The Sweet, Bubbly Stuff That Comes in a Can

[thegrrrl2002]

Probably just me being wierd, but after living in a couple of different states, I find this stuff fascinating: The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy

And, may I add, the proper term is SODA.

Comments

[ningyouhime.livejournal.com]

That's very odd. I'm from DC originally, and I say soda. Currently, I live right along the pop/soda line in Pennsylvania, and nearly everyone here says pop!

[jooniper-pearl.livejournal.com]

I'm from Louisiana. Born here. Been here most all of my life. I am an oddball. I call it Soda. Perhaps it's because my husband is from Detroit and he calls it soda. All of my friends think I've lost my everloving mind when they ask me if I would like a Coke and I tell them No, I'd like a Dr. Pepper. They sigh and say that's what I said. Oh. Yes, then I'd like a soda please.

::headdesk::

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

The pop/soda line--LOL!

I grew up in soda-land, but folks call it pop where I live now. Which is just plain wrong. *g*

And then there's that whole sub vs. hoagie vs. grinder vs. hero sandwich thing.

Damn, now I'm hungry.

BTW, love the icon!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Hee! I've never heard the 'Coke' term, and I think that's very confusing indeed. Because I'm a rootbeer girl, myself.

[jooniper-pearl.livejournal.com]

Grr. Second posting...

::sighs at your icon:: I love Paul, he's so dreamy. I esp love DMs series. YUMMY ;P

[vickita.livejournal.com]

I learned how to talk in NW Kansas, for all intents and purposes grew up in rural southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, and lived out on the left coast as an adult for a bunch of years. I have wacky speech patterns, and they vary according to who I'm talking to, my emotional state, and how tired I am.

Most of the time for me, it's "soda." That's the west coast/media influence talking there. But if I'm tired and I want something to drink, I'll say, "I need a coke." 'Course, I actually mean what I'm saying there. I want a Coke. No Pepsi. What'm I? Some damn Yankee Republican? *g*

I never, ever, call it "pop". tingler, who grew up in northern Oklahoma (which is, like, a whole different world from southern Oklahoma -- the difference between Kansas and Texas, yes?) and has lived in OK practically her entire life, calls it "pop." Go figure.

[nicci-mac.livejournal.com]

I'm from Scotland and we call it by the brand name here - coke, pepsi, Irn Bru etc, unless you are from Glasgow, where all fizzy juice is called 'ginger' - I have no idea why! Oh wait - hubby tells me it was originally short for ginger beer but now all fizzy drinks are referred to as ginger. There ya go. How facinating.

[epeeblade]

It's soda;) and sub.

I once did a report for my History of English Language class (long long time ago) about the sub/hoagie thing...

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I never ran into that, until I had one roommate in college, and another woman who became a best friend, both from Atlanta, and both of them swore by the "coke" as a generic noun for soda-pop thing. "Give me an orange coke" is something that would come out of their mouths, and they didn't mean a Coke with orange flavoring, either (because now that we have Lemon Coke and Lime Coke, you have to specify that), they meant, orange soda-pop. Like, Orange Fanta, or Sunkist, and stuff like that. I think that rootbeer would really be "rootbeer coke". Wacky.

What I really want to know is...what are all the little "other" squares representing? What terms? Things like "soda-pop"? (Or "sodie-pop", as some folks would put it.)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

God, I *LOVE* stuff like this! What a great illustration that is! So cool. It makes my little folklorist heart go pitter-pat. (Remember: nothing is "wrong", it's all just regional foodways!)

Growing up in Philly, for me of course it's "soda", and "hoagie".

(Oh! I see you *can* see what people are saying for "other", although it's kind of difficult to browse, but I see why they set it up that way. Very interesting. I've definitely run into "cola" as a generic, I think I've even heard people say "give me whatever clear cola you've got", which of course before the advent of Pepsi Clear or whatever it is, was an oxymoron. But I forget who that was and where they were from.)

[ane.livejournal.com]

I grew up where it was pop then did my undergrad in New Jersey and it's been soda ever since. That coke thing is very weird. I remember the first time I encountered it in Texas, it was so... weird.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Pookie *is* just dreamy, isn't he? In his tight-assed, buttoned-up little way.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm being goofy and repeating myself, sorry about that! I really needed to say "I prefer iced tea." Because soda gives me heartburn. Because I'm old.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I have wacky speech patterns, and they vary according to who I'm talking to, my emotional state, and how tired I am.

Yeah, I have a good friend who is just delighted when I get all "Joisey". But hey, I don't have a freakin' joisey accent!

As for those big Midwestern states, even though I live in one, they're weird. I mean, you've got counties as big as Rhode Island. I'm not surprised there's totally different speech patterns. Heck, northern NJ and southern NJ sound totally different. Well, maybe not totally. But it is different.

And coke is far better than pepsi. And I keep typing "cock" instead of coke.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I've known a few Scottish folks, and all they've ever drank was beer. Lots of it. And I found that the drunker I got, the easier they were to understand.

The whole 'ginger beer' thing is fascinating. It's never called that here, at least as far as I know. It's just ginger ale. Which doesn't sound nearly as fun.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! At least we understand each other. *g*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

I thought the map was very fun. I can imagine it's a real challenge to present data like this. The "other" category is pretty funny. I have heard "soadie" but only when people were kidding around.

And all this talk of soda and hoagies and subs is making me very hungry.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

Ginger beer and ginger ale aren't the same thing. This I learned from a friend who is Welsh, who introduced me to ginger beer from a nearby British import store.

Ginger beer is much more intensely ginger-y than ginger ale. Mmmm.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I guess, we have Diet Lemon Coke, and Diet Lime Coke. In addition to Vanilla Coke (which might only be Diet too) and Cherry Coke, etc. etc. Which is fine with me, really, and they really ought to get get over it and put out Orange Coke too. (Since it *was* once common, in the soda-fountain days -- hmm! those were always called "Soda Fountains", too, but it makes me wonder if regions where "soda" was not popular had other terms for them -- to offer colas with flavoring syrup in them. Which is the nostalgia that the release of Cherry Coke was trying to capitalize on in the first place, but while cherry was probably the most popular flavored syrup to add, I hear that vanilla and orange were popular too; and malt, I think. Anyway.)

I've tried the Diet Vanilla Coke, but it's too sweet for me, and frankly I think it just tastes like Dr. Pepper, and if I wanted a creme soda, I would buy a real creme soda. And I tried Diet Lemon Coke, but it's one of those things where to certain people, the smell/taste of lemon flavorings (including cilantro) remind them too much of scented furniture polish or floor wax, and I'm one of those people in regards lemon flavoring (but not in regards cilantro; I couldn't possibly love cilantro more!), so I couldn't drink Diet Lemon Coke because it tasted too much like drinking Lemon Pledge.

However, Diet Lime Coke meets with my approval. Lime appears to be the new lemon, you know. As in, latest flavor sensation for junk food. (See also: Tostitos "Hint of Lime" tortilla chips, which I love with a mad passion.) Anyway, the addition of lime flavoring does an end-run around the furniture-polish problem, and I like it; even though, of course, the whole taste of Coca-Cola is based heavily on citrus notes anyway, so I actually find it a little difficult to pick out the specifically lime-y notes, but whatever, I like it.

(I was also just totally charmed by the radio ad campaign, which consisted of a filk of Nilsson's "Put the Lime in Da' Coconut" -- made famous by the Muppets, of course -- which was quite a good rendition of "You put da' lime in de Diet Coke an' drink 'em both together, you put da' lime in de Diet Coke, den you feel better!")

(Don't feel like you've missed *too* much -- the Diet Lime Coke thing is very recent, like in the last two months.)

All that being said -- I'm an iced-tea girl myself; I drink carbonated beverages pretty seldom. Most of the commercial brands of iced tea are too sweet for me, but I've had good success with Nestea's diet variation, and diluting it by about half. I drink that stuff constantly. Though my favorite is mint iced tea, which I actually have to brew. Mmmm! Why has nobody brought out a commercial mint tea? Except Honest Teas, of course, but they actually err on the side of Too Little Sweetening, for me.

[ningyouhime.livejournal.com]

Thank you! nevskaya made the icon for me.

[gigitrek.livejournal.com]

And, may I add, the proper term is SODA.

Yes, if you're talking about the white powdery stuff you use to take the stink out of the fridge or the itch out of mosquito bites. Otherwise, it's pop, dammit!

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

SODA. SODA. SODA.

Minus the "bicarbonate of"

Then again, who knows what kind of crazy words you Canadians use. It's, like, a whole different country up there.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

And if you try to make a Dark & Stormy using ginger ale, it's just sad. Pathetic. Has to be ginger-beer.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

It's getting to the point where you can actually get semi-real ginger-beer in, like, regular grocery stores. At least around here. But that might be because I live in a town outside of Boston that has a not-insignificant Caribbean immigrant population. The ginger-beer is best found in the organic section of the supermarket, although you can find a version of it in the "International" aisle with the Spanish foods. I have one supermarket quite near me that does a good line in all the sodas made by Goya, which come in fascinating and seductive flavors, like papaya, and pineapple, and my favorite, sangria. That's right, a sangria-flavored soda. In truth, it's sort of like a richer-tasting carbonated fruit-punch, like drinking grape soda but just a bit different. No actual wine, I'm afraid. The other weirdest Goya soda flavor is something like "champagne". I think that's what they call it. Or that what it looks like they call it, in Spanish, only I think they mean something else by it. It's kind of a golden color a bit darker than ginger-ale. And...I can't really describe the taste. Except it's not very exciting.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Lime Coke, now that sounds pretty interesting. Do they make a rum-flavored one, too? ;-)

I'm on board with the whole lime thing. Probably makes the diet version taste reasonable. As for iced tea, I remember a few years back, when I was still living in Boston, Snapple made a mint iced tea. It was just wonderful. Very sweet, but good. I haven't been able to find it since, so it might have been regional, or they stopped making it. I do like Honest Teas, because I've gotten used to drinking iced tea without sweetening. Because, clearly, I'm sweet enough as it is. I'm partial to iced Earl Grey.

Which reminds me, now that it's sort of springtime, I need to start keeping some in the fridge!