and other ingredients. Then, in 1935, Léon Beton, a Frenchman who lived in Algeria, bought the recipe from Dr. Trigo, and initially produced it in Algeria before his family moved production to Marseilles in 1962. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The reason that I want to mention this drink is that it was the thirst-quenching beverage that I would ask for when I came out of the ocean in La Baule, Brittany. It was very, very different from what I used to get in 1970s Britain, and even now I can still recall the taste that I used to get from the orange pulp that was included in this drink. After all, it had, as The New York Times described it,

Quote

“a fresh uncola with European appeal.”

End quote.

Okay. Finally, let’s look towards Germany.

It may come as a surprise to many that the brightly hued orange Fanta, was created in Nazi Germany by the German division of Coca-Cola around 1939. As the Second World War was ramping up, ingredients became scarce in Germany. So, Max Keith, the young German executive for Coca-Cola in Germany, started to make a new drink, “Fanta” – this was more ginger ale than cola. The name Fanta, apparently, came from the word, “fantasy.” Who knew?

Fanta became a huge hit in Nazi Germany and was used not just as a drink but also in cooking and baking.

Meanwhile, as the war went on, the Coca-Cola executives back in the US feared that Max Keith was a Nazi and seized the company’s assets and production. After Germany surrendered in 1945, the suspicious executives visited Keith and the factory in Germany and found the plant flattened by Allied bombing. But, Keith had moved the production in the city outskirts and the books showed a profit during the war. Still suspicious, they informed Keith that they would take over operations in Germany and removed him from his position because he was German. Keith was devastated.

Eventually, the executive investigated Keith’s wartime record and found that Keith was actually not a Nazi and suffered due to his refusal to join the Nazis. As Frederick Allen notes in his book, “Secret Formula: How Brilliant Marketing and Relentless Salesmanship Made Coca-Cola the Best-Known Product in the World,” Keith

Quote

“had scrupulously protected the company’s property. . . [and] at the end of the war Coca-Cola’s operations in Germany were ‘more satisfactory than we possibly could have contemplated.’”

End quote.

As a result, Coca-Cola executives decided to make Keith a civilian administrator of its operations in Germany.

In 1955, Coca-Cola decided to use the name for a more appealing orange flavored drink which they then sold in Italy first, and then in the United States in 1958. It is now sold, I’m told, in 188 different countries in the world. It now comes in many different flavors including strawberry, berries, and even pina colada flavors.  

Now, before I go, I do just want to give a shout out to some of the new companies that are getting into the soda game, as it were. The market for this new iteration of sodas is growing. Meanwhile, over the last seventeen years, there has been a very noticeable decline in traditional soft drink sales. Although I should note that the health of the carbonated soft drinks industry is still very strong with a revenue of $412.74 billion in 2025.

But anyway, I wanted to mention some of the new beverages that are creating waves, as it were.

One is Olipop, a company that currently brings about $200 million in sales by focusing on “Prebiotic” sodas. Another is Poppi, another “Prebiotic” soda which, according to Food & Wine, peps up its beverages with apple cider vinegar. There are more, of course, but if you haven’t tried these, I think you may like them.

By the way, I should note that I am not getting any payment from any of the brands mentioned here.

So, there we go. Soda and Pop. Something that got those two names from the notion of “sodium” in science and a British poet. Whose “jerks” used to have their own personality. Whose most famous drink, Coca-Cola, used to have cocaine as part of its mixture. Who had a drink that St Thomas Aquinas fondly sipped, apparently. Whose most famous of brand of Americana used to make a drink for Nazi Germany during World War II.

And so much more.

Now, I am going to go and see if anywhere in LA keeps Dandelion & Burdock to serve with my homemade fish & chips.

See you next week, folks.

OUTRO MUSIC

SM:

Make sure to check out the website associated with this podcast at www.EatMyGlobe.com where we will be posting the transcripts from each episode, along with all the references and resources we used putting the episodes together, in case you want to delve deeper into each subject. There is also a contact button, so please do let us know if there are any subjects that you would like us to cover.

And, if you like what you hear, please don’t forget to join us on Patreon, subscribe, recommend us to your family and friends and give us a good rating on your favorite podcast provider.

Thank you and goodbye from me, Simon Majumdar, we’ll speak to you soon on the next episode of EAT MY GLOBE: Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Food.

CREDITS

The EAT MY GLOBE Podcast is a production of “It’s Not Much But It’s Ours” and “Producer Girl Productions.”

[Ring sound]

We would also like to thank Sybil Villanueva for all of her help both with the editing of the transcripts and her essential help with the research.