'Fizzy Pop' (cabonated drinks)
The first soft drink marketed commercially was a mixture of water, lemon juice and honey sold by vendors with metal 'back-pack' containers on the streets of Paris in the later seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century, with the growing popularity of naturally fizzy 'mineral water' springs (mainly in Germany), people began to look seriously at the creation of artificially fizzy water. Chemists in France, Germany and Britain began experimenting with 'fizzy water', initially to determine what exactly the 'fizz' was made of. There was some debate regarding what the gas was, some chemists felt it was acidic, one early worker devised the term 'fixed air' which was widely used for many years but a French chemist was able to determine that the gas was made up of carbon and oxygen.
Robert Boyle Anglo-Irish scientist famous for his work on gasses published 'Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of Mineral Waters' in 1658. Joseph Priestly another gas scientist demonstrated a gas pressurisation system in the 1770's using the gases evolved in the brewery to produce fizzy water. Priestly published a book on how this might be done commercially but did not follow the idea up himself. Thomas Henry a Manchester Apothecary began selling carbonated water using Priestly's system in the late 1770's. In the 1780's a British chemist called Thomas Henry published designs for the commercial production of aerated waters.
A Swiss called Joseph Schweppe a Geneva jeweler read the work of the chemists (mainly Priestly in Britain and Lavoisier in France) and by the 1790' he was selling carbonated mineral waters to his friends. By this time drinks based on sweetened and flavoured water were widely available and the 'soda water' was seen as a pleasant and medically beneficial additive to these drinks. There was a big increase in mineral water production in the period 1789-1820 with factories being established in larger cities all over Europe and the Americas. Joseph Schweppe later moved to London where his firm invented 'tonic' in 1858. Ginger ale appeared in about 1820, fizzy lemonade in the 1830's and the first cola drink (Coca Cola) was made by John Pemberton (an American pharmacist) in 1886.
The use of carbon dioxide lead to the term 'carbonated water' for the fizzy drinks but to capitalise on the supposed medical benefits associated with the natural spring waters manufacturers continued to use the term 'mineral water'. It was found that adding carbon dioxide reduces spoilage, acting as a preservative for the water and other ingredients. Non-fizzy drinks such as fruit drinks are more liable to spoil so they are usually pasteurised, this may be done in bulk, during the supply to the filler or in the bottle.
Brewers already had bottling plants and could use the gasses evolved in beer making to produce 'mineral waters', other firms were set up to produce 'soft drinks' (ie drinks with no alcohol in them). Early fizzy-drink bottles used a glass marble to seal the top, held in place by gas pressure, this was pushed down into the bottle to allow the drink to be poured. By the time the 'crown' top appeared in the UK (about 1900) mineral water sales were increasing steadily, supported in part for the preference of religious and 'temperance' organisations for non-alcoholic drinks.
Common ingredients include water, sugar and carbon dioxide supplied solid as 'dry ice' or as a liquid. Carbon dioxide can be pressurised to a liquid but this requires a pressure of about 1200 lbs/sq inch (84Kg/sq cm) which in turn requires heavy steel containers. Refrigerated liquid carbon dioxide has a vapour pressure of only 325 lbs/sq inch, requiring much lighter steel containers which are shipped in insulated boxes.
The water is chilled and passed over a series of cascading plates in a chamber pressurised with the gas.
Typical final sugar contents are in the region of 8-13 percent.
Returnable bottles are washed in a hot alkali solution for several minutes then rinsed.
Automatic fillers process about 30-2000 containers per minute.
Vending machines began in the early C20 using ice-cooled machines.
XXX phosphoric acid
The availability of carbon dioxide from brewing beer meant that many 'mineral water' factories were built by the breweries, often forming an extension to the brewery proper. The sketch below is based on a factory dating from XXX which formed an extension to a brewery in Stockport near Manchester. The brewery is shown in Fig ___ below and the mineral water buildings shown abutted the left hand end of the brewery buildings and yard illustrated in the section on beer and breweries.
Fig ___ Mineral Water Manufactory
A special case is 'Ginger Beer', which (if made properly) is slightly alcoholic, typically 10-15 percent alcohol. Ginger beer is made by mixing African or Jamaica ginger (these produce the best flavour) with liquorice extract, hops, cloves, gentian all boiled in water for about half an hour. This is then strained and sugar is added to the liquid, caramel colour can also be added at this stage. Once the liquid has cooled to about 70 degrees C a small quantity of brewers yeast is then added and the liquid is left to ferment for a day. Citric acid can then be added for flavour and the mix is allowed to stand for several days to allow the 'mucilaginous matter' to settle out. The liquid is then strained and bottled ready to drink. This simple process meant that in the later 1940s making Ginger beer became extremely popular in the UK, leading entire countries to alter their agricultural output to meet the British demand. The craze faded away in the later 1950s, causing not inconsiderable hardship in the ginger growing countries.
Under the terms of the 1855 Excise Act drinks containing less than 2 percent alcohol were not classed as an alcoholic beverage so commercial manufacturers began diluting their ginger beer with carbonated water.
Fake ginger beer, or non brewed ginger beer, became popular by about 1900 although this stuff usually has a distinct lemon taste, to get a 'head' they add a foaming agent, typically extract of quillai bark.
Ginger ale is different, it was originally brewed as for ginger beer and there are actually two types. Pale dry ginger ale is less sweet and more acidic, it is lighter and usually highly carbonated. Golden or aromatic ginger ales are less sweet, darker and more pungent. Spices are often added to the mix, including peppers. By the 1930s however most ginger ale was a non alcoholic drink made using a concentrate of the ginger root, usually mixed with other spices and some caramel colouring, in the form of a syrup. This was added to carbonated water to produce the drink.
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