SOFT DRINK

nonalcoholic beverage, either carbonated or noncarbonated, usually containing a sweetening agent, edible acids, and natural or artificial flavours. Soft drinks are so designated to distinguish them from hard liquor, or spirits. Coffee, tea, milk, cocoa, and undiluted fruit and vegetable juices are not considered soft drinks. The first attempts to make carbonated soft drinks were the result of a desire to duplicate the naturally effervescent, mineral-rich waters that flowed from the springs at well-known European spas. Early experimenters believed that the effervescence was a significant source of the reputed healthful properties of the waters, and they therefore concentrated on the gaseous nature of the waters. By the late 1700s numerous reports of such experiments and investigations were published in the Philosophical Transactions journal of the Royal Society of London. Among the authors was Joseph Priestley, who received the society's Copley Medal for his reports on fixed air (carbon dioxide) and the mixture of waters with it. Scientists throughout Europe and the United States engaged in experiments to produce carbonation. In 1775 John Mervin Nooth described a special apparatus for preparing small quantities of effervescent waters. Many other devices followed; in the years 17891821 factories and bottling plants opened in cities throughout Europe. In the United States bottled soda water was available as early as 1807. The manufacture of soft drinks requires special attention to the purity and uniformity of ingredients. Water, usually taken from municipal sources, undergoes further processing both to ensure uniformity and to remove solid matter, colour, chlorine, and any other tastes or odours that may be present. The introduction of carbon dioxide protects the carbonated beverage against spoilage, at the same time endowing it with the characteristic effervescence and tangy taste. Sugar or other sweeteners are dissolved or diluted with processed water and then combined with flavouring substances, edible acids, colouring, and sometimes preservatives. any of a class of nonalcoholic beverage, usually but not necessarily carbonated, normally containing a natural or artificial sweetening agent, edible acids, natural or artificial flavours, and sometimes juice. Natural flavours are derived from fruits, nuts, berries, roots, herbs, and other plant sources. Coffee, tea, milk, cocoa, and undiluted fruit and vegetable juices are not considered soft drinks. The term was originated to distinguish the flavoured drinks from hard liquor, or spirits. Soft drinks were recommended as a substitute in the effort to change the hard-drinking habits of early Americans. Indeed, health concerns of modern consumers have led to new categories of soft drinks emphasizing low caloric and sodium content, no caffeine, and all natural ingredients. There are many specialty soft drinks. Mineral waters are very popular in Europe and Latin America. Kava, made from roots of a bushy shrub, Piper methysticum, is consumed by the people of Fiji and other Pacific islands. In Cuba people enjoy a carbonated cane juice; its flavour comes from unrefined syrup. In tropical areas, where diets frequently lack sufficient protein, soft drinks containing soybean flour have been marketed. In Egypt carob or locust bean extract is used. In Brazil a soft drink is made using mat as a base. The whey obtained from making buffalo cheese is carbonated and consumed as a soft drink in North Africa. Some eastern Europeans enjoy a drink prepared from fermented stale bread. Honey and orange juice go into a popular drink of Israel. Additional reading John J. Riley, A History of the American Soft Drink Industry: Bottled Carbonated Beverages, 18071957 (1958, reprinted 1972), studies the evolution of the American flavoured soft drink, European development of simulated effervescent waters in the early 1800s, and early development of the flavoured carbonated beverage in the United States. Later developments can be traced through the history of specific companies: Anne Hoy, Coca-Cola: The First Hundred Years (1986); and Douglas A. Simmons, Schweppes, the First 200 Years (1983). M.B. Jacobs, Manufacture and Analysis of Carbonated Beverages (1959), is a detailed treatment. See also L.F. Green and H.W. Houghton, Developments in Soft Drink Technology, 3 vol. (197884). Harry Edward Korab Mark Jeffrey Pietka