Fun fact: in the 80s, a marketing genius at Pepsi took note of Québec's own distinct culture, and got the company to run ads starring comedian Claude Meunier with the slogan "Ici c'est Pepsi" (here it's Pepsi). These were so successful, that by the end of the decade, and to this day, Québec is one of the few regions in NA to nearly exclusively consume Pepsi over Coke.
It's definitely different in Montreal, though (as things often are). On the island, the soda wars are still being waged in every supermarket and dépanneur.
My family doctors name growin up was a David Pepper. We called him Dr. Pepper. And my girlfriends name was Ruth, Ruth Beere 😅😅😝😝 Edit: just making a joke to piggyback on the original comment 🤓🤓
7:28 The mention of root beer being unfamiliar to Europeans reminded me of an experience I once had flying to visit family in Austria. When dinner was being served on the trans-Atlantic flight, I asked for root beer to drink. This being a Lufthansa flight with German flight attendants, and me being 17 at the time (definitely too young to drink in America, but old enough by German standards), they thought I just meant beer and served me that.
@@tsm688 A transatlantic flight is a long flight, so with an attentive cabin crew, maybe enough. And hopefully, get some of it away from the pilots, so they'd sober up, and note to add an extra zero to their altitude.
Something to note about Dr. Pepper (and their related soda brands) is that due to their refusal to partake in the Cola Wars, they're usually found between Coke and PepsiCo products in stores and often served alongside Coke or PepsiCo products in places where there's usually only Coke or Pepsi products, notably fast food. This means that Dr. Pepper products go on sale far more than Coke or Pepsi, customers walk past them more, and that if you want one on the go you don't have to remember who carries what soda. This, alongside PepsiCo's reported lack of interest in expanding the flavors of their namesake product (instead making more diet and zero sugar options, which itself isn't a bad concept), means Dr. Pepper is now America's second favorite soda as of last year, according to CNN.
Dr. Pepper became my favorite in part because I could reliably get it at both Coke and Pepsi fast food restaurants. And unlike the subtle difference I notice between colas or the LOUD differences between various companies' root beers, I don't notice Mr. Pibb tasting any different from what I already prefer.
I prefer Dr. Pepper over cola sodas; it is not as medicinal or bitter. Right now drinking some Strawberries and Cream flavored Dr. Pepper. There's a soda bar in town that makes various sodas into (sort of like) drugstore soda drinks like in the 1950s. Pricey but good. My favorite is Dr. Pepper with strawberry puree, vanilla, coconut, and half & half.
Also one thing to mention, Dr. Pepper is distributed by both coke and pepsi. This is precisely why most restaurants carry DP. It did change a bit when coke tried to make their own DP knockoff (Mr Pibb) but that died to diminishing sales and DP was back with coke products again.
@@TheRealNameless1 I have never once heard of this, I thought Coke and Pepsi sent restaurants the syrups for their soda for machines, and I had assumed Dr. Pepper did the same.
The japanese tend to not like root beer and associate it with the flavor of medicine, because they use the same primary flavorings as their default 'medicine flavor'
Yep I had my sister in law try some root beer for the first time a few weeks ago. That’s exactly what she said. Strangely my wife (her sister) dislikes dr. Pepper more.
"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good." -Andy Warhol
10:47 The cocaine might’ve been removed from the original recipe, but did you know that Coca Cola still uses the decocainized leaves of the Coca plant? In fact, the leaves are decocainized by a company in New Jersey, the only company certified by the DEA to handle the leaves, and then the de-coced leaves are sent to the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta
I feel like even though it was brief, you mentioned prohibition and it explains the difference in drinking culture in the US vs. Europe about soda specifically (for me). My European relatives, especially my young cousins, thought it was childish that I drink soda as an adult (I do drink a little bit much but that's besides the point, I'm at like 10% body fat, you couldn't tell unless you saw me drinking it) especially when I said I preferred it over beer but that little bit about prohibition and my knowledge of the US's history with alcohol and that little bit you mentioned about soda's explosion during prohibition clicked it for me. I had never considered this, but several places in Europe (mine being one of them) NEVER had a prohibition era or even a strong push for it and therefore never sought alternatives, with their original drinking habits only gradually shifting along with their culture but clearly no one had a desire for those to change either, leading to them seeing soda as strange and primarily as a treat for children.
Curious because most countries never had a prohibition era, but I'm not sure all see as childish drink soda as an adult. I only can tell by my experience being south american (Brazilian), but most adults drink soda all the time. My dad used to drink soda even on breakfast. He doesn't drink that much anymore because it hurts his stomach as he is already is his 80s. My grandpa used coca cola to dilute beer (I thought it was gross but anyway). We drink soda during work hours, and even on bars, I switch to coca cola when I had enough of alcohol. The most popular drink in Argentina consists on mixing coca cola with an italian bitter named Fernet Branca. They drink this so much that supermarkets sell both bootles together as a pack. Only certain flavors are seem as childish, usually grape Fanta.
I love how 5 of these are generic concepts with multiple sodas and the other two are literally just Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. Like aren't they Spiced Soda and Citrus Soda? Surge exists and is in the same family as Mountain Dew so ignoring that is weird. And what of Grape Soda and Cream Soda?
I would say that the knock offs are as popular as the others and end up being required to give the name of what they are knocking off to explain themselves.
Have you ever made a video about "genericized trademarks"? Those are brand names that are so enshrined in a culture or language that they becomes the generic word for the object (like frisbee or jacuzzi). In the Netherlands "Spa" is a bottled water brand name, but generally "spa blue" is used for flat water and "spa red" for carbonated water almost everywhere, because that's the way the brand Spa colours their labels. Would be fun to ask your viewers about the genericized brand names from their countries.
I don't know if that video would work. It would kinda just be him going "This company made a product that was new & revolutionary and it got so popular that people just use it as a generic term!" Over and over again. He could go into how that product came to be, but that's kinda getting to far away from the original concept. To me it doesn't look too interesting.
24:00 - This part is not very well researched. When Pepsi bought the recipe from the creators they added orange juice to the recipe. Go look at the ingredient list for Mountain Dew in the US. Concentrated Orange Juice is the third ingredient after carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup. Mountain Dew as we know it is a citrus cocktail. Once you realize there's orange juice in there it becomes very easy to identify the flavors in the drink. If you just add a bunch of sugar to a lemon lime drink it will not taste the same.
Also, and maybe we can blame this on J.J. being Canadian (they have weird regulations on caffeine), its main claim to fame is being the lemon-lime brand that's caffeinated. Which is why it's marketed so similarly to energy drinks nowadays.
Your explanation of root beer's distinctive root flavors hits home with me. In middle school, it was my favorite drink bc I thought the sarsaparilla flavor made me sophisticated. Now when I try sharing it with my wife (who's from India), she dismisses it as toothpaste-flavored.
Root beer is actually not sasparilla flavored anymore due to it being carcinogenic. Modern root beer is flavored with “wintergreen” which is a mint-like flavor and apparently common in mouthwash in other countries, thus why your wife may think that it tastes like toothpaste
@@JohnClark-tt2bl Correct. Sassafrass has been found to be carcinogenic, which... what? that's insane. and not fair. So now it's artificial but i'm pretty sure it has _always_ included wintergreen. and those two are not interchangeable at all What's more, there IS a modern sarsaparilla, in the form of Barq's. it calls itself root beer to avoid confusion, but it has its own different taste.
I love your Cultural Canon series - it's a great way to introduce my students to social and cultural history, and it also is a good way to subtly teach kids the basic idea that their culture isn't simply "the way things are", but that it could have shaken out differently. For me in my slice of rural-ish southern Ontario, Orange Crush is definitely the go-to for orange-flavoured sodas. (Also I'm finding that the word "soda" isn't as schibboleth-y as it used to be when I was younger.) And finally, one hearty shake of the fist at the consumer preferences that keep good cream soda from being popular and easy to find in my region. *shakes fist*
That Fanta commercial was not well received in Germany. There was a line of "bringing back the good old times", you know, the "goold old times" of the 1930s and 40s. People did not like that.
@@BryonHendrix-cs8tm Yes, during the 1930s, because of the Nazis. And the commercial was talking about "bringing back" those times, the times, in which the Nazis ruled Germany. And that is just so incredibly offensive, I was speechless, when I saw that commercial.
I thought you were exaggerating. They literally say in the commercial that they are bringing back the feeling of the Good Old Days. It is amazing to me that dozens if not hundreds of people would have been involved in that commercial and no one suggested changing the wording. Bringing back the original flavor would have been as long as they didn't pretend like it was harkening back to a better time.
Americans describe it that way too. I love a frosty root beer, but toothpaste is also generally flavored to taste good, like cool refreshing and minty, so it makes sense.
I was surprised to see you mention Fanta before Crush. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (US) in the 1980s, Crush was what we primarily thought of when it came to orange soda/pop. I don’t even remember seeing Fanta until sometime in the 1990s or so. I’ve always preferred the taste of Crush as well.
I grew up in WA in the 80's, and I also remember Crush being huge when I was a kid. My parents didn't even usually buy soda, but they still got Crush sometimes.
The way you talk about these subjects really shows why you’re passionate about it, it’s great. We could talk about just entrepreneurship or just consumerism or slavery or anything, but by going in to the history of one subject with ample regard for all the intersecting cultural trends that contribute to it, you teach a more holistic understanding of our culture. These trends deserve to be critically analyzed individually, but I think discussions of seemingly “unimportant” history like this can really supplement our understandings of them.
BTW... Root beer is primarily Sassafras. If you were to ever break off a piece of Sassafras root (I have one in my yard) the fragrance is the EXACT smell of root beer. There are other drinks called sasparilla... which are primarily made of the other plant as well.
It used to be to my knowledge. But the FDA banned sassafras so most manufacturers use a blend of chemical flavor, licorice, and anise or other spices. I like to go for classic sarsaparillas and birch beers when I'm down in amish areas. Though i bet those are just rebranding of the same flavors.
So I didn't actually know sassafras and sarsaparilla were two different plants before watching the video. I just thought sarsaparilla was what you called a sassafras drink.
In italy we have 3 selfmade sodas, wich are Spuma Bionda , which is made out of orange and taste like carbonated orange/peach tea, Gingerino which is a alcohol free version of our Campari and Aperol and Cedrata wich is soda made out of Cedar. We also have Chinotto, which is a variant of bitter orange, in taste is similar to root beer. Also The modern taste of Fanta is Italian
@@EggsBenAddict the one where he says how great Wikipedia is and that he loves everything about it. Just try and find THAT one, you'll see how rare it is!
@johnwalker7592 There's no way this is true. It doesn't make sense when you consider the common cutting agents are non-habit forming (like laxatives and de-worming meds). Further, I wasn't able to find a source corroborating your claim, so if you could provide one that'd be great.
A cultural landmark of the state, seriously. I was born there but lived in Texas my whole life. Cheerwine is the one big difference between the two states.
A note about the iconic Schweppe's bottles, apparently the British army really liked using them as canteens when on campaign in the colonies, as they were less fragile than the wooden Italian-style canteens issued. There's plenty of photographs of British troops in Africa and India carrying Schweppe's bottles in custom leather carriers. There's also photos of British troops in India stuffing the bottles with rocks and gun cotton to use as improvised grenades.
Growing up in rural Ontario, Orange Crush (as well as Grape Crush and their Cream Soda) were common touchstones, and Fanta was positioned almost as a fancy import you'd only find at some pizzarias. In the modern age, where I interact increasingly with American people online, it surprises me how often I encounter people who have never heard of it. I actually had assumed it must have been some Canadian brand.
No Crush is sold in a lot of groceries stores here but isn’t sold in a lot of restaurants cause it’s not a coke product. Americans love their coke products so much if it’s not coke they don’t want it. I’d say rural Americans are more apt to Crush as well at least from my experience.
I never even heard of Fanta until like past 25 or so years with aggressive marketing (tv ads). I grew up in Las Vegas, and this was back when it was still a small city. So Orange Crush was pretty much the only choice for orange soda that I remember.
I know Pineapple Crush is really popular in Newfoundland, but it's made its way across more of Canada now. It's pretty good. I think my first real exposure to Fanta was visiting Ireland and realizing they had more than just orange flavour. They use "fanta" as a generic term for soda over there since it's so popular.
We have also have their ginger ale and tonic water for sale in America. The only difference is that the tonic water is largely used for alcohol infused cocktails like the newly popular Gin n Tonic (people in at least upper class America have really gotten into gin recently for whatever reason) rather than consumed on its own.
My grandpa and I were rediscovering his old soda bottle collection and he told me how he drank “Kickapoo joy juice” when he was a kid and it evolved into Mountain Dew. He also drank “NEHI” which I think I saw in the cooler fridge a few years ago! At my disbelief.
I work in a restaurant that sells Pepsi products and we actually get shipped Dr. pepper products to go with them. Our fountain contains Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7up, Orange Crush, Shweppes Gingerale, and Mug Root Beer while we have bottles of Dr. pepper and Mountain dew in a standing cooler near the till. No coke products allowed in store though, as our fountain is owned and maintained by Pepsi in exchange for exclusivity.
I used to think Dr. Pepper was a Pepsi product because it is always sold alongside Pepsi products and not Coke products. I guess they have some sort of contract. Also, A&W has their own Root Beer, and sell Coke products besides the Barqs Rootbeer obviously, so they are alined with Coke, as is Mcdonalds and Tim Hortons. Dairy Queen and Subway are with Pepsi.
@@theme7363it’s owned separately though? Dr. Pepper is owned by Keurig-Dr. Pepper (which is owned by JAB Holdings) so it has no association with Pepsi nor Coke, hence why it can be sold alongside both of them since it’s not directly competing with them
A fun thing about travelling this world is finding the obscure flavours of Fanta. Melon flavour in japan, elderflower Fanta from Eastern Europe, Dang Manao from Thailand etc
Root beer is still pretty variable these days, especially the further you get away from the big brands. Yucca, vanilla, and wintergreen are most common flavorings, but you can get all sorts of roots like acacia, birch, or even licorice.
Didn't help when one of the bigger common flavorings for root bear, extract of sassafras, was made illegal due to safrole oil being labeled as a carcinogen. So, getting a similar flavor profile means using a lot of different flavor compounds or just going with what's easiest to procure.
@@Craxin01 I think it's more likely less common due to being labeled a controlled precursor by the DEA. Reports of it's carcinogenicity were overinflated and for a while you were able to get it easily until the basement chemists got their hands on it.
Southern Americans would also insert Royal Crown (RC), Nehi (assorted flavors), Sun Drop (citrus), Cheerwine From NC, and old guys like me remember Upper 10(RC version of Sprite). Regional favorites occasionally try to branch out into the entire country; Ale-8-1 and Moxie come to mind. Both acquired taste.
awesome content as always, JJ. I would have to say that out of the flavors I usually get it’s usually the diet version of Coke, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and maybe once in a while I will get a local English or more obscure root beer or orange soda though orange is too sweet for me and root beer can be at times. as far as regional culture with sodas, I would love to know if there are any smaller brands that have a large regional presence in the United States. I know around the world there are plenty of these such as the drink called Irn Bru in Scotland that out sells Coke and Pepsi by a lot or other ones that I’ve only seen logos for or advertising, but not really sold except at ethnic markets in the US. In my region of the Midwest, I can’t really say we had anything other than a few local companies that kind of craft sodas like Sprechers out of Wisconsin, which has been solidified in the Midwest by being sold at Menards hardware stores, and I think Target sells it regionally and might even sell it nationally.
This video brings me back to the book “A History of the World in 6 Glasses”. It was a really easy, fun, and interesting read. Would highly recommend it (the last glass is coca-cola).
The most important recent addition to the *German soda canon* is: *"Club Mate"* pronounced Mah-tuh. The favorite choice of university students and techno ravers. 🖤 It's a drink based on the Maté plant, which has long been harvested and consumed by indigenous South Americans. Even today tea made from Maté leaves is a super popular drink in almost all of South America. Germans might be surprised to learn that Club Mate has been around in one form or another for 100 years, when Mate tea made its way over to Germany. But it took until the 2000s for the soda version to really catch on! And caught on it certainly has! These days Club Mate is widely sold in absolutely every town or city that houses a university and is slowly making its way to rural areas as well! It was first popularized in the hacker scene of the early Internet and swept over to become the staple drink for all sorts of Hipster-types. Especially night-owls fell for its high amount of caffeine. Despite its popularity, it's definetly an acquired taste. The Club Mate company even advertises the drink with the self-aware slogan "You get used to it!" And jeez, they're right! 😅 The first time I had a sip of Mate, I was utterly disgusted. I described the taste to my friends as "diluted black tea mixed with sprite, somehow flavored like smoked ham that someone has bummed out his cigarettes in" 🤢🤢🤢 These days I can't get enough of it. It's good, I swear. You get used to it. 😄
That's really interesting. We have mate in the USA too, but it's much less common and considered more of a hippie thing. Also weird that it's considered an acquired taste, since we have various bottled/canned mate brands flavored with things like peach and mint. I don't drink coffee or most tea, so mate and its relative guayusa are some of my favorite caffeinated drinks.
The tradition of soda as a quasi-medicinal drink still exists today, but now the mantle has passed to energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster Energy. Maybe someday, a future UA-camr will be able to make an American Cultural Cannon video on this line of fizzy beverages.
@@JJMcCullough On a similar note the huge uptick in nutritional supplement culture is a pretty big aspect of the lesser 30 (and coincides with deregulation from the 90s). There’s aisles of vitamins and minerals and preworkout powders and even random snake oil products. The supplement boom of the 21st century could be an interesting topic, but it might be too broad in scope to really cover.
@@PixelatedH2O From my understanding, the grandfather of energy drinks (red bull) was marketed to the working class in Asia as an aid to keep up productivity. Red Bull still has the tag "vitalizes body and mind" on their cans. The more recent shift has been marketing to workout culture. Now most drinks advertise creatine content and other supplements despite lots of them having disgusting amounts of sugar content. Then there's the zero sugar craze that has ruined the flavor of a lot of energy drinks IMO. But yeah, there's a rich history of health based marketing with energy drinks.
I remember when JJ was awarded the award for the first instalment in the series. It was 19999 and I had just woken up from a small nap. This brings tears to my I's.
I would have to look further into it but Dr. Pepper was first sold in 1885 a year before coke. But, JJ said coke was the longest-continuously produced soda, so it is possible that Dr. Pepper had a gap in its production.
@@MC-yt1uv Dr Pepper never had a break in production, but it only went National in the 1904 World’s Fair, it seems Coke was sold more broadly a few years earlier, despite the later creation. So it seems just not as well-known (despite Dr Pepper bottles carrying the date 😂)
I've always drank Orange Crush more often than Fanta. My grandmother always had some and the orange color popped out more than pepsi, 7-up or root beer. It helped that Orange Crush was often paired with other sodas with equally popping colors: the purple grape soda and pink cream soda. Today, those last two are the ones I get whenever I can because they're rarely, if ever, available in restaurants. But overall my favourite flavor will always be root beer, specifically Barq's.
As someone who has collected bottle caps since I was 4, I was always interested in how the "soda canon" can vary by country. When I was barely a teenager, I would start going to ethnic food stores to see what drinks I could buy. In the Caribbean the popular flavours are malta (basically a non-alcoholic sweet stout) and kola champagne (kind of like bubble gum?). Russia has Kvass (kind of a bread soda), dushes (pear soda), baikal (apparently it's herbal but I haven't tried it). The Caucasus has tarragon soda. Italy likes bitter citrus sodas like chinotto. India has Limca (lime) and cumin soda. Iraq has gum soda and lemon-mint soda.
As an 80s/90s kid, hadn't encountered a Fanta in Wisconsin or MN in the USA, we had all the others you talked about. Went to Germany in '94 and found out about both sparkling water AND Fanta on the same trip. Fanta had a carbonated lemonade that would be mixed with beer to make Radler, a sort of low-alcohol beer cocktail. I think we'd encountered Clearly Canadian flavored sparkling water by the 90s in the northern USA, but not just plain old water with carbonation. I suppose the adults would have called it club soda. The German popular bottled water of the 90s was especially carbonated compared even to what I buy now in the Midwest. Somewhere in the 80s/90s period I visited one of the last drug store soda fountains in places I knew in Iowa and had the best cherry Coke of all time. The soda jerk took a fountain Coca Cola and added sour cherry syrup to it. Far and away better than canned or bottled Cherry Coke available at the grocery. Never had its equal.
I'm a Mountain Dew fan and it's mostly because I love trying all the different flavors they release. The other major soda brands will do various flavors too, but I feel like Dew releases way more. Personally, I've tried 50 different Dew flavors. They do various seasonal flavors every year (Summertime, Halloween, Christmas) and different stores have exclusive flavors (Taco Bell, KFC, Dollar General, Kroger, 7-Eleven, Casey's, Food Lion). There also seems to be more of a fan community surrounding Dew than other sodas.
Voltage and Code Red are more than enough for me. I've always been an orange soda guy, but sometimes I just want to tastes ginseg and sugar, or cherry and sugar.
it's so frustrating, because I love them, I wanna try them all. Blue soda is my favorite, and it's so rare. but I can't handle much caffeine. I'll let myself have a Barq's once in a while, but a Dew has thrice that much caffeine.
I remember this news article from about 12 years ago: A guy went rummaging around in an antique store near Waco, Texas. He found an old box of medical records from a drugstore and paid about $5 for it. Long story short: The box also contained a notebook that had the orginal handwritten recipe for Dr. Pepper. He contacted the Dr. Pepper Co. They authenticated it. It was real and they paid him almost $2 million for the notebook. 😅
I've heard of it but never tried it. I know some of my relatives used to make spruce beer, so it seems like people will just turn any tree into a flavour. I should try them sometime. My mom said her dad used to make his own root beer, but didn't say what he used.
Suppose you did a video about a) the most popular salad dressings. Would those be: Ranch, Italian, French, Bleu Cheese, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Russian, Thousand Island, Catalina, Carrot-Ginger, Caesar, Greek, Honey Mustard, and Green Goddess? I would certainly be curious to learn whether or not place-named dressings such as French, Thousand Island, Italian, Greek, and Russian REALLY did originate from those places. Another video you might try is b) what is is origin of the most popular condiments, and which ones are they? Are they: Ketchup (or catsup?), Mustard, Barbeque Sauce, Tartar Sauce, Pickle Relish, Hot Sauce, Mayonnaise, Margarine, Salsa, Shrimp Cocktail Sauce, Clam Juice, Soy Sauce, and Guacamole?? Similarly, c ) what are the most popular herbs and spices? Are they: Salt, Black Pepper, Red Pepper, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Coriander, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, Tumeric, Cumin, Clove, Cilantro, Parsley, Bay Leaves, Curry, and Garlic? Why or why not?
I'm a Patron of the UA-camr Todd in the Shadows, and JJ, you're going to love his next video. It's about Life Is a Highway by Tom Cochrane, and it's basically 20 straight minutes of Canada jokes. I wanted to make sure you didn't miss it when it goes public in a few days.
Another well done video. Me being from Toronto I have always drank Orange Crush. I've never had a Fanta in my life. I've had to settle for Schweppes ginger ale, which can't compete with Canada Dry.
@@JJMcCulloughweirdly enough in Europe Canada Dry cans tend to be placed next to Old Jamaica ginger beer in a lot of small corner shops as if they are under the general category of 'gingery'.
I've only started to see Fanta in Toronto stores within the last 10-ish years. Before that I only really saw Fanta when I traveled to Latin American countries.
@@forthrightgambitia1032 Well, they are both ginger sodas. are they not ? I also think they are put together because they are often import sodas less common in the country.
Tbh when i'm hungover or have a slight stomach ache coke does wonders (well that and a spliff, and there are studies that confirm it's stomachache healing properties. Same recipe as Anthony Bourdain. Guy knew his stuff). I say coke and not pepsi because coke is often gassier. I like pepsi too but i feel it goes better with heartier meals because of this, and also because it has more lemon flavor. Coke on its own is a masterpiece. I swear they found a way to put coke in there in a way it passes tests. Some of my family members even refuse to put ice or a slice of lemon in their glasses because it spoils the flavor for them. Sumol Ananás Supremacy BTW. Try it if you ever find it. You won't regret it
Serbia’s main carbonated drink, a carbonated water called Knjaz Miloš, after a former monarch of the country, is still, to my knowledge, naturally carbonated at least according to some sites (others have no info on the question). It has the same spa for the rich -> water bottling plant pipeline and despite seemingly being naturally carbonated, is nit fancy but rather the default mineral water every family purchases at the grocery store (and then later stores homemade brandy in the emptied bottle when they’re done with it). Goes back to the early 1800s when Prince Miloš was in power. Owned by Pepsi & some Czech company now.
I grew up in western Pennsylvania. A big soda growing up was Cherokee Red. It was like a cherry soda. I also wished JJ mentioned cream soda, but I guess that’s not as popular than the others.
As a little girl, I would always get cream soda with latkes and matzoh and all that Jewish stuff from the local deli. Im still a little lost on what cream soda actually is, but even more puzzled on how it's a Jewish staple. Anyone else heard of that?
@@SamAronow I vaguely remember hearing that, although by then I think cream soda had passed on to mainstream America. It's probably worth noting that one of Dr. Brown's signature flavors was cream soda.
Can confirm, we would always get Dr. Brown's cream soda for Passover. I think the popularity among Jews has to do with the Dr. Brown's company itself. They've been certified Kosher for longer than Coke, so they got established with the delis and became a family tradition. They also sell Kosher-for-Passover variants, which means it's one of the few sodas we can have during the holiday. (Most other sodas in the US are made with high-fructose corn syrup, which isn't allowed during Passover.) That's kept them relevant for a lot of us.
We don’t have Orange Crush in the U.K. The big orange rival to Fanta here is “Tango”. Also, have you ever had Irn Bru? In Scotland it’s more popular than Coke.
Earlier this year, Coke in the US tried to introduce an Irn Bru rip-off. It was called "Coke Spiced." It flopped. In fact, they discontinued it only last month in September 2024, due to lagging sales. I thought it tasted very similar to Scotland's Irn Bru.
Irn Bru is one of only three local beverages to maintain a market lead over Coke, the other two are Peru's Inca Kola, and South Australia's Farmers Union Iced Coffee.
Great video! Idea for another potential entry in the American Cultural Canon that i've been thinking about a lot recently: Gags. Ideas could include April Fools Day (where did this come from? Could also be a good time for the video to come out); banana peels (has anyone actually slipped and fallen on a banana peel before? Why is this such a big thing); knock knock jokes; and other ubiquitous parts of american humor canon
Thanks JJ. I thinl Coca-Cola deserves a video on its own in the American culture. I grew up in Mexico (another soda super consumer) and back there we have more flavors like apple, pineapple, cherry, sangria, etc.
Where I live, Israel (but also places in Europe I visited) Schweppes is popular and is also marketed as a fancier, mature brand - it's the only one that sells plain carbonated water for people who don't need sugar in their drink... which associate the brand with fancy mature people also when you buy their flavored ones.
I had no idea that Gerolsteiner is available in Canada! I also didn't know it was naturally carbonated. For me (in Germany) it was always just a normal, maybe "premium" if you want to call it that, sparkling water brand.
Have you considered an "American High School Literature Canon" video? Books like Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc which are mostly famous nowadays for children being told they are "classics" and being assigned them in school.
I remember looking up Mountain Dew one time and reading that it was meant to be a Lemon-Orange citrus drink. From the taste, I never would have guessed that.
been subbed with notifs on for years and haven’t clicked on one for so long until now and i really wasn’t expecting him to look this different im in shock
It’s definitely not as popular as it used to be though. I agree with JJ not including it, since it’s more of a nostalgic old-timey novelty drink rather than something you can find in every convenience store and vending machine
Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a vending machine. Even at 7-11 it can be hit or miss. Certainly not something you’d expect a restaurant to have
(And another one closer to this one) uniquely american cocktails would be interesting too! I feel like alcohol and american history have a lot of overlap
I remember reading that rootbeer isn't a popular flavor outside the US because a bunch of other countries in Europe and Asia use similar plants for medicine and medicine flavoring. By similar plants I mean they contain methyl salicylate. This substance is basically wintergreen flavoring. Pennsylvanians will know this flavor as teaberry. it has some interesting priorities that are responsible for wintergreen lifesavers experiencing piezoelectricity.
I would never have expected Gerolsteiner water to be considered fancy. To me it's just the default sparkling water. Not cheap, but affordable and tasty enough. Also, I remember as a kid not knowing that the 7 in 7up is a seven. So I always called it Tup.
Sparkling water in general is considered kind of "frou-frou" by north americans, people will assume you're some kind of upper class health food weirdo if you drink lots of it.
I think if it was even two decades ago, Mountain Dew wouldn't be on this list, and cream soda would be. Only recently it seems to me has MD knockoffs really exploded in number to make it a flavor category.
@@devenscience8894 Interesting. I almost see it the other way around, Deven. (Not about the cream soda; as much as I love it, I don't ever remember it being a major soft drink.) No, what I mean is, Mountain Dew's newer flavors have made it *_less_* of an iconic "flavor". Consider: Coke and Pepsi and RC Cola and all the store brands of Cola are trying to do the same flavor, more or less. Same think is true with 7-Up, Starry, and Sprite. The Mountain Dew equivalent of this is *not* the current alternate flavors of Mt. Dew. No, the Mt. Dew analog was the development of Mello Yellow, Mountain Lightning, and (maybe) even Surge. Mt. Dew didn't make this list because of its _multiple_ flavors, but because its _original_ flavor was iconic enough to be imitated, just like Coke, Orange Crush, and 7-Up were all imitated.
These are the big seven but there are sooooo many soda flavors just here in the U.S. I'm sure other countries probably have their own unique flavors too (I know at least Japan does anyways). Off top of my head there are the old fashioned Cream Soda and Birch Beer, grape soda, celery soda, cherry soda, strawberry soda, and I think Fanta made a pineapple variety at some point.
Mountain Dew has been huge in America since the 80s. Cream soda is niche. Also Dr Pepper is now #2 in the US beating Pepsi. It was all over the news in June. Someone send JJ a Big Red for his cultural collection.
Yeah, here in Argentina I always thought the soda industry was comprised of two big brands and that the main flavors are cola, lemon-lime, orange and pomelo/grapefruit: - The Coca-Cola Company: Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Q4Tro (this one doesn't exist anymore) - Pepsico: Pepsi, 7Up, Miranda, Paso de los Toros
I've got a soda story For most of my life as a kid, I considered myself a Pepsi enjoyer. I preferred it over Coke because it didn't leave my teeth all sticky and I liked that it wasn't as carbonated as Coke. Until one day in 10th grade, I went to the corner store before my bus and bought me a can. I open it, sip it, _and it no longer tastes as good as it always did_ . I have no idea if the recipe was changed or something was taken out?? Maybe less sugar?? But I remember not liking it from then on and switching over to Coke instead.
Fun fact: In the Sultanate of Oman, Mountain Dew is so popular that neighboring gulf Arabs crack jokes about Omanis' addiction to the beverage! When I visited Oman last year, i was surprised to find an entire Isle in a supermarket, almost entirely dedicated to that funky drink.
Reminds me of when I was on board U.S. Navy ship in the Persian gulf. I would drink the cans of Mountain Dew bottled locally. And those were actual tin cans, not aluminum you see in North America. I don't remember where it was bottled, but probably Bahrain since that was the Navy's most frequent port call and moderate nation. And the can was only like 10 ounces instead of 12 ounces.
Just a guess, but that might be because limes are used a bit in Omani cooking. And contrary to JJ’s opinion - as somebody who almost never drinks soda - I tasted the lime immediately earlier this year when I had a sip!
'Moxie' is a Maine-based soda that legitimately tastes like cough medicine and was evidently marketed as such early on. It's found in Maine and northern New England still. It's.... and acquired taste. Certainly can see why it seldom escapes its home market.
Here in Upstate NY we had Orange Crush, or Tropicana Twist as our Orange soda variety. As of a few years ago, I’ve noticed Fanta started being sold, but only in 12 ounce bottles
9:06 Okay, minor correction: vin mariani and the original coca-cola didn't have "cocaine" in them, they had coco leaves in them. The coca leaf is a base ingredients in cocaine, but you have to process it chemically into the powdery stuff that we are familiar with. Yes, the plant itself gives you energy and stuff but it's not banned in the US and other countries for being a drug but to prevent people from using it to make drugs. Coca-Cola actually still uses coca leaves in their recipe, they get it from the only pharmaceutical company in the country that's legally allowed to make cocaine. So there's cocaineless coca leaves being shipped to a cola factory probably right this very second.
Fun fact: in the 80s, a marketing genius at Pepsi took note of Québec's own distinct culture, and got the company to run ads starring comedian Claude Meunier with the slogan "Ici c'est Pepsi" (here it's Pepsi). These were so successful, that by the end of the decade, and to this day, Québec is one of the few regions in NA to nearly exclusively consume Pepsi over Coke.
It is part of a balanced breakfast alongside a Joe Louie or May West
It's definitely different in Montreal, though (as things often are). On the island, the soda wars are still being waged in every supermarket and dépanneur.
@@jamesperson9900 Montréal is its own thing in many other cultural aspects tho, just like Toronto and Vancouver to their provinces
They want so hard to be different. It's so obvious, dude.
It’s also cause Coke is red, associated with the English, and Pepsi is blue, associated with the French
I know someone named Sierra Mist. She was born 2 years before the soda hit the market. I’m actually kind of glad for her that she outlasted the soda.
My family doctors name growin up was a David Pepper. We called him Dr. Pepper. And my girlfriends name was Ruth, Ruth Beere 😅😅😝😝
Edit: just making a joke to piggyback on the original comment 🤓🤓
@@wailingalenthats so cool lol
😂 i had to look up when Sierra mist came out. Saying "outlasted" made me think she was gonna be like 82. She's the same age as me- 27
@@cuppa.j0o sorry I was just making joke!! 😝
This is how I learned Sierra Mist was discontinued
7:28 The mention of root beer being unfamiliar to Europeans reminded me of an experience I once had flying to visit family in Austria. When dinner was being served on the trans-Atlantic flight, I asked for root beer to drink. This being a Lufthansa flight with German flight attendants, and me being 17 at the time (definitely too young to drink in America, but old enough by German standards), they thought I just meant beer and served me that.
First time you got drunk at 3,000 feet, but not the last, eh?
@@PierzStyx how many teeny tiny glasses of airplane-beer would it take to legitimately get inebriated?
@@PierzStyx 3000??? Someone had oughta check that the flight crew weren't sampling the beers themselves…
@@tsm688 A transatlantic flight is a long flight, so with an attentive cabin crew, maybe enough. And hopefully, get some of it away from the pilots, so they'd sober up, and note to add an extra zero to their altitude.
You missed an opportunity to try Cockta in Austria. It's one of the most exquisite flavors of soda I've tasted
Something to note about Dr. Pepper (and their related soda brands) is that due to their refusal to partake in the Cola Wars, they're usually found between Coke and PepsiCo products in stores and often served alongside Coke or PepsiCo products in places where there's usually only Coke or Pepsi products, notably fast food. This means that Dr. Pepper products go on sale far more than Coke or Pepsi, customers walk past them more, and that if you want one on the go you don't have to remember who carries what soda.
This, alongside PepsiCo's reported lack of interest in expanding the flavors of their namesake product (instead making more diet and zero sugar options, which itself isn't a bad concept), means Dr. Pepper is now America's second favorite soda as of last year, according to CNN.
Dr. Pepper became my favorite in part because I could reliably get it at both Coke and Pepsi fast food restaurants. And unlike the subtle difference I notice between colas or the LOUD differences between various companies' root beers, I don't notice Mr. Pibb tasting any different from what I already prefer.
I prefer Dr. Pepper over cola sodas; it is not as medicinal or bitter. Right now drinking some Strawberries and Cream flavored Dr. Pepper.
There's a soda bar in town that makes various sodas into (sort of like) drugstore soda drinks like in the 1950s. Pricey but good. My favorite is Dr. Pepper with strawberry puree, vanilla, coconut, and half & half.
Also one thing to mention, Dr. Pepper is distributed by both coke and pepsi. This is precisely why most restaurants carry DP. It did change a bit when coke tried to make their own DP knockoff (Mr Pibb) but that died to diminishing sales and DP was back with coke products again.
@@TheRealNameless1 I have never once heard of this, I thought Coke and Pepsi sent restaurants the syrups for their soda for machines, and I had assumed Dr. Pepper did the same.
So Dr. Pepper is the capybara of the soda world
The japanese tend to not like root beer and associate it with the flavor of medicine, because they use the same primary flavorings as their default 'medicine flavor'
Interesting.
Sounds like how I can’t stand cherry flavor because it tastes like roubotussin
Like anything cherry or grape flavored here in the states.
Yep I had my sister in law try some root beer for the first time a few weeks ago. That’s exactly what she said. Strangely my wife (her sister) dislikes dr. Pepper more.
@@sheyannev2757I can't stand artificial grape or cherry flavor because of this too.
6:38 J.J. McLaughlin with another award-winning drink in his series of sodas
*not award-winning
It's called pop, here in Canada
@@TheRealBatCave and in midwestern US
'Salutations, my friends. 'Tis I, J.J.'
@@SrirachaChugChallenge747-jq7byIt is NOT a settled matter in the midwest. I will FIGHT YOU
🤣 jk jk love u
"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good."
-Andy Warhol
Yep, I think this might be the quote JJ was thinking of? I couldn't find the one from Nixon
@@jackdavidgreen3687 I like this quote better, anyway.
I drink Big K, Shasta and Faygo. About half the price of Coke.
@@ToyInsanityaint no way the president is drinking shasta or faygo… the big man dont understand 😔
@@blazeflores2476 I giggled for five minutes.
10:47 The cocaine might’ve been removed from the original recipe, but did you know that Coca Cola still uses the decocainized leaves of the Coca plant? In fact, the leaves are decocainized by a company in New Jersey, the only company certified by the DEA to handle the leaves, and then the de-coced leaves are sent to the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta
He actually mentioned that in an earlier video of his about urban legends that were actually true or something like that.
And the removed cocaine is sold as a local anesthetic, used by doctors specializing in ears nose and throat, (ENT) doctors.
@@rriflemann308 thats what they want you to think
I add my own coke to coke
@@rriflemann308And cocaine eyedrops are used in eye surgeries.
0:33 Missed opportunity to use the clip of Biden yelling "SODA!"
I feel like even though it was brief, you mentioned prohibition and it explains the difference in drinking culture in the US vs. Europe about soda specifically (for me). My European relatives, especially my young cousins, thought it was childish that I drink soda as an adult (I do drink a little bit much but that's besides the point, I'm at like 10% body fat, you couldn't tell unless you saw me drinking it) especially when I said I preferred it over beer but that little bit about prohibition and my knowledge of the US's history with alcohol and that little bit you mentioned about soda's explosion during prohibition clicked it for me. I had never considered this, but several places in Europe (mine being one of them) NEVER had a prohibition era or even a strong push for it and therefore never sought alternatives, with their original drinking habits only gradually shifting along with their culture but clearly no one had a desire for those to change either, leading to them seeing soda as strange and primarily as a treat for children.
That is very interesting! Seems like a bit of a cultural shock
Curious because most countries never had a prohibition era, but I'm not sure all see as childish drink soda as an adult. I only can tell by my experience being south american (Brazilian), but most adults drink soda all the time. My dad used to drink soda even on breakfast. He doesn't drink that much anymore because it hurts his stomach as he is already is his 80s. My grandpa used coca cola to dilute beer (I thought it was gross but anyway).
We drink soda during work hours, and even on bars, I switch to coca cola when I had enough of alcohol. The most popular drink in Argentina consists on mixing coca cola with an italian bitter named Fernet Branca. They drink this so much that supermarkets sell both bootles together as a pack.
Only certain flavors are seem as childish, usually grape Fanta.
Could just be that Americans drink far less tea, but equal amounts of coffee, so that caffeine difference has to be made up somehow.
I love how 5 of these are generic concepts with multiple sodas and the other two are literally just Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. Like aren't they Spiced Soda and Citrus Soda? Surge exists and is in the same family as Mountain Dew so ignoring that is weird. And what of Grape Soda and Cream Soda?
There’s lots of knock off Dr Pepper
@@JJMcCullough And Mountain Dew.
I would say that the knock offs are as popular as the others and end up being required to give the name of what they are knocking off to explain themselves.
At least Mountain Dew tries being original in creating different Varieties like Voltage, Spark, and the store exclusives.
Coca Cola is only a generic concept because of its success.
Have you ever made a video about "genericized trademarks"? Those are brand names that are so enshrined in a culture or language that they becomes the generic word for the object (like frisbee or jacuzzi). In the Netherlands "Spa" is a bottled water brand name, but generally "spa blue" is used for flat water and "spa red" for carbonated water almost everywhere, because that's the way the brand Spa colours their labels.
Would be fun to ask your viewers about the genericized brand names from their countries.
Real! I need JJ's input on that Pronto!
I don't know if that video would work. It would kinda just be him going "This company made a product that was new & revolutionary and it got so popular that people just use it as a generic term!" Over and over again. He could go into how that product came to be, but that's kinda getting to far away from the original concept. To me it doesn't look too interesting.
@@Conor1_23 yeah I kind of feel like videos work better when the list of things are thematically related, not conceptually related
Fair enough, back to the drawing board.
Still, i think there might be a video in this. Maybe not a list, maybe not a J.J. video.
"Kleenex" being another. I've heard tissues called Kleenex, even when the tissue is a different brand.
As someone who has always thought of orange and grape sodas as being rivals (who are also brothers), it feels weird to see one here without the other.
And here I am wondering why Squirt and other grapefruit sodas didn't make the list.
And Fresca?
@@formlessone8246Grape and grapefruit sodas are not as popular as any of these
I’ve never seen grape soda in a fast food joint. I don’t think it is common like orange soda is in the US east coast.
@@formlessone8246while I’ve seen it in stores and definitely have had some, grapefruit sodas aren’t too popular in America
24:00 - This part is not very well researched. When Pepsi bought the recipe from the creators they added orange juice to the recipe. Go look at the ingredient list for Mountain Dew in the US. Concentrated Orange Juice is the third ingredient after carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup. Mountain Dew as we know it is a citrus cocktail. Once you realize there's orange juice in there it becomes very easy to identify the flavors in the drink. If you just add a bunch of sugar to a lemon lime drink it will not taste the same.
WAH WAH my chemical cocktail got revealed for what it is
@@theshadowking3198?
Also, and maybe we can blame this on J.J. being Canadian (they have weird regulations on caffeine), its main claim to fame is being the lemon-lime brand that's caffeinated. Which is why it's marketed so similarly to energy drinks nowadays.
@@RexPerfection His chemical cocktail got revealed for what it is apparently.
I KNEW it was orange. Surge too. Makes total sense if it was an orange crush ripoff.
Your explanation of root beer's distinctive root flavors hits home with me. In middle school, it was my favorite drink bc I thought the sarsaparilla flavor made me sophisticated. Now when I try sharing it with my wife (who's from India), she dismisses it as toothpaste-flavored.
Alternate universe where "Aquafresh" is a soda 🤣
Root beer is actually not sasparilla flavored anymore due to it being carcinogenic. Modern root beer is flavored with “wintergreen” which is a mint-like flavor and apparently common in mouthwash in other countries, thus why your wife may think that it tastes like toothpaste
@@timmason3988I think that's sassafras, not sarsaparilla.
@@JohnClark-tt2bl Correct. Sassafrass has been found to be carcinogenic, which... what? that's insane. and not fair. So now it's artificial
but i'm pretty sure it has _always_ included wintergreen. and those two are not interchangeable at all
What's more, there IS a modern sarsaparilla, in the form of Barq's. it calls itself root beer to avoid confusion, but it has its own different taste.
6:38
J.J. … 🙂
Mc … 😃
Laughlin. 😆
he was really edging us with that one
Legit came to the comments exactly this.
Surprising similarity there 😮😂
Had me J.J. McLaughin
I love your Cultural Canon series - it's a great way to introduce my students to social and cultural history, and it also is a good way to subtly teach kids the basic idea that their culture isn't simply "the way things are", but that it could have shaken out differently.
For me in my slice of rural-ish southern Ontario, Orange Crush is definitely the go-to for orange-flavoured sodas. (Also I'm finding that the word "soda" isn't as schibboleth-y as it used to be when I was younger.)
And finally, one hearty shake of the fist at the consumer preferences that keep good cream soda from being popular and easy to find in my region. *shakes fist*
That Fanta commercial was not well received in Germany. There was a line of "bringing back the good old times", you know, the "goold old times" of the 1930s and 40s. People did not like that.
That's too bad.
it would be like advertising that something had "the sweet taste of 2020"
Fanta was created in WW2 Germany to keep the Coke factory open since they couldn't get the ingredients for Coke
@@BryonHendrix-cs8tm Yes, during the 1930s, because of the Nazis. And the commercial was talking about "bringing back" those times, the times, in which the Nazis ruled Germany. And that is just so incredibly offensive, I was speechless, when I saw that commercial.
I thought you were exaggerating. They literally say in the commercial that they are bringing back the feeling of the Good Old Days.
It is amazing to me that dozens if not hundreds of people would have been involved in that commercial and no one suggested changing the wording. Bringing back the original flavor would have been as long as they didn't pretend like it was harkening back to a better time.
When my friends and I gave Root Beer to some Japanese Exchange students to try - they all said "it tastes like toothpaste".
thats what it reminded me off the first time as well
That's why it's so good
That's because one of the flavors in rootbeer is wintergreen!
Americans describe it that way too. I love a frosty root beer, but toothpaste is also generally flavored to taste good, like cool refreshing and minty, so it makes sense.
I was surprised to see you mention Fanta before Crush. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (US) in the 1980s, Crush was what we primarily thought of when it came to orange soda/pop. I don’t even remember seeing Fanta until sometime in the 1990s or so. I’ve always preferred the taste of Crush as well.
Growing up in California in the early 2000's it was either Crush or Shasta (a regional Californian variety of soda).
@@TornaitSuperBird true! We had Shasta in Oregon and Washington too (still do).
Interesting! I’m from Minnesota and I remember my friends drinking Shasta and Fanta.
I grew up in WA in the 80's, and I also remember Crush being huge when I was a kid. My parents didn't even usually buy soda, but they still got Crush sometimes.
This series is so fire! One of the best on YT in my opinion
You might say ... Award-winning!
Agreed this should be a tv show, an award winning show!
The way you talk about these subjects really shows why you’re passionate about it, it’s great. We could talk about just entrepreneurship or just consumerism or slavery or anything, but by going in to the history of one subject with ample regard for all the intersecting cultural trends that contribute to it, you teach a more holistic understanding of our culture. These trends deserve to be critically analyzed individually, but I think discussions of seemingly “unimportant” history like this can really supplement our understandings of them.
beautifully said. I truly agree
BTW... Root beer is primarily Sassafras. If you were to ever break off a piece of Sassafras root (I have one in my yard) the fragrance is the EXACT smell of root beer. There are other drinks called sasparilla... which are primarily made of the other plant as well.
It used to be to my knowledge. But the FDA banned sassafras so most manufacturers use a blend of chemical flavor, licorice, and anise or other spices. I like to go for classic sarsaparillas and birch beers when I'm down in amish areas. Though i bet those are just rebranding of the same flavors.
There are some wonderful birch beers.
Sassafras was banned because it may have been carcinogenic.
So I didn't actually know sassafras and sarsaparilla were two different plants before watching the video. I just thought sarsaparilla was what you called a sassafras drink.
When I was a kid root beer was my favorite soda and I enjoyed trying different brands. Then I discovered birch beer!
In italy we have 3 selfmade sodas, wich are Spuma Bionda , which is made out of orange and taste like carbonated orange/peach tea, Gingerino which is a alcohol free version of our Campari and Aperol and Cedrata wich is soda made out of Cedar. We also have Chinotto, which is a variant of bitter orange, in taste is similar to root beer. Also The modern taste of Fanta is Italian
JJ Mc....
...Laughlin
I was on the edge of my seat
How many canon videos do we need before we can have a canon of them?
Whatever the number, I'm in!
He should team up with Religion for Breakfast to do one about the Biblical canon.
What's the rarest JJ Canon video?
@@EggsBenAddict the one where he says how great Wikipedia is and that he loves everything about it. Just try and find THAT one, you'll see how rare it is!
Bob Dylan might know.
@@rainmanjr2007 Nice.
9:26 "oh darn, I can't drink my cocaine wine because alcohol is illegal. I know! I'll make a cocaine _soda_ instead!"
The 1800s were a _wild_ time
pure cocaine is non addictive.
I always think if I went back to the 1800s in a time machine I could become really wealthy but most likely id become hooked on cocaine wine 😂
@johnwalker7592 There's no way this is true. It doesn't make sense when you consider the common cutting agents are non-habit forming (like laxatives and de-worming meds). Further, I wasn't able to find a source corroborating your claim, so if you could provide one that'd be great.
@@TheSpencerHayes It most certainly isn't true.
@@johnwalker7592that's a lie.
A nice local soda you might want to know about is North Carolina’s Cheerwine, a cherry flavored soda from the early 20th century
The BEST soda
I lived in SC for awhile and I miss Cheerwine everyday
Our family gets hyped when we see cheerwine anywhere , we live in MS with cousins in NC and we used to make them bring them down every year
A cultural landmark of the state, seriously. I was born there but lived in Texas my whole life. Cheerwine is the one big difference between the two states.
I've always seen Cheerwine at Fred Meyers here in WA and wondered what it was. Cool!
I could've sworn you had a soda video before, thats how i learned about Birch soda and Spruce soda
A note about the iconic Schweppe's bottles, apparently the British army really liked using them as canteens when on campaign in the colonies, as they were less fragile than the wooden Italian-style canteens issued. There's plenty of photographs of British troops in Africa and India carrying Schweppe's bottles in custom leather carriers. There's also photos of British troops in India stuffing the bottles with rocks and gun cotton to use as improvised grenades.
11:49 is that Doug Dimmadome? Owner of the Dimmesdale Dimmadome?
Nah, that’s his son Dale Dimmadome, heir to the Dimmsdale Dimmadome
The very same!
Growing up in rural Ontario, Orange Crush (as well as Grape Crush and their Cream Soda) were common touchstones, and Fanta was positioned almost as a fancy import you'd only find at some pizzarias. In the modern age, where I interact increasingly with American people online, it surprises me how often I encounter people who have never heard of it. I actually had assumed it must have been some Canadian brand.
No Crush is sold in a lot of groceries stores here but isn’t sold in a lot of restaurants cause it’s not a coke product. Americans love their coke products so much if it’s not coke they don’t want it. I’d say rural Americans are more apt to Crush as well at least from my experience.
I never even heard of Fanta until like past 25 or so years with aggressive marketing (tv ads). I grew up in Las Vegas, and this was back when it was still a small city. So Orange Crush was pretty much the only choice for orange soda that I remember.
I know Pineapple Crush is really popular in Newfoundland, but it's made its way across more of Canada now. It's pretty good. I think my first real exposure to Fanta was visiting Ireland and realizing they had more than just orange flavour. They use "fanta" as a generic term for soda over there since it's so popular.
@jlbeeen I've never heard of Pineapple Crush, but I've seen many flavours of Fanta, including pineapple at grocery stores.
Here in the UK, Schweppes is still a popular brand of lemonade and tonic water
Still is one of the major ginger ale brands here in the us
Bitter lemon goes hard
We have also have their ginger ale and tonic water for sale in America. The only difference is that the tonic water is largely used for alcohol infused cocktails like the newly popular Gin n Tonic (people in at least upper class America have really gotten into gin recently for whatever reason) rather than consumed on its own.
my gf likes schweppes
Same in Australia.
I'm so very glad to hear that JJ is a fan of Root Beer like me
My grandpa and I were rediscovering his old soda bottle collection and he told me how he drank “Kickapoo joy juice” when he was a kid and it evolved into Mountain Dew.
He also drank “NEHI” which I think I saw in the cooler fridge a few years ago! At my disbelief.
I work in a restaurant that sells Pepsi products and we actually get shipped Dr. pepper products to go with them. Our fountain contains Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7up, Orange Crush, Shweppes Gingerale, and Mug Root Beer while we have bottles of Dr. pepper and Mountain dew in a standing cooler near the till. No coke products allowed in store though, as our fountain is owned and maintained by Pepsi in exchange for exclusivity.
Yeah and Coke machines will often have a similar deal, Dr. Pepper is truly the universal soda.
@@retronymph Dr pepper is a Pepsi product
@@theme7363did you watch the video lol
I used to think Dr. Pepper was a Pepsi product because it is always sold alongside Pepsi products and not Coke products. I guess they have some sort of contract. Also, A&W has their own Root Beer, and sell Coke products besides the Barqs Rootbeer obviously, so they are alined with Coke, as is Mcdonalds and Tim Hortons. Dairy Queen and Subway are with Pepsi.
@@theme7363it’s owned separately though? Dr. Pepper is owned by Keurig-Dr. Pepper (which is owned by JAB Holdings) so it has no association with Pepsi nor Coke, hence why it can be sold alongside both of them since it’s not directly competing with them
A fun thing about travelling this world is finding the obscure flavours of Fanta. Melon flavour in japan, elderflower Fanta from Eastern Europe, Dang Manao from Thailand etc
It's yellow in England instead of orange.
i wouldn’t call melon obscure, it’s the most popular flavor there no?
@@vast9467 shut up nerd
@@vast9467yes but I don’t live there so it’s obscure as fuck to me
I had elderberry soda once and I miss it
Root beer is still pretty variable these days, especially the further you get away from the big brands. Yucca, vanilla, and wintergreen are most common flavorings, but you can get all sorts of roots like acacia, birch, or even licorice.
Didn't help when one of the bigger common flavorings for root bear, extract of sassafras, was made illegal due to safrole oil being labeled as a carcinogen. So, getting a similar flavor profile means using a lot of different flavor compounds or just going with what's easiest to procure.
@@Craxin01 I think it's more likely less common due to being labeled a controlled precursor by the DEA. Reports of it's carcinogenicity were overinflated and for a while you were able to get it easily until the basement chemists got their hands on it.
@@terribleterrier1685 Safrole oil isn't just carcinogenic, it's also able to be used to make MDMA. It's still a controlled substance.
I like to try root beer in brew pubs. They will often have their own recipe to add a non alcoholic option on their menu.
Southern Americans would also insert Royal Crown (RC), Nehi (assorted flavors), Sun Drop (citrus), Cheerwine From NC, and old guys like me remember Upper 10(RC version of Sprite). Regional favorites occasionally try to branch out into the entire country; Ale-8-1 and Moxie come to mind. Both acquired taste.
awesome content as always, JJ. I would have to say that out of the flavors I usually get it’s usually the diet version of Coke, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew and maybe once in a while I will get a local English or more obscure root beer or orange soda though orange is too sweet for me and root beer can be at times. as far as regional culture with sodas, I would love to know if there are any smaller brands that have a large regional presence in the United States. I know around the world there are plenty of these such as the drink called Irn Bru in Scotland that out sells Coke and Pepsi by a lot or other ones that I’ve only seen logos for or advertising, but not really sold except at ethnic markets in the US. In my region of the Midwest, I can’t really say we had anything other than a few local companies that kind of craft sodas like Sprechers out of Wisconsin, which has been solidified in the Midwest by being sold at Menards hardware stores, and I think Target sells it regionally and might even sell it nationally.
Adding lithium to 7-Up was a bit of a smart play on Grigg's part, as lithium is often used medicinally as something to help with mood swings.
Another award winning video 🔥🔥🔥
This video brings me back to the book “A History of the World in 6 Glasses”. It was a really easy, fun, and interesting read. Would highly recommend it (the last glass is coca-cola).
Geniunely surprising these essays haven't won any awards.
Soon enough. Thanks, northern brother.
Due to Coke and Pepsi being exclusive on most soda fountains, Dr. Peper became my go-to since it is guaranteed to be available everywhere.
The most important recent addition to the *German soda canon* is: *"Club Mate"* pronounced Mah-tuh. The favorite choice of university students and techno ravers. 🖤
It's a drink based on the Maté plant, which has long been harvested and consumed by indigenous South Americans. Even today tea made from Maté leaves is a super popular drink in almost all of South America.
Germans might be surprised to learn that Club Mate has been around in one form or another for 100 years, when Mate tea made its way over to Germany. But it took until the 2000s for the soda version to really catch on! And caught on it certainly has!
These days Club Mate is widely sold in absolutely every town or city that houses a university and is slowly making its way to rural areas as well! It was first popularized in the hacker scene of the early Internet and swept over to become the staple drink for all sorts of Hipster-types. Especially night-owls fell for its high amount of caffeine.
Despite its popularity, it's definetly an acquired taste. The Club Mate company even advertises the drink with the self-aware slogan "You get used to it!" And jeez, they're right! 😅 The first time I had a sip of Mate, I was utterly disgusted. I described the taste to my friends as "diluted black tea mixed with sprite, somehow flavored like smoked ham that someone has bummed out his cigarettes in" 🤢🤢🤢 These days I can't get enough of it. It's good, I swear. You get used to it. 😄
Dang - thanks for the cool fact!
UA-camr by the name of Andong recently did a video on the history of Club Mate and recreated a version. It as very interesting.
That's really interesting. We have mate in the USA too, but it's much less common and considered more of a hippie thing. Also weird that it's considered an acquired taste, since we have various bottled/canned mate brands flavored with things like peach and mint. I don't drink coffee or most tea, so mate and its relative guayusa are some of my favorite caffeinated drinks.
The tradition of soda as a quasi-medicinal drink still exists today, but now the mantle has passed to energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster Energy. Maybe someday, a future UA-camr will be able to make an American Cultural Cannon video on this line of fizzy beverages.
It’s definitely been one of the big developments in soda culture in the “lesser 30”
@@JJMcCullough On a similar note the huge uptick in nutritional supplement culture is a pretty big aspect of the lesser 30 (and coincides with deregulation from the 90s). There’s aisles of vitamins and minerals and preworkout powders and even random snake oil products. The supplement boom of the 21st century could be an interesting topic, but it might be too broad in scope to really cover.
People claim energy drinks are somehow healthy?
@@PixelatedH2Oi had to think about it for a minute, but they have like vitamin c or whatever so i guess there's a health "benefit"
@@PixelatedH2O From my understanding, the grandfather of energy drinks (red bull) was marketed to the working class in Asia as an aid to keep up productivity. Red Bull still has the tag "vitalizes body and mind" on their cans. The more recent shift has been marketing to workout culture. Now most drinks advertise creatine content and other supplements despite lots of them having disgusting amounts of sugar content. Then there's the zero sugar craze that has ruined the flavor of a lot of energy drinks IMO. But yeah, there's a rich history of health based marketing with energy drinks.
I remember when JJ was awarded the award for the first instalment in the series. It was 19999 and I had just woken up from a small nap. This brings tears to my I's.
Al steele is a sick name, sounds like a street fighter name.
you said Coca-Cola was the oldest remaining soda brand but Dr. Pepper actually predates it by a year
I would have to look further into it but Dr. Pepper was first sold in 1885 a year before coke. But, JJ said coke was the longest-continuously produced soda, so it is possible that Dr. Pepper had a gap in its production.
Moxie is actually older by 2 years from coca cola. It was made is Massachusetts in 1884
@@MC-yt1uv Dr Pepper never had a break in production, but it only went National in the 1904 World’s Fair, it seems Coke was sold more broadly a few years earlier, despite the later creation. So it seems just not as well-known (despite Dr Pepper bottles carrying the date 😂)
Verner's has entered the chat
@@redracerb18 I love Moxie
I've always drank Orange Crush more often than Fanta. My grandmother always had some and the orange color popped out more than pepsi, 7-up or root beer. It helped that Orange Crush was often paired with other sodas with equally popping colors: the purple grape soda and pink cream soda. Today, those last two are the ones I get whenever I can because they're rarely, if ever, available in restaurants. But overall my favourite flavor will always be root beer, specifically Barq's.
I haven't had root beer in forever. I loved it as a kid but I think i stopped cuz I was the only one who drank it so it was too much for mom to buy
Ol' Smoothie Root Beer will always be the best, IMO.
right there with on Crush. i will always reach past Fanta for a sixer of Crush
Barq's has bite.
Orange Crush and 7up have more flavour than the Coca cola counterparts
FINALLY!!!!! A NEW AMERICAN CANON VIDEO
As someone who has collected bottle caps since I was 4, I was always interested in how the "soda canon" can vary by country. When I was barely a teenager, I would start going to ethnic food stores to see what drinks I could buy. In the Caribbean the popular flavours are malta (basically a non-alcoholic sweet stout) and kola champagne (kind of like bubble gum?). Russia has Kvass (kind of a bread soda), dushes (pear soda), baikal (apparently it's herbal but I haven't tried it). The Caucasus has tarragon soda. Italy likes bitter citrus sodas like chinotto. India has Limca (lime) and cumin soda. Iraq has gum soda and lemon-mint soda.
As an 80s/90s kid, hadn't encountered a Fanta in Wisconsin or MN in the USA, we had all the others you talked about. Went to Germany in '94 and found out about both sparkling water AND Fanta on the same trip. Fanta had a carbonated lemonade that would be mixed with beer to make Radler, a sort of low-alcohol beer cocktail. I think we'd encountered Clearly Canadian flavored sparkling water by the 90s in the northern USA, but not just plain old water with carbonation. I suppose the adults would have called it club soda. The German popular bottled water of the 90s was especially carbonated compared even to what I buy now in the Midwest. Somewhere in the 80s/90s period I visited one of the last drug store soda fountains in places I knew in Iowa and had the best cherry Coke of all time. The soda jerk took a fountain Coca Cola and added sour cherry syrup to it. Far and away better than canned or bottled Cherry Coke available at the grocery. Never had its equal.
I'm a Mountain Dew fan and it's mostly because I love trying all the different flavors they release. The other major soda brands will do various flavors too, but I feel like Dew releases way more. Personally, I've tried 50 different Dew flavors. They do various seasonal flavors every year (Summertime, Halloween, Christmas) and different stores have exclusive flavors (Taco Bell, KFC, Dollar General, Kroger, 7-Eleven, Casey's, Food Lion). There also seems to be more of a fan community surrounding Dew than other sodas.
Voltage and Code Red are more than enough for me. I've always been an orange soda guy, but sometimes I just want to tastes ginseg and sugar, or cherry and sugar.
RIP Merry Mashup, best holiday flavor I've had from Mountains Dew
I'll never forget Mountain Dew Black Label, one of my favorite sodas of all time.
it's so frustrating, because I love them, I wanna try them all. Blue soda is my favorite, and it's so rare. but I can't handle much caffeine. I'll let myself have a Barq's once in a while, but a Dew has thrice that much caffeine.
I remember this news article from about 12 years ago: A guy went rummaging around in an antique store near Waco, Texas. He found an old box of medical records from a drugstore and paid about $5 for it. Long story short: The box also contained a notebook that had the orginal handwritten recipe for Dr. Pepper. He contacted the Dr. Pepper Co. They authenticated it. It was real and they paid him almost $2 million for the notebook. 😅
JJ I’ve been waiting for this video for so long, thank you very much
Birch beer is still popular in Pennsylvania and much of the northeast.
Birch beer is great. Better than root beer imo
I've heard of it but never tried it. I know some of my relatives used to make spruce beer, so it seems like people will just turn any tree into a flavour. I should try them sometime. My mom said her dad used to make his own root beer, but didn't say what he used.
You could do a video on the classic board and card game in American culture.
Suppose you did a video about a) the most popular salad dressings. Would those be: Ranch, Italian, French, Bleu Cheese, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Russian, Thousand Island, Catalina, Carrot-Ginger, Caesar, Greek, Honey Mustard, and Green Goddess? I would certainly be curious to learn whether or not place-named dressings such as French, Thousand Island, Italian, Greek, and Russian REALLY did originate from those places.
Another video you might try is b) what is is origin of the most popular condiments, and which ones are they? Are they: Ketchup (or catsup?), Mustard, Barbeque Sauce, Tartar Sauce, Pickle Relish, Hot Sauce, Mayonnaise, Margarine, Salsa, Shrimp Cocktail Sauce, Clam Juice, Soy Sauce, and Guacamole??
Similarly, c ) what are the most popular herbs and spices? Are they: Salt, Black Pepper, Red Pepper, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Coriander, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, Tumeric, Cumin, Clove, Cilantro, Parsley, Bay Leaves, Curry, and Garlic? Why or why not?
18:29 Whoa. That's rather satisfying to watch with the background music.
It was a complete coincidence that the timing worked so perfectly. I didn’t even attempt to sync it when I dragged the music onto the timeline.
@@JJMcCullough Pure syrupdipity.
Uematsu (who composed this FFVI track) probably timed the beat to actual factory machines.
I'm a Patron of the UA-camr Todd in the Shadows, and JJ, you're going to love his next video. It's about Life Is a Highway by Tom Cochrane, and it's basically 20 straight minutes of Canada jokes. I wanted to make sure you didn't miss it when it goes public in a few days.
Thanks for the tip!
Is he finally doing One Hit Wonderland again? I was starting to worry he'd stopped doing those.
@@kittyprydekissme He actually sold a few One Hit Wonderland requests this month, so rest assured, more OHW is coming!
Nice I'ma sub of Todd so thanks for minor leak
I always wondered what happens to the guy's life in the morning..
I, too, will be looking for the episode to drop
Another well done video. Me being from Toronto I have always drank Orange Crush. I've never had a Fanta in my life. I've had to settle for Schweppes ginger ale, which can't compete with Canada Dry.
I feel like Fanta is less common in Canada but it’s still in most stores I’ve seen
I've had plenty of Fanta and Sunkist and Orange Crush, and to me, Crush crushes them all.
@@JJMcCulloughweirdly enough in Europe Canada Dry cans tend to be placed next to Old Jamaica ginger beer in a lot of small corner shops as if they are under the general category of 'gingery'.
I've only started to see Fanta in Toronto stores within the last 10-ish years. Before that I only really saw Fanta when I traveled to Latin American countries.
@@forthrightgambitia1032 Well, they are both ginger sodas. are they not ?
I also think they are put together because they are often import sodas less common in the country.
First video I've seen from your channel. Instant subscriber. This video is so thicc and dense with information. The pacing is incredible. I'm hooked.
Tbh when i'm hungover or have a slight stomach ache coke does wonders (well that and a spliff, and there are studies that confirm it's stomachache healing properties. Same recipe as Anthony Bourdain. Guy knew his stuff). I say coke and not pepsi because coke is often gassier. I like pepsi too but i feel it goes better with heartier meals because of this, and also because it has more lemon flavor. Coke on its own is a masterpiece. I swear they found a way to put coke in there in a way it passes tests. Some of my family members even refuse to put ice or a slice of lemon in their glasses because it spoils the flavor for them.
Sumol Ananás Supremacy BTW. Try it if you ever find it. You won't regret it
1:50 heh "undergroond"
someone said it :3
Lol
I've always thought that it was strange that Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist were so different, considering that their names mean the same thing.
Wow, I never even noticed that!
🙄🙊🥁🥁💿
And Pepsi who owns Sierra Mist just rebranded it to Starry.
Pepsi used to have Slice, which was a long time ago (I'm showing my age here). Pepsi just hasn't had good luck with lemon lime soda's.
@@JimmyMon666 I really liked Slice. It seemed to have an almost "thicker" mouthfeel to it than Sprite or 7-Up.
Serbia’s main carbonated drink, a carbonated water called Knjaz Miloš, after a former monarch of the country, is still, to my knowledge, naturally carbonated at least according to some sites (others have no info on the question). It has the same spa for the rich -> water bottling plant pipeline and despite seemingly being naturally carbonated, is nit fancy but rather the default mineral water every family purchases at the grocery store (and then later stores homemade brandy in the emptied bottle when they’re done with it).
Goes back to the early 1800s when Prince Miloš was in power.
Owned by Pepsi & some Czech company now.
My grandfather was a salesman for Coca-Cola which means it was always our family's first go-to and now I've passed that on to my own children
I grew up in western Pennsylvania. A big soda growing up was Cherokee Red. It was like a cherry soda. I also wished JJ mentioned cream soda, but I guess that’s not as popular than the others.
As a little girl, I would always get cream soda with latkes and matzoh and all that Jewish stuff from the local deli. Im still a little lost on what cream soda actually is, but even more puzzled on how it's a Jewish staple. Anyone else heard of that?
Yes, it's flavored with vanilla.
First I’m hearing of this being a Jewish staple. Must be some East Coast nonsense!
@@SamAronow Im from California
@@SamAronow I vaguely remember hearing that, although by then I think cream soda had passed on to mainstream America. It's probably worth noting that one of Dr. Brown's signature flavors was cream soda.
Can confirm, we would always get Dr. Brown's cream soda for Passover. I think the popularity among Jews has to do with the Dr. Brown's company itself. They've been certified Kosher for longer than Coke, so they got established with the delis and became a family tradition. They also sell Kosher-for-Passover variants, which means it's one of the few sodas we can have during the holiday. (Most other sodas in the US are made with high-fructose corn syrup, which isn't allowed during Passover.) That's kept them relevant for a lot of us.
We don’t have Orange Crush in the U.K. The big orange rival to Fanta here is “Tango”.
Also, have you ever had Irn Bru? In Scotland it’s more popular than Coke.
Earlier this year, Coke in the US tried to introduce an Irn Bru rip-off. It was called "Coke Spiced." It flopped. In fact, they discontinued it only last month in September 2024, due to lagging sales.
I thought it tasted very similar to Scotland's Irn Bru.
Irn Bru is one of only three local beverages to maintain a market lead over Coke, the other two are Peru's Inca Kola, and South Australia's Farmers Union Iced Coffee.
Since I've moved to Spain I have never seen Iron Bru. But Peruvian restaurants here sell something called Inca Kola which is really similar.
Great video! Idea for another potential entry in the American Cultural Canon that i've been thinking about a lot recently: Gags. Ideas could include April Fools Day (where did this come from? Could also be a good time for the video to come out); banana peels (has anyone actually slipped and fallen on a banana peel before? Why is this such a big thing); knock knock jokes; and other ubiquitous parts of american humor canon
Don’t sleep on the whoopie cushion and getting pied in the face
I'm in law school right now, and in my Torts class I learned that people have indeed slipped on banana peels. (And sued other people over it.)
This is actually a really great concept, hope JJ reads it
Yesss, this can be a great video, imagine jj talks about pianos falling from the sky
Thanks JJ. I thinl Coca-Cola deserves a video on its own in the American culture. I grew up in Mexico (another soda super consumer) and back there we have more flavors like apple, pineapple, cherry, sangria, etc.
Where I live, Israel (but also places in Europe I visited) Schweppes is popular and is also marketed as a fancier, mature brand - it's the only one that sells plain carbonated water for people who don't need sugar in their drink... which associate the brand with fancy mature people also when you buy their flavored ones.
11:51 WOW is that Doug Dimmadome? Owner of the Dimmsdale-Dimmadome? I can't believe my dimma-damn eyes! 😱
This was great! You should make video detailing the most popular sodas of the rest of the world next!
It’s coke.
I had no idea that Gerolsteiner is available in Canada! I also didn't know it was naturally carbonated. For me (in Germany) it was always just a normal, maybe "premium" if you want to call it that, sparkling water brand.
Have you considered an "American High School Literature Canon" video? Books like Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc which are mostly famous nowadays for children being told they are "classics" and being assigned them in school.
Don't forget the Great Gatsby
I remember looking up Mountain Dew one time and reading that it was meant to be a Lemon-Orange citrus drink. From the taste, I never would have guessed that.
been subbed with notifs on for years and haven’t clicked on one for so long until now and i really wasn’t expecting him to look this different im in shock
You missed a whole lotta different hairstyles through the years!
Interesting you didn’t include Cream Soda
It’s definitely not as popular as it used to be though. I agree with JJ not including it, since it’s more of a nostalgic old-timey novelty drink rather than something you can find in every convenience store and vending machine
Cream soda is gross
Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a vending machine. Even at 7-11 it can be hit or miss. Certainly not something you’d expect a restaurant to have
@@tomrogue13
Sprechers is great. Made with honey.
@@joshdawg_21 Pretty common here in Texas. Big Red is still pretty popular.
6:45 Truly a MUG moment
A great addition to the American Cultural Canon series I would love to see is one on musical genres/styles that we consider “uniquely American” !
(And another one closer to this one) uniquely american cocktails would be interesting too! I feel like alcohol and american history have a lot of overlap
I remember reading that rootbeer isn't a popular flavor outside the US because a bunch of other countries in Europe and Asia use similar plants for medicine and medicine flavoring. By similar plants I mean they contain methyl salicylate. This substance is basically wintergreen flavoring. Pennsylvanians will know this flavor as teaberry. it has some interesting priorities that are responsible for wintergreen lifesavers experiencing piezoelectricity.
I would never have expected Gerolsteiner water to be considered fancy. To me it's just the default sparkling water. Not cheap, but affordable and tasty enough.
Also, I remember as a kid not knowing that the 7 in 7up is a seven. So I always called it Tup.
Sparkling water in general is considered kind of "frou-frou" by north americans, people will assume you're some kind of upper class health food weirdo if you drink lots of it.
Staring off, I'm hoping for an honerable mention to cream soda
That would have been nice.
I think if it was even two decades ago, Mountain Dew wouldn't be on this list, and cream soda would be. Only recently it seems to me has MD knockoffs really exploded in number to make it a flavor category.
@@devenscience8894 Interesting. I almost see it the other way around, Deven. (Not about the cream soda; as much as I love it, I don't ever remember it being a major soft drink.) No, what I mean is, Mountain Dew's newer flavors have made it *_less_* of an iconic "flavor". Consider: Coke and Pepsi and RC Cola and all the store brands of Cola are trying to do the same flavor, more or less. Same think is true with 7-Up, Starry, and Sprite. The Mountain Dew equivalent of this is *not* the current alternate flavors of Mt. Dew. No, the Mt. Dew analog was the development of Mello Yellow, Mountain Lightning, and (maybe) even Surge. Mt. Dew didn't make this list because of its _multiple_ flavors, but because its _original_ flavor was iconic enough to be imitated, just like Coke, Orange Crush, and 7-Up were all imitated.
These are the big seven but there are sooooo many soda flavors just here in the U.S. I'm sure other countries probably have their own unique flavors too (I know at least Japan does anyways). Off top of my head there are the old fashioned Cream Soda and Birch Beer, grape soda, celery soda, cherry soda, strawberry soda, and I think Fanta made a pineapple variety at some point.
Mountain Dew has been huge in America since the 80s. Cream soda is niche. Also Dr Pepper is now #2 in the US beating Pepsi. It was all over the news in June. Someone send JJ a Big Red for his cultural collection.
Internatinally, 7up is owned by Pepsico
Yeah, here in Argentina I always thought the soda industry was comprised of two big brands and that the main flavors are cola, lemon-lime, orange and pomelo/grapefruit:
- The Coca-Cola Company: Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Q4Tro (this one doesn't exist anymore)
- Pepsico: Pepsi, 7Up, Miranda, Paso de los Toros
I've got a soda story
For most of my life as a kid, I considered myself a Pepsi enjoyer. I preferred it over Coke because it didn't leave my teeth all sticky and I liked that it wasn't as carbonated as Coke. Until one day in 10th grade, I went to the corner store before my bus and bought me a can. I open it, sip it, _and it no longer tastes as good as it always did_ . I have no idea if the recipe was changed or something was taken out?? Maybe less sugar?? But I remember not liking it from then on and switching over to Coke instead.
Cranberry needs to join this group, it's the best flavor hands down.
Started telling people JJ is my cool older brother but you don’t know him because he goes to a different school
It's crazy that JJ is 40 and still looks like he could be a freshman at my college.
Fun fact: In the Sultanate of Oman, Mountain Dew is so popular that neighboring gulf Arabs crack jokes about Omanis' addiction to the beverage! When I visited Oman last year, i was surprised to find an entire Isle in a supermarket, almost entirely dedicated to that funky drink.
That's fascinating! I've never heard that before. Also, it's "aisle" when talking about grocery stores instead of islands.
@MatthewTheWanderer lol thanks, I felt something was off with the spelling😅
@@samyebeid4534 You're welcome!
Reminds me of when I was on board U.S. Navy ship in the Persian gulf. I would drink the cans of Mountain Dew bottled locally. And those were actual tin cans, not aluminum you see in North America. I don't remember where it was bottled, but probably Bahrain since that was the Navy's most frequent port call and moderate nation. And the can was only like 10 ounces instead of 12 ounces.
Just a guess, but that might be because limes are used a bit in Omani cooking. And contrary to JJ’s opinion - as somebody who almost never drinks soda - I tasted the lime immediately earlier this year when I had a sip!
'Moxie' is a Maine-based soda that legitimately tastes like cough medicine and was evidently marketed as such early on. It's found in Maine and northern New England still. It's.... and acquired taste. Certainly can see why it seldom escapes its home market.
I can only guess it's named that because it requires moxie to sell such a drink in the first place.
@@Hijiri_MIRACHIONThe term "moxie" is from the drink, not the other way around.
@@mickeyrube6623 As someone who is on the other side of the world from Maine, I didn't know that actually.
@@Hijiri_MIRACHION I think most people in Maine don't, either.
Here in Upstate NY we had Orange Crush, or Tropicana Twist as our Orange soda variety. As of a few years ago, I’ve noticed Fanta started being sold, but only in 12 ounce bottles
The mountain dew hillbilly marketing is far from offensive us hillbillies love it
9:06
Okay, minor correction: vin mariani and the original coca-cola didn't have "cocaine" in them, they had coco leaves in them. The coca leaf is a base ingredients in cocaine, but you have to process it chemically into the powdery stuff that we are familiar with. Yes, the plant itself gives you energy and stuff but it's not banned in the US and other countries for being a drug but to prevent people from using it to make drugs.
Coca-Cola actually still uses coca leaves in their recipe, they get it from the only pharmaceutical company in the country that's legally allowed to make cocaine. So there's cocaineless coca leaves being shipped to a cola factory probably right this very second.
Coca Cola was prepared on tap at pharmacies, so even if it wasn't in the base Syrup it would have often been added
FUN FACT:
The oldest continuous running soda brand is actually Vernor's Ginger SODA
Ale
@raghudurina2354 No it's actually ginger soda - there is a difference from ginger ale 🙂
@@waynemontpetit8181 You can think that if you want, doesn’t change its name.
Vernor’s is odd to me. It’s got a better gingery taste than mainstream ginger ales, but it’s so darn sweet it’s sticky.
@@truepeacenik Makes an awesome mixer for Rye and Gingers 🥰
6:03 Ginger beer still exists by the way. I personally think ginger beer is better than ginger ale because it has a stronger ginger flavour.
It's reasonably popular in the UK and tastes much better than ginger ale, which to me tastes more like burnt plastic than ginger.
@@GB-bk1nv It's also quite popular in the Caribbean for unfortunate historic reasons that JJ covered in the video.
JJ is the kind of person who you chat with and randomly makes you feel better about yourself and the world.
Thank you JJ
Hi J.J.!
I think Canada Dry is my favorite by a slight margin, maybe tied with Dr. Pepper. Another award-winning video, for sure!