How often do you see one? I see them, probably every other day on average...
What Do You Call This Popular Beverage?
- Thread starter CleverNickName
- Start date
Almost never? I can’t remember when I last went to to McDonalds and stuff.
Everywhere? Interesting. How many countries is that?
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I associate them with late 70s, early 80s, although I have never seen one used outside of a TV commercial. I think they give people too much information about what actually goes into a fizzy drink! I think they may have made a bit of a comeback as period kitsch, but the grandkids’ generation are not permitted fizzy drinks for health reasons, and coffee seems to be the beverage of choice for adults.
My parents had one of those posh “soda in your whiskey sir?” Soda siphons, but since we didn’t tend to drink whiskey, it was never used, and they got rid of it when there was a panic about the compressed CO2 cylinders they used.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I do. Summer 2002. A group of my A level students took me out for a meal after exams.
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Two, if you count Texas.
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
I don't know what to tell you. It's a "soda fountain" because it dispenses "fountain soda"; sometimes also more broadly "fountain drinks", as occasionally they also dispense non-carbonated drinks like lemonade or Hi-C. Fountain vs. bottled drinks being a standard distinction at fast food and some other restaurants I've encountered in the US and in Canada. It's been a while since my last trip to Europe, but I'm pretty sure they made the same distinction in Ireland in 2018 when I was there last.
Like I said, if you're in one of those regions that uses the term "pop" instead of "soda", "pop fountain" makes sense. "Pop machine" runs into the issue of confusing it with an automated vending machine.
It is funny when folks who don't possess vocabulary for a given object express disbelief that other people do. Like Morrus leaping to the assumption that Cadence was speaking from "very limited personal experience of the world" because Morrus hadn't heard a term.
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trappedslider
Legend
same and iirc my mom explained to me what a soda jerk was due having to been one
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I’ve never heard it used outside old movies. It’s not really used in the UK. I’m sceptical that you heard it used in Ireland.I don't know what to tell you. It's a "soda fountain" because it dispenses "fountain soda"; sometimes also more broadly "fountain drinks", as occasionally they also dispense non-carbonated drinks like lemonade or Hi-C. Fountain vs. bottled drinks being a standard distinction at fast food and some other restaurants I've encountered in the US and in Canada. It's been a while since my last trip to Europe, but I'm pretty sure they made the same distinction in Ireland in 2018 when I was there last.
Like I said, if you're in one of those regions that uses the term "pop" instead of "soda", "pop fountain" makes sense. "Pop machine" runs into the issue of confusing it with an automated vending machine.
It is funny when folks who don't possess vocabulary for a given object express disbelief that other people do. Like Morrus leaping to the assumption that Cadence was speaking from "very limited personal experience of the world" because Morrus hadn't heard a term.
So, the difference is really simple.
In the US, we slightly more frequently have access to the soda fountain as customers.
But, the devices are pretty ubiquitous in the restaurant industry through the Western world - if you as a customer don't have access to it, that doesn't mean it isn't there and doesn't have a name. If the restaurant is selling carbonated beverages that aren't in sealed cans or bottles, they likely come out of one, because they are loads more efficient than using retail bottles and cans.
