Soda

What is Soda? Soda is a colloquial term used primarily in the United States for carbonated soft drinks — non-alcoholic beverages containing dissolved carbon dioxide, typically sweetened and flavored. The word can also refer more narrowly to plain carbonated soda water, the unflavored fizzy base that mixologists and home bartenders reach for when building cocktails and highballs. By definition, soft drinks must stay below 0.5% ABV to avoid being classified as alcoholic, which is why soda comfortably occupies the non-alcoholic shelf alongside juices and mineral waters. Its story stretches from 18th-century chemistry experiments to the global beverage giants of today.

Origin and History

The science of fizzy water begins in England. In 1767, Joseph Priestley discovered a method to artificially carbonate water by suspending a bowl above a fermenting beer vat in Leeds, capturing the CO2 released during brewing. He published his technique in 1772 in a paper titled Impregnating Water with Fixed Air but never profited from it. Some accounts credit William Brownrigg with producing artificial carbonated water even earlier, in the 1740s, using carbon dioxide drawn from mines.

Commercial soda water arrived in 1783, when Johann Jacob Schweppe founded Schweppes — the first company to bottle and sell carbonated water at scale. The 19th century then turned soda from a novelty into an industry: the first commercial tonic water appeared in 1858, Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886, and the crown cork bottle seal was patented in 1892, finally giving producers a reliable way to keep the bubbles in the bottle.

Types and Composition

Not all carbonated waters are the same. Club soda is carbonated water with added minerals such as sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, sodium citrate, or potassium sulfate, which give it a slightly saline edge. Seltzer is plain carbonated water with no added minerals, taking its name from Selters, a town in Germany. Sparkling mineral water is different again — it comes naturally effervescent from artesian wells and is distinct from any artificially carbonated soda.

Carbonation in soft drinks can reach up to five volumes of CO2 per volume of liquid, while colas and ginger ale typically sit around 3.5 volumes. Dissolved CO2 forms carbonic acid, giving carbonated water a pH between 5 and 6 and that characteristic prickle on the tongue. Modern flavored sodas are sweetened with cane sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and stevia. Plain soda water with no added sweeteners or flavorings is classified under US law as a food of minimal nutritional value.

A Note on Names

What you call it depends largely on where you live. In the United States, over 50% of people say soda, about 25% prefer pop, and roughly 12% — mainly in the Southern states — use coke as a generic term for any carbonated soft drink. In the UK and Ireland, the typical term is fizzy drink or mineral; in English-speaking Canada it is pop; and in Australia and New Zealand people say soft drink or fizzy drink. The thing in the glass is the same — the label simply travels with the accent.