Inspiration came from naturally carbonated mineral waters. In the fourth century BC, the Greek Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, already recommended bathing in sources of this type, but, it seems, it never occurred to him to prescribe the liquid to drink. Carbonated water only started to become a popular drink around 1500, when the Belgian town of Spa gained fame for its natural springs and began to export bottles of its water to London and other capitals. It was so successful that, between the 17th and 18th centuries, several European chemists began to make attempts to recreate the product artificially. The most important step was to adopt a pump to help fix the gas in the water, a discovery credited to independent studies by the Englishman Joseph Priestley and the Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier, between 1772 and 1773. Based on this system, the pharmacist Thomas Henry became the first to produce industrially carbonated water in 1782.
A few decades later, the idea of adding flavors to the product arose: ginger would have been the first, around 1820, followed by lemon, in the 1830s. This process became easier with a new technology, patented in 1819 in the United States : the soda fountain (or “soda fountain”, as soda water came to be called), a pump installed on pharmacy counters so that the liquid can be carbonated on the spot, adding different flavors to the customer’s taste. The first soft drinks in history continued, therefore, to be marketed as medicinal products – and it was also an American pharmacist, John Pemberton, who created the most famous of them, Coca-Cola, in 1886.
At the beginning of the 20th century, soda fountains began to migrate to snack bars and ice cream parlors – but their days were numbered with the emergence of new technologies that made it possible to produce glass bottles on an industrial scale and the cap in the shape of a crown, which prevented the gas from escaping. escape. Only then could people finally take home their favorite sodas.
Elite drink gained popularity on pharmacy counters
1772-1773 – VANTGUARD BOMB
Praised for its refreshing and antacid properties, sparkling mineral water became a hit among the European elite. This has led some of the continent’s most renowned chemists to research ways to artificially gasify water. The discovery that a pump helps fix carbon dioxide in the liquid, made by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, paves the way
1782 – PIONEER APOTHECARY
In the city of Manchester, the English pharmacist Thomas Henry puts Priestley’s ideas into practice and becomes the first to produce and commercialize artificially carbonated water
1794 – TONIC DYNASTY
In Geneva, another student of the techniques developed by Priestley and Lavoisier, the Swiss jeweler Jacob Schweppe, began to sell his water with high levels of carbon dioxide, which became the most appreciated brand on the European market. This is how the dynasty that still manufactures one of the most popular tonic waters in the world, Schweppes, is inaugurated.
1819 – IT’S SODA!
The United States takes the lead in beverage carbonation technology with the soda fountain, patented by Samuel Fahnestock. The device is an adaptation of the well-known pump, installed in pharmacy counters to produce the drink on the spot, straight into the customer’s glass. American soda water is born, also called club soda or soda pop, the mother of the modern soft drink, which soon begins to gain its first flavors: ginger and lemon
1838 – TUTTI FRUTTI
In the US state of Philadelphia, French immigrant Eugéne Roussel discovers that the best way to give fruit flavor to sparkling water is in the form of syrups. Four years later, several of his colleagues moved to New York to open soda pop bottlers and, from 1850 onwards, new flavors began to emerge: vanilla, strawberry, raspberry.
1886 – BILLIARDARY ENERGY
In the city of Atlanta, pharmacist John Pemberton creates a special soda, conceived as an invigorating tonic, from the combination of cocaine and kola nut (an African plant with a high concentration of caffeine). Coca-Cola would become the best-selling soft drink on the planet – but only after removing cocaine from its original formula in 1903
1921 – OUR THING
Brazil gloriously enters the soft drink industry with Guaraná Champagne Antarctica, produced from the extract of the Amazonian fruit – rich in caffeine, like the African kola nut. The drink became so popular that even Coca-Cola had to launch a Guarana brand.
1952 – FASTEN YOUR BELTS
Named No-Cal Beverage, the first diet soda is launched in the United States
1957 – PACKAGING CHANGE
The glass container suffers its first shock with the appearance of the aluminum can. The decisive blow would come in the 1970s, with plastic bottles, especially PET (polyethylene terephthalate) – an unbreakable, lightweight and recyclable material.
2001 – GLOBAL DOMAIN
The soft drink industry closes the year with total sales of 61 billion dollars. About 28% of that amount comes from the best-selling drink of all, Coca-Cola. In second place, with 10%, comes its arch-rival Pepsi-Cola