The term “soft drinks” is applied in the United Sates to common beverages which contain no alcohol.
From the point of view of composition, there is no rule which can be formulated by means of which composition is controlled, unless it should be specific legal regulation.
The typical soft drink of the United States is known as soda water. This phrase is to some extent a misbranding since it is so called because originally the gas with which it is charged was derived from carbonate or bicarbonate of soda.
The name as become so firmly attached to waters of this kind that it probably will be accepted in the future as distinctive.
In this country it is mixed, before drinking, with syrup, which in addition to the sugar it contains, has a flavoring material to give it character.
The syrup[ is made of pure sugar or at least should be and the flavoring material is a vegetable juice or extract of some kind, such as vanilla, orange, coffee, raspberry, strawberry, chocolate, pineapple, lemon, banana, cherry.
The above are all natural flavors and wholly unobjectionable from an ethical point of view.
Definition of the term Soft Drinks
