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Cola

[koh-luh]

Cola is a sweet, carbonated drink usually with caramel coloring and containing caffeine.

Originally invented by the druggist John Pemberton, it has become popular worldwide. Today, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and RC Cola have become the major international brands, leading to the drink often being seen as a symbol of the United States.

Flavoring

Despite the name, the primary flavoring ingredients in a cola drink are sugar, citrus oils (orange, lime, or lemon fruit peel), cinnamon, vanilla, and an acidic flavorant. Many different manufacturers of cola drinks add other trace ingredients to the drink in addition to these flavorings in order to create distinctively different tastes for each brand. Trace flavorings may include nutmeg, lavender, and a wide variety of ingredients, but the base flavorings that most people identify with a cola taste remain vanilla and cinnamon. Kola nuts, which have a bitter taste, contribute little or no flavor to most cola recipes. Acidity is often provided by phosphoric acid, sometimes accompanied by citric or other isolated acids.

Inexpensive colas may contain only vanilla and cinnamon as flavorings, which provide a simple cola taste . Many cola drink recipes are closely-guarded secrets of their manufacturers, with the recipe used by Coca-Cola being perhaps the most famous in this respect.

In addition to sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, many other sweeteners may be used as the sweetening ingredient in cola, including sugar, stevia, or an artificial sweetener depending on product and market. "Sugar-free" or "diet" colas contain artificial sweeteners only.

Brands

The most successful brands of cola are Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and RC Cola. There are too many local brands to list, made by small regional producers but certain countries and continents have variants produced on a mass scale for large populations. Many generic manufacturers of cola around the world now exist. Dr Pepper is not a cola brand and has 23 distinct flavors (according to the manufacturer) and found not to be cola in a 1963 U.S. district court case.

Europe

Alter Cola is the native cola in Catalonia, (Spain).
American Cola and Adria Cola are the local drinks in Romania.
Breizh Cola is a local brand from Britanny (France) it offers different and unique flavors like a cloves aroma, bottled in an original cider bottle.
Cuba Cola is the native cola of Sweden.
In Denmark, the native Jolly Cola was more popular than Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola during the 1960's and 70's.
Czech and Slovak Kofola is the third best selling soft-drink in their markets behind Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
German brand Afri-Cola had a higher caffeine content (about 250 mg/L) until the product was relaunched with a new formulation in 1999, and has it again since a second relaunch with the original formulation in April 2006.
Virgin Cola was popular in the United Kingdom, South Africa and western European countries in the 1990s but has waned in availability.
Barr Cola made by A.G. Barr (The makers of the popular Irn Bru drink) in the United Kingdom.

Asia and the Middle East

Alef Cola is a brand of cola in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, marketed specifically to Haredim. The kosher emblem is as large and prominent as the brand insignia.
Mecca Cola, an Arab-Israeli activist beverage, is sold in the Middle East and parts of Europe.
RC Cola was popular in the Philippines with its franchisee Asiawide Beverages. RC was introduced to Israel in 1995 with the slogan "RC: Just like in America!"
Star Cola is a brand from Gaza-Palestine.
Super Drink is a popular cola in the Palestinian Territories and the State of Israel.
In Turkey there is a local brand named Cola Turka.
Thums Up is a popular cola brand in India.
Campa Cola was India's most popular brand prior to the introduction of Pepsi and Coca-Cola to the Indian market in 1991.
Zam Zam Cola, popular in Iran and parts of the Arab world.

Americas

Inca Kola is another brand that is now marketed in many countries by the Coca Cola group; it is the major cola in some South American countries. This bright yellow carbonated beverage is especially popular in Peru, which was once the heartland of the Inca (or Inka) Empire. Inca Kola was only recently bought by Coca-Cola.
Royal Crown (RC Cola) is widely available in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Bangladesh.
There is also an open source recipe for a cola drink, OpenCola.
tuKola and Tropicola are brands from Cuba (also sold widely in Italy)

Chemical reactions

Being carbonated, colas are acidic (carbonic acid is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water), and so can react violently with basic chemicals, such as baking soda. Many colas also contain phosphoric acid and/or citric acid, which further increases the acidity. Colas containing phosphoric acid have been linked to chronic kidney disease. Drinking two or more of these colas per day more than doubled the incidence of kidney disease, while colas containing citric acid did not have an effect.

The Diet Coke and Mentos eruption is an experiment that became popular at the start of the 21st century. Mentos candies and crystalline powders such as sugar and salt when added to cola (usually diet coke), cause fizzing by providing many micronucleation points for the carbon dioxide to leave solution. This however is a physical reaction resulting from the release of dissolved CO2 as opposed to a chemical reaction.

Another experiment involved adding dry ice, providing additional carbon dioxide can force some of the carbon dioxide present in the drink out of solution, creating an explosion, destroying the bottle.

In either case, mixing these substances with cola (or any other carbonated drink) causes the drink to bubble, creating foam and greatly increasing the pressure in the bottle, resulting in either the bottle or the cap giving way.

Etymology

The word cola may have been introduced into the mainstream by the major producer Coca-Cola, as they saw their trademark slipping into common use, like other genericized trademarks. They successfully defended the exclusive use of their name and its diminutive form "Coke" by suggesting the alternative of "cola drink" as a generic name for similar types of carbonated soft drinks. The word cola as part of the Coca-Cola trademark may have originated from the kola nuts that were originally used as the source of caffeine, or from when the original recipe contained coca (from which cocaine is derived).