BY DR TONY M. Monda
In the late 18th century, scientists made important progress in replicating naturally carbonating carbonated mineral waters, when an Englishman Joseph Priestley, in 1767, discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide to make carbonated water. His invention of carbonated water (later known as soda water, for the use of soda powders in its commercial manufacture), is the major and defining component of most soft drinks.
Carbonated drinks, fizzy drinks or soft drinks as they are known in Zimbabwe, are beverages that consist mainly of carbonated water mixed with flavoured syrup. The dissolution of carbon dioxide (CO 2) in a liquid, gives rise to the drink’s ‘effervescence’ or fizz.
Carbon dioxide is only weakly soluble in water; therefore, it separates into a gas when the pressure is released.
The process involves injecting carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is removed, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which causes the solution to become effervescent, or fizzy.
Carbonation levels in carbonated/soft drinks range up to 5 volumes of CO 2 per liquid volume. Ginger Ale, Colas and related drinks are carbonated with 3.5 volumes. Other drinks, often fruity ones, are carbonated less – thus have less ‘fizz’. In Zimbabwe traditional beer is being carbonated by Delta Breweries in their Chitungwiza branch, with an alcohol content of 3-5%. This gives the drink a longer shelf life and makes it transportable throughout the country.
Within a decade of Joseph Priestley’s invention, inventors in Britain and Europe used his concept to produce drinks in greater quantities. One such inventor was Johann Jacob Schweppe, who formed Schweppes in 1783 and began selling the world’s first bottled soft drink. It was not long before flavoring was combined with carbonated water.
Pharmacists selling mineral waters began to add herbs, fruit extracts and other substances and chemicals to unflavored mineral water. Orange flavoured Sparletta was introduced in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), in June 1955.
In1851 Schweppes was designated the official supplier of drinks for the Great Exhibition held at Hyde Park, London. He sold over a million bottles of lemonade, ginger beer, Seltzer water and soda water. In the United States drugstore soda fountains became popular due to the belief that carbonated water was good for one’s health and many Americans would frequent the soda fountain daily.
In Zimbabwe, Schweppes mineral was water launced in July 1956 and the first Fanta in southern Africa was produced by Bulawayo Bottlers in November 1956. Fanta was introduced in Salisbury (Harare), in May 1956.
The origins of soft drinks lie in the development of fruit-flavoured drinks. In the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavoured soft drinks were widely drunk. These were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey. Other common ingredients included lemon, apple, tamarind, pomegranate, jujube, sumac, musk, mint and ice. These drinks later became popular in Medieval Europe where the word “syrup”; was derived from the Arabic language.
Another early type of soft drink was lemonade, made of water and lemon juice sweetened with honey, but without carbonated water. In 1676 the Compagnie des Limonadiers of Paris was granted a monopoly for the sale of lemonade soft drinks. Vendors carried tanks of lemonade on their backs and dispensed cups of the soft drink to Parisians.
Soft drinks soon outgrew their origins in the medical world and became a widely consumed product, available cheaply for the masses. Soft drink brands founded in the 19th Century include R. White’s Lemonade in 1845, Dr Pepper in 1885 and Coca-Cola in 1886. The first coca-cola was produced in Salisbury (Harare), in December 1948. Subsequent brands that are also familiar to Zimbabwe today include Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta, 7Up and RC Cola.
In the second half of the 19 th Century mixer drinks such as tonic water became popular. Tonic water was originally quinine added to water as a prophylactic against malaria and was consumed by British officials stationed in the tropical areas of South Asia and Africa.
The mixed drink Gin and Tonic also originated in the British Colonies of India and Africa, when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin.
As the quinine powder was so bitter, people began mixing the powder with soda and sugar; thus creating tonic water. The first commercial tonic water was produced in 1858.
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink that has been manufactured for 137 years. It was first introduced as a ‘nerve tonic’ in May 1886 by John Stith Pemberton, a Confederate Colonel wounded in the American Civil War became addicted to morphine. Pemberton who had a medical degree sought to find a substitute for his addiction.
In 1885 Pemberton’s Eagle Drug and Chemical House his drugstore in Columbus, Georgia, registered ‘Pemberton’s French Wine Coca’-a nerve tonic that included the African kola nut, the beverage’s source of caffeine.
That same year a Spanish drink called “Kola Coca” was presented at a contest in Philadelphia; a year before the official birth of Coca-Cola. The rights for this Spanish drink were bought by Coca-Cola in 1953.
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. E- mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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