The Soft Drinks of Yester-Year

Why are the drinks that we often get with our fast food, called “soft drinks”? That is thanks to advertising which called the carbonated beverages that they sold “soft” because they contained mineral water or carbonated water. That was opposed to the “hard” alcoholic drinks that were often available at the same time.

Soft drinks, fountain drinks or sodas as we know them today arose around the same time as the soda fountain. Popular name brands often appeared first as medicinal drinks. Such was the case with Coca-Cola. Dr. Pepper started in Texas and Pepsi in North Carolina. A&W Root Beer started in California and later became a small chain of restaurants. 

Soda flavors and brands rise and fall according to consumer demand. There were other popular brands out there that today are no longer around. This was the case with Nehi, Tropical Delight and Jolt. 

Some sodas we can be glad are gone though! Along with the usual sodas, some local places offered such novel soda flavors as celery, clam, bacon and yeast!