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DailyDirt: Uncommon Un-Colas

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A vast number of soft drinks are available, and some of the most popular ones seem to have started as medicinal tonics (even the ones that aren’t called “energy drinks” nowadays). Coca-cola was once a headache medicine that contained an unhealthy amount of cocaine — that wasn’t completely removed until 1929. Here are just a few other strange sodas with some unusual natural ingredients.

• Pepsi is launching a new soda sweetened with stevia (and sugar), but it’s only going to be available online at Amazon. Pepsi True is not shipping yet, but there are already a few reviews from people who haven’t tasted it. [url]
• Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda has been around since 1868, and it may be the only celery-flavored soda that is mass-produced commercially. Celery was once considered a superfood with medicinal powers, so they made a tonic from it, and that story is nearly the same for several other popular soft drinks with supposedly healthy ingredients. [url]
• The Un-Cola 7 Up was also known as ‘Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda’ when it debuted in 1929. The original formula also contained lithium which, at high doses, is prescribed to treat bi-polar disorder. Lithium citrate was removed from 7 Up by the 1950s, but the drink still contains only “100% natural” flavors. (Note: drinking water may contain trace amounts of lithium, too.) [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: 7up, cel-ray, cocaine, drinks, food, lithium, natural ingredients, pop, soda, stevia, sugar, tonic
Companies: 7up, coca cola, pepsi

DailyDirt: Healthier Sodas Still Aren't That Healthy

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It’s not easy to introduce a new soda (or pop or whatever you like to call carbonated soft drinks). Just try to find a bottle of New Coke, Crystal Pepsi, OK Soda or 7Up Gold — and those are just the discontinued sodas that had some significant marketing campaigns behind them. The successful introduction of diet sodas has evolved into a trend toward “healthier” sodas with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, real sugar, no BVO, herbal supplements and all sorts of other ingredients that might provide some kind of health benefit. However, some of these healthy sodas are dying off because consumers don’t seem to want sodas that sound too good for you. Here are just a few examples of healthier sodas you might want to try.

• Pepsi Special is a diet soda that contains dextrin — an indigestible fiber that can make a person feel full and reduce the body’s ability to absorb fat from foods. This beverage has recently been approved for sale in Japan, but it’s not the only soft drink with dextrin on the Japanese market. (NB: drinking a lot of indigestible fiber might keep you in the bathroom for a bit longer than usual…) [url]
• A few years ago, Coke and Pepsi both introduced “healthy” sodas (Diet Coke Plus and Tava, respectively). These carbonated beverages were fortified with vitamins and minerals, but they didn’t quite catch on. [url]
• Coke and Pepsi weren’t the first to try adding vitamins and minerals to soda — in 2004, 7Up Plus hit the shelves a few years before Diet Coke Plus and Tava. 7Up with antioxidants also ran into some problems, and a lawsuit from the Center for Science in the Public Interest made the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group agree to stop adding vitamin E to drinks and claiming to have antioxidant health benefits. [url]

Filed Under: 7up, 7up plus, antioxidants, dextrin, diet coke plus, diet soda, drink, fiber, food, health, minerals, new coke, pepsi special, pop, soda, tava, vitamins
Companies: coca cola, dr pepper snapple group, pepsi