SODA
MEANING: Soft drinks are the class of non-alcoholic beverage, usually but not necessarily carbonated, that typically contains a natural or artificial sweetening agent, edible acids, natural or artificial flavors, and sometimes juices.
SODA SPECIALTY There are many types of soft drinks. Mineral waters are very popular in Europe and Latin America. Kava, made from the roots of a shrub, Piper methysticum, is consumed by the people of Fiji and other Pacific islands. In Cuba people enjoy a carbonated cane juice; its flavor comes from unrefined syrup. In tropical areas, where diets often lack sufficient protein, soft drinks containing soybean meal have been marketed. In Egypt carob or carob extract is used. In Brazil, a mate-based soft drink is made. The whey obtained from making buffalo cheese is gasified and consumed as a soft drink in North Africa. Some Eastern Europeans enjoy a drink made from stale fermented bread. Honey and orange juice go into a popular Israeli drink.
HISTORY OF SOFT DRINKS
The first commercialized soft drinks appeared in the 17th century as a mixture of water and lemon juice sweetened with honey. In 1676 the Compagnie de Limonadiers was formed in Paris and given a monopoly on the sale of its products. Vendors carried tanks on their backs from which they dispensed glasses of lemonade.
Carbonated drinks and waters developed out of European attempts in the 17th century to imitate the popular and naturally effervescent waters of famous springs, with primary interest in their reputed therapeutic values. Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1577 – 1644) first used the term gas in his reference to carbon dioxide content. Gabriel Venel referred to aerated water, confusing the gas with ordinary air. Joseph Black named the gaseous constituent fixed air.
Robert Boyle, the Anglo-Irish scientist who helped found modern chemistry, published his short memoirs for the Experimental Natural History of Mineral Waters in 1685. It included sections on examining mineral springs, the properties of water, and its effects on bodies. humans. , and, finally, “of the imitation of natural medicinal waters by chemical and other artificial means”.
Numerous reports of experiments and research were included in the philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London in the late 18th century, including studies by Stephen Hales, Joseph Black, David Macbride, William Browning, Henry Cavendish, Thomas Lane, and others.
Joseph Priestley is nicknamed “the father of the soft drink industry” for his experiments with gas obtained from the fermentation vats of a brewery. In 1772 he demonstrated a small carbonating apparatus to the London College of Physicians, suggesting that, with the aid of a pump, water could be further impregnated with fixed air. Antoine Lavoisier in Paris made the same suggestion in 1773.
Thomas Henry, an apothecary in Manchester, England, is credited with the first production of carbonated water, which he made in 12-gallon barrels using an apparatus based on Priestley’s, Jacob Schweppe, a jeweler in Geneva, read Priestley’s papers and Lavoisier and determined to make a similar device. In 1794 he was selling his highly carbonated artificial mineral waters to his friends in Geneva; he later opened a business in London.
At first, bottled waters were used for medicinal purposes, as evidenced by a letter written by the English industrialist Matthew Boulton to the philosopher Erasmus Darwin in 1794: “J. Schweppe prepares his mineral waters of three types. Number 1 is for drinking in common with dinner. No. 2 is for patients with nephritis and No. 3 contains the highest amount of alkali given only in more violent cases.” Around 1820, improvements in the manufacturing process allowed much higher production, and bottled water became popular. Mineral salts and flavors were added: ginger around 1820, lemon in the 1830s, tonic in 1858. In 1886, John Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, invented Coca-Cola, the first cola drink.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SOFT DRINKS
Ingredients used in soft drinks include water, CO2, sugar, acids, juices, and flavors.
PROCESS OF ELABORATION OF SOFT DRINKS
Water treatment. The water is treated through a process known as superchlorination and coagulation. There, the water is exposed for two hours to a high concentration of chlorine and a flocculant, which eliminates organisms such as plankton; then it goes through a sand and activated carbon filter.
Carbon dioxide and carbonation. Carbon dioxide gas gives the drink its bright, tart taste and prevents it from spoiling. Carbon dioxide is supplied to the soft drink manufacturer in solid (dry ice) or liquid form held at a pressure of approximately 1,200 pounds per square inch in heavy steel containers. Lightweight steel containers are used when liquid carbon dioxide is kept refrigerated. In that case, the internal pressure is about 325 pounds per square inch. Carbonation is accomplished by cooling the liquid and cascading it in thin layers over a series of plates in an enclosure containing carbon dioxide gas under pressure. The amount of gas that the water will absorb increases as the pressure increases and the temperature decreases.
Flavoring Syrup Flavoring syrup is typically a concentrated product of a sweetener (sugar or artificial), a tartness agent, flavoring, and a preservative where necessary. Flavoring syrup is made in two steps, first a “simple syrup” is prepared by making a solution of water and sugar. This simple sugar solution can be treated with charcoal and filtered if the quality of the sugar is poor. Then all the other ingredients are added in a precise order to form what is called a “finished syrup.”
Refinement. There are two methods of producing a finished product from the flavoring syrup. In the first, the syrup is diluted with water, and then the product is cooled, carbonated, and bottled. In the second, the manufacturer measures a precise amount of syrup into each bottle and then fills it with carbonated water. In any case, the sugar content is reduced to 8-13 percent in the finished drink. The mixing of syrups and the mixing with tap or carbonated water, the washing and the filling of the containers are carried out almost entirely with automatic machinery. Returnable bottles are washed in hot alkaline solutions for a minimum of five minutes and then rinsed thoroughly. Single serve or “one tip” containers are usually rinsed with air or potable water before filling. Automatic filter service from 30 to 2,000 containers per minute.