Fizzling Out: Is America’s Love Affair with Soda Over?

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Fizzling Out: Is America’s Love Affair with Soda Over?

Now:
48% of all the people in the USA drink soda every day.
600: number of cans of soda a year downed by 1 person a year
44: average number of gallons of soda per capita per year

Among those who drink any soda:
Average daily amount: 2.6 glasses
28%: average 1 glass a day; 20%: drink two or more glasses.
OR: 7.5 billion total gallons by Americans a year. Sounds like a lot, but are sales of soda in America fizzling out?

Then: The Soda Backstory:

Soda, by any other name: soda pop, pop, tonic
Who invented it: Joseph Priestley (who discovered Oxygen)
1767: Englishman Priestley concocts first man-made glass of carbonated water. And then….
• 1798 The term “soda water” first coined.
• 1835 First bottled soda water in the U.S.
• 1851 Ginger ale created in Ireland.
• 1861 The term “pop” first coined.
• 1876 Root beer mass produced for public sale.
• 1881 The first cola-flavored beverage introduced.
• 1885 Charles Aderton invented “Dr. Pepper” in Waco, Texas.
• 1886 Dr. John S. Pemberton invented Coca Cola in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1898 “Pepsi Cola” is invented by Caleb Bradham.
• 1929 New drink, “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Sodas” later called “7 Up” invented by Charles Leiper Grigg.
• 1952 First diet soft drink sold called the “No-Cal Beverage” a ginger ale.
• 1959 First diet cola sold.

Coca Cola was the first soft drink in outer space, consumed by members of the Space Shuttle Challenger in something called a “Coca Cola Space Can.”

Betcha also didn’t know this about Coca Cola:

Coca-Cola was first invented by a pharmacist to help headaches
Coca-Cola can help jellyfish stings
Coca-Cola is sold in about 200 different countries
94% of the world can recognize Coca-Cola
During WWII, 5 million bottles of Coke were consumed by military personnel
Cuba and Panama were the first countries to bottle Coke out of the U.S.

Top 10 Sodas

• Coke
• Diet Coke
• Pepsi-Cola
• Mt. Dew
• Dr Pepper
• Sprite
• Diet Pepsi
• Diet Mt. Dew
• Fanta
• Diet Dr Pepper

Weird sodas you won’t find in U.S.:
• Salty Watermelon Pepsi (sold in Japan, 2012; discontinued)
• Curry soda (Japan…available)
• Cucumber Pepsi soda (again, Japan…sold only in 2007)
• Black Garlic soda (Switzerland…available)
• Onion soda (South Korea…available)
• Tree bark soda, Mauby Fizz (available in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guyana, Bermuda, Barbados and Anguilla)

Coca-Cola is still the 100 pound gorilla, but is the soda buzz fizzling out?
 
1998: Soda drinking peaked (per capita) at 54 gallons a year. There has been a steady decline since.
1998: Water drinking averaged (per capita) 42 gallons a year.

Americans now drink:
Water: 58 gallons a year. Of that, 21 gallons are purchased bottled.

Why are people drinking less soda?

• Soda under fire for fueling the nation’s rising obesity rates.
• Kids switching to energy drinks, which basically did not exist 15 years ago
• Water (and flavored waters) and teas promoted as healthy alternative (Michelle Obama initiative)

Most popular energy drinks
• Red Bull: $3.2 billion in sales, up 8 % in one year 2013
• Monster: $1.9 billion, up 11%
• Rockstar: $325 million, up 8%
• Nos: $266 million, up 6%
• Amp: $182 million, up .8% (that’s point 8 %)

soda-mini

Sources:
http://www.healthambition.com/what-is-in-soda-why-so-addictive/
http://www.usfirehouse.com/SodaHistory.htm
http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/10/news/companies/soda-sales-slump/
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42255151/ns/business-us_business/t/sweet-americas-top-brands-soda/#.UyZG-lesB7k
http://www.gallup.com/poll/156116/nearly-half-americans-drink-soda-daily.aspx
http://www.beverage-digest.com/pdf/top-10_2013.pdf
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/move-soda-americans-love-water-article-1.1285287
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/03/25/americas-most-popular-energy-drinks/
http://mashable.com/2013/08/29/crazy-soda-flavors/