What Do You Call This Popular Beverage?

[FitzTheRuke]

I can understand using "coke" as a synonym for "cola" – including Pepsi, RC Cola, Jolt, or whatever. I mean, it's not right, but whatever. But I can't deal with how some locations use it as a synonym for soft/fizzy drinks of whatever kind, as in considering a Sprite a "coke". Though my understanding is that this is mostly in the Atlanta/Georgia area?

Yeah, I agree with you. I've heard that some places call it all Coke, but I don't know where it is that does, myself. Sounds like it's certain parts of the US south, yeah.

 

[Clint_L]

In my part of Canada (west coast), that would be either a "coke" (or pepsi or whatever) or a "pop," though the more American "soda" is not unheard of, and no one will be confused if you use it to generally refer to soda pop.

If you order, say, a "vodka soda" the server will assume that you mean soda water, not pop.

 

[Clint_L]

Same here in New England, although it's common for Coke drinkers to decline a Pepsi and order something else instead.

I don't blame them - I will drink the occasional coke (maybe one per year) but I dislike pepsi; I find it much sweeter.

 

[jeffh]

In Manitoba, mostly "pop" or "soft drinks". That specific one certainly looks like a Coke to me but (as you can guess from the capitalization) that's a specific brand, not a generic term. ("Is Pepsi okay?" is a question I might hear when trying to order a Coke, but it would just confuse people if I turned around and said I wanted a Dr Pepper or a root beer.) A few people would say "soda" but not many, and that can also mean something more like club soda, or at a few specific ice cream places, something more like the picture in post 14, though more usually that would be a "float".

 

[GMMichael]

I hate all fizzy sugar waters except a ginger ale or soda water. Taught my baby son that coke was evil

I also call it sugar water. Coke isn't evil, unless diabetes, ulcers, and overpaying for sugar water are too.

 

[Cadence]

In my part of Canada (west coast), that would be either a "coke" (or pepsi or whatever) or a "pop," though the more American "soda" is not unheard of, and no one will be confused if you use it to generally refer to soda pop.

My one use of my high school French was querying about a "machine a Pepsi?" to a seemingly French only member of housekeeping in Banff (they had demurred in French when
asked in English about a pop machine).

Thinking about it now, "pop machine or "dink machine"" (or "Coke machine" or "Pepsi machine" as appropriate) all seem much better to me than "soda machine" for the vending machine you put money into for a can or bottle. But the thing you dispense beverages into a glass from in a restaurant is definitely only a "soda fountain" and never a "pop fountain".

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Edit: My teenager, born and raised in the Southeast would say the vending machine type was a "soda machine".

 

[Mannahnin]

If you order, say, a "vodka soda" the server will assume that you mean soda water, not pop.

Same on the latter in the NE US.

Here "soda" absent other context or verbiage is always a sugar (or sugar substitute) soft drink, but with a cocktail "soda" defaults to soda water, and you specify the mixer if you want a sweet one- vodka and Sprite, rum & Coke, etc. If you just want a non-alcoholic, non-sweet, carbonated sipper you'd specify "soda water", though.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Are any of the options in this poll used outside of the US? In Canada, I've only ever heard the term 'soft drink'.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Are any of the options in this poll used outside of the US? In Canada, I've only ever heard the term 'soft drink'.

“Soft Drinks” is how they are described on menus.

Are they going out of fashion though? It’s been years since I have seen anyone drink one.

I used to drink Dandelion & Burdock when I was a kid.

 

[Mannahnin]

Are any of the options in this poll used outside of the US? In Canada, I've only ever heard the term 'soft drink'.

Here "soft drink" is usually an umbrella term for non-alcoholic beverages in general (alcoholic beverages, of course, are "hard drinks") . For example, the "soft drinks" section of a menu will commonly feature soda, seltzer, juice, and maybe milk, depending on the restaurant and what kind of food they serve.