May 21st, 2007

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Mixed Bag
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I Want to Assemble a Big List of National Sodas

Kinnie: The Cough Syrup ColaHere in Malta, there’s a local soda called Kinnie. It’s fairly popular, though it must be an acquired taste, because to me it tastes like nineteenth-century cough syrup.

When I lived in Ireland, I learned about Club Orange, which was a popular citrus soda native to the country.

I’ve begun to wonder if there are similarly popular, locally-made sodas in other countries. Does Canada have one? Canada Dry, but that’s not really popular enough to be as omnipresent as Kinnie and Club Orange.

Do you know of any such soda-nation pairs? I’m making a list.

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Comments: 33 Responses so far

Patricia Foster
May 21st, 2007
7:25 am

I know of a couple:

Orangina - France (it’s imported to Canada, I like this one)

Iron Brew - Scotland (really strong ginger beer)

I don’t recall the name of the one I had in australia but it’s raspberry soda pop. This flavour is very popular there. Does anyone know the name of this one?

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Helen
May 21st, 2007
7:41 am

Here in Japan there’s one that always cracks me up when people say the name… Calpis. It’s sort of a mix of soda and milk.

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Manni
May 21st, 2007
7:49 am

Germany:

Fanta - Orange
Afri Cola - well… cola.
Bluna - Orange stuff
Bionade - Brewed, organic and mighty good.

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Jacques René Zammit
May 21st, 2007
7:49 am

Kinnie rocks!

In Cuba I noticed they had a drink called MALTA. Sort of malt with fizz… did not like it at all!

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Catherine
May 21st, 2007
8:07 am

Kinnie, I have been told, was inspired by the Italian bitter citrus soda, Chinotto.

Fellow Canucks may have tried the Canada-bottled version of Chinotto, Brio. It’s like a Kinnie lite.

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Joe Drumgoole
May 21st, 2007
3:42 pm

Peru - Inca Cola. I’m not making this up. Its a dayglo yellow colour and tastes like cream soda.

UK - Tizer. A variation on red lemonade.

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Jordan
May 21st, 2007
4:10 pm

Malaysia: 100 Plus, a carbonated ’sports drink’. At least I think it’s Malaysian. Sure is popular here.

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Michael Kwan
May 21st, 2007
5:15 pm

Patricia: Orangina isn’t really a “soda”; it’s basically carbonated orange juice.

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Ashley
May 21st, 2007
7:40 pm

Jamaica - Ting, best damn grapefruit soda ever. It’s made in Jamaica, but you could say it’s a regional drink for all the Caribbean.

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Patricia Foster
May 21st, 2007
7:49 pm

Michael:
What makes something a soda? The ingredients on Mountain Dew also includes orange juice.

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Travis
May 21st, 2007
9:15 pm

I LOVE Inca Cola. It’s completely addicting.

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Brian El
May 22nd, 2007
12:11 am

Darren: here’s four more for you

England: Myora Twist — much like red lemonade)

Scotland : Highands Red — also like red lemonade)

France: La Creve — delicious orange drink ( like Orangina)

Austrailia: Blue Citrus ( a Citrus Soda)

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heloise
May 22nd, 2007
2:54 am

from italy

- lemonsoda, oransoda, pelmosoda (sodas with lemon, orange, grapefruit)

- inca cola (not italian, but very popular in milan)

- spumador: originally was only black, but now comes in different flavours (http://www.spumador.com/ourBrands/bevandeGassate/spumador.html)

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Paula
May 22nd, 2007
7:27 am

Did anyone mention Vernor’s? It’s a gold-colored, strong, extra-carbonated ginger ale that is only found in the Mid-West US (especially popular in Detroit/Michigan.) Canada Dry tastes disgusting compared to Vernor’s. Vernor’s is sweeter but also has more ginger-bite. When you drink it for the first few times pretty much everyone gets bubbles up their nose which makes them sneeze! Detroit locals like to mix it with vanilla ice cream and call that a “Boston Cooler” (no idea why because Vernor’s doesn’t seem to be that popular in Boston!)

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Carlos
May 22nd, 2007
11:24 am

Portugal - Sumol! There’s even a Facebook group for the fans.

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Carlos
May 22nd, 2007
2:23 pm

India - Thumbs Up! (Apparently, Coke and it’s products weren’t too welcome way back and they set up their own soda versions. Thumbs Up goes well with Goan feni, a local “firewater” mixture….)

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Patricia Foster
May 22nd, 2007
3:14 pm

Remember “Bubble Up” and “Aspen” (which was an apple one) sodas? Do they still exist?

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alexis
May 22nd, 2007
6:55 pm

In Indonesia they had a fantastic drink called Green Sands. Apple, malt and lime. It was delicious.

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Brian El
May 22nd, 2007
10:57 pm

Almost forgot, Lomu Hog from the South Island in NZ. A delicious Lemon Soda.

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Erika
May 22nd, 2007
11:41 pm

I’ve been beaten to Fanta. I have a friend who collects pop cans and such, and was surprised to find a Fanta bottle in her collection because I’ve NEVER seen it in Canada.

Patricia - is it chic-a-cherry cola? (throwback to the 90s here) ;)

I saw a woman drinking a double-tall can of … some kind of Asian tea or soda. (I hope it was tea.)

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Lauren Wood
May 23rd, 2007
3:09 am

New Zealand has Lemon and Paeroa, which is lemon-flavoured. Germany has Spezi, which is more or less a mixture of cola and Fanta. Then there is Schweppes Bitter Lemon, available in some countries (mostly European IIRC)but not everywhere other Schweppes products are sold. These are all fairly mainstream in their respective countries. BTW, one factoid I remember reading one time is that Fanta originated in Germany during the second world war when they couldn’t get the syrup for Coca-Cola.

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Patricia Foster
May 23rd, 2007
7:51 am

Erika:

Fanta was in canada in the 80s. I also remember a weird commercial with a woman with orange hair, orange clothes rocking out. And the tag line was: Fanta! The Electric Orange! Positively Shocking!

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Simon
May 23rd, 2007
2:10 pm

Another New Zealand oddity is Raspberry and Coke. Once upon a time it was ordered by the jugful at one’s local pub, now it’s available premixed at the supermarket.

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Heron
May 23rd, 2007
2:28 pm

Carlos beat me to Thumbs Up in India (which actually looks more like Thumps Up on the label) but they also have Gold Spot (orange) and Limca (lemon lime). I don’t recall the name of the cola, I just remember it was particularly nasty, so I never drank it. Gold Spot and Limca were both at least palatable.

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Adriana
May 25th, 2007
4:37 am

Colombia:

A company called Postobon makes:
1) Manzana (apple flavoured) and
2) Colombiana (”champagne cola”)

Both are great, but I especially love manzana. The whole carbonated apple drink idea is wonderful (even if this one is artificially flavoured - other places like in Austria have carbonatated real apple juice.. mmmm)

It’s slightly embarrasing to go elsewhere and not have a domestic soft drink industry/labels.

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nick s
June 19th, 2007
5:51 pm

England: Dandelion and burdock.

Lilt is made by Coca-Cola for the UK market: it’s a Caribbean-style pineapple-grapefruit soda. Coke also makes bitter chinotto sodas for the Italian market: you can sample them (along with all the other foreign varieties) at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.

Mexico has apple soda, most famously Sidral Mundet.

Australia has lemon, lime and bitters: usually made to spec, but now sold pre-mixed.

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Josh
July 6th, 2007
8:06 am

I started an online store just over a year ago fro this very same reason. I have researched what’s available around the US and beyond and have a list of over 1700 sodas,juices, energy drinks and well, only things available in glass bottles.

Some brands that many don’t know still exist in the US are:
Big Red
Bubble Up
Frostie
Jolt
Moxie
Nehi
Nesbitt’s

From other countries I currently have:
Africa:Fanta lemon & orange, Malta Guinness and Coke
Australia: Bundaberg ginger beer
Canada: Ting not from Jamaica as someone else posted, it just uses Jamaican grapefruit.
Ecuador: Fanta orange,Manzana, Tropical
El Salvador: Uva
France: Lorina lemonades & Orangina
India: Thums Up, Limca, Fanta Orange
Italy: San Pellegrino
Japan; Ramune no cap, uses marbles
Macedonia: Fanta orange & Shokata
Mexico: Jarittos, Barrilitos, Sidral, Senorial, Boing, Malta Goya, Crush, Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, Fanta, Fresca.
Philippines: Royal, Sarsi
Slovenia: Cockta, Jupi
Thailand: Fanta (orange, lime, black currant)

Please visit my online store and see what all there is out there.
http://stores.ebay.com/Hip-Hop-Soda-Pop-Shop

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Tony Skaggs
July 17th, 2007
1:31 pm

This is a great idea :-) I know of two cola drinks from the former German Democratic Republic (you know - East Germany) They did not have Coke or Pepsi. They had at least two of their own though: Club Cola and Margon Cola. I’m not sure if they are still produced but they were at least until 1990. And by the way, they were disgusting!!

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Calum
January 25th, 2008
5:12 am

Scotland also has a drink called Moray Cup, which is delightful. It’s a lot more popular in the north east than anywhere else though.

And to the first commenter - it’s Irn Bru, and it’s not a really strong ginger beer - sorry! It’s just a very, very sugarry fruit flavoured ’soda’

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Sean
March 31st, 2008
3:52 pm

Does anyone know the national soda of Croatia and Ecuador? Please E-mail me if you do.

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Poop
March 31st, 2008
3:56 pm

i need the national sodas for Ecuador and Croatia please email me at Lance392alot@hotmail.com Thank you.

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carmen
November 2nd, 2008
8:38 pm

look up Galco’s in LA Calif. Perhaps they will send you a catalogue. I sure wish I had a Kinnie out here in Ca.

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carmen
November 2nd, 2008
8:41 pm

Birch beer in Pennsylvania. Unique to that part of the world…tastes like root beer. Non alcoholic of course.

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