After a somewhat slow start with a technical discussion of making sodas, the narrative picks up momentum and really has some pop to it. Fascinating analysis of how Coca-Cola was the frontrunner in the soda business but continually had to battle rivals ( particularly Pepsi) for dominance in the soft drink market. It has also has a good international flavor to it as they tried to gain a foothold in various foreign countries. ( )

Pop goes the culture

Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World by Tristan Donovan (Chicago Review Press, $17.95).

What started as medicine for the ancients didn’t become almost everyone’s go-to beverage at hamburger joints overnight, and Tristan Donovan—who’s previously written a history of video games—has written an interesting social and cultural history of our love affair with carbonated beverages. By the time the 19th century finally brought us Coca-Cola (or “Co-cola,” if you’re from the South), there had already been a lot of ground covered.

And Coke—now under siege for its sugar content, but through most of the 20th century perceived as an innocent treat—once had to fight rumors of the presence of cocaine, not to mention suggestions that it would lead to bad behavior.

We’ve had a love-hate relationship with soft drinks, and Donovan covers the Coke-Pepsi wars, the cancer scares, and the rise of the health-consciousness that is dealing a blow to soda sales and forcing companies to move into other beverage sectors. But it’s less concerned with the soda industry than with the cultural history of those of us who drink it, which makes this an entertaining and enlightening book.

(Published on Lit/Rant on 2/4/2014: http://litrant.tumblr.com/post/75581075944/pop-goes-the-culture-fizz-how-soda-sh... ( )

Ever since Jean Jacob Schweppe started charging a nominal fee for his sparkling mineral water in the 1780s, the paying public has never been able to get enough soda. Mix together a flavoring agent and some carbonated water and you have yourself a tasty (and potentially profitable) treat. In the beginning, sodas were marketed as cure-alls for whatever ailed you. In Fizz, Tristan Donovan compiles a well-written history of the creation, marketing, and consumption of sodas. Starting with Joseph Priestley’s experiments with adding carbon dioxide to water and ending with the complex science behind Red Bull, we get the full range of soda and soda-esque beverages throughout history. There are the classic Pemberton’s Coca-Cola versus Thomson’s Moxie versus Bradham’s Pepsi wars, and the ascension of sodas during both Prohibition and the World Wars, but Donovan goes deeper to look at soda’s impact on global trade, domestic food laws, and the social landscape. There’s also a fair amount on the almost-constant corporate espionage between Coke and Pepsi. The bibliography is decent and thorough, the writing fluid, and the story mildly compelling. A good and interesting read. ( )