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A soft drink is a drink that contains no (or very little) alcohol, as opposed to a hard drink, which does contain alcohol. In general, the term is used only for cold beverages.

In the US, "soft drink" denotes a carbonated drink, regionally known in the Mid-West as "pop", in the North, parts of the South, and California as "soda", elsewhere as "soda pop", and in Atlanta, Georgia and some other parts of the south as "coke". (Atlanta is home to the Coca-Cola Corporation).

In German, soft drinks are known as limo, the German word for lemonade, but in America lemonade is an uncarbonated beverage, generally not considered a soft drink.

The Swedish läsk means carbonated soft drink, and the Swedish word for American lemonade is "lemon drink" (citrondricka) or "lemon water" (citronvatten).

In Australia and New Zealand, "soft drink" almost always refers to carbonated beverages. "Lemonade" can refer to "lemon drink", but most of the time means clear soft drink (i.e. Sprite, 7-Up, etc.)

In the United Kingdom the term originally applied to carbonated drinks ("pop") and non-carbonated drinks made from concentrates ("squash"), although it now commonly refers to any drink that does not contain alcohol.

See also alcopop.

Some famous soft drinks are:

• Coca Cola
• Dansk Citronvand (Denmark: carbonated lemonade)
• Jolly Cola (Denmark, similar to Pepsi)
• Inca Kola (Peru, green and tastes like bubble gum)
• Irn Bru (Scotland)
• Julmust (Sweden)
• Mountain Dew
• Pago (Europe, a strange blend of lemon, orange and carrot juices)
• Pepsi
• Root beer
• Sasparilla
• Sockerdricka (Sweden, like Sprite but without the lemon-lime flavour)
• 7Up
• Sprite
• Svagdricka (Sweden, imagine a very sweet stout with (almost) no alcohol)
• Red Bull (Internationally}
• Almdudler (Austria, called a lemonade but made with cabbage and flowers)
• Moxie (USA, first American mass produced soft drink)
• Tonic water

Links

National Soft Drink Association (US) http://www.nsda.org/