• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Since alcoholic drinks are called “hard drinks,” the new beverages became “soft drinks.” But they were more than just bubbling thirst quenchers, since soft drinks in this era had some potent medicinal ingredients: Coca-Cola contained cocaine extracted from coca leaves to provide energy; Pespi-Cola contained pepsin, an enzyme to aid in digestion; and 7UP came packed with lithium, used today to treat depression and mental illness.

Through the end of the 1800s and into the twentieth century, customers stopped in at soda fountains at their local pharmacies for a dose of chat, refreshment, and remedy, and walked out with a great big smile. It’s no wonder these stores became the central attraction in town. At the soda fountain, when a soft drink was ordered, sweetened syrup was added to cold soda water, it was stirred up a bit and served ready to drink. In the early days of these soda fountains ice cream sodas were hugely popular, as were root beer, ginger ale, and a whole mess of different cola drinks.

Still, the soda business was limited by the fact that customers needed access to a pharmacy. For soda pioneers to make their products fly high they had to figure out how to go from getting the people to the soda, to getting the soda to the people.At first, glass bottles blown by hand were filled with the drink and capped with corks. But pressure from the carbonation was too much for the early stoppers, and many bottles blew their tops before arriving at their destinations. Inventors racked their brains for years to figure out a design for the perfect stopper until, 1500 patents later, the crown bottle cap was invented in 1892. The glass bottle-blowing machine followed the crown cap a few years after that, and the soda distribution industry popped into high gear.

When Prohibition made it illegal to drink the hard stuff, soda sales skyrocketed. Bars that used to serve real beer had to substitute root beer when liquor-free drinks became the legal alternative to booze. As an added bonus, many of the soda brands were used as underground mixers in illegal drinking parties. Ginger ale was a very fashionable mixer in the 20s, as was 7UP, which was invented during Prohibition. So popular in cocktails was that particular lemon-lime soda that when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, 7UP was heavily marketed as a mixer.

During Prohibition convenience drove the soda industry. Vending machines were created that dispensed sodas into a cup so that workers could get their brand-name refreshment on the job, and six-pack cartons made it easy to carry home several bottles of soda at once.Thirsty consumers were bombarded with a variety of new flavors, and as the country was about to go to war, metal cans were introduced. Metal cans were lighter and more durable than bottles, but at that time the metal was more costly than glass, plus it made the drinks taste funny.

The can problems were fixed after the war, and in 1957 the first lightweight aluminum cans were used to package sodas. It took old customers some time to adjust to the new metal containers, but today more sodas are sold in cans than any other way. The plastic bottles introduced in the 70s are now the second most common package for sodas, with glass bottles practically fading into obscurity.

These days the cocaine is gone from Coke, Pespi is pepsin-free, and 7UP comes without the attitude-adjusting benefits of lithium. When we drink these drinks today it’s usually because we’re thirsty. Or we need to get kicked up a notch by the caffeine that’s still added to several brands. Whatever the motivation, Joe Average American will knock back over 50 gallons of soda this year, all by himself. With more than 450 different varieties now competing for attention, it’s no wonder soft drink ads are everywhere we turn.

Choosing which of the most popular sodas to clone for this book was fairly easy: I picked the most successful brand of the most popular flavors (in other words, Coke instead of Pepsi). I would have preferred to create these recipes