Coke - what do you call it in your area?

[sasywtch]

I liked Sierra Mist and thought it tasted like Sprite. Starry doesn't take like Sprite. I think it's closer to Mt. Dew which is weird and unneccessary since Mt. Dew is already a Pepsi product.

I only drink Coke Products and prefer Diet Coke but I'm amazed at the number of restaurants and bars that only have Pepsi products. Nobody orders a Rum and Pepsi - Booooo!

We say soda for any fizzy drink (Maryland/NC). My mom's family in Indiana & Illinois always said pop.

I can tell you why that is with places that only serve Coke or Pepsi. They get an inclusive contract that offers a deal to the restaurant, fair, arenas, etc. The CA State Fair and the King's Arena were inclusive Coca Cola until Coke USA bought out the Sellers Brothers. Coke USA didn't have the repour with those two that the Seller's Brothers had and lost the contracts. Now you will not see a Coke sign anywhere near any of those venues. ***just an additional note: No one will ever get the deal McDonald's gets on their Coke syrup therefore, I don't ever see McD's switching over to Pepsi.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I wonder if it’s still called a tonic in Boston?

When I grew up it was, but somewhere along the line it’s made the switch to soda.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I wonder if it’s still called a tonic in Boston?

When I grew up it was, but somewhere along the line it’s made the switch to soda.

Some of the older folks may still call it tonic.

 

[leebee]

Growing up in the Boston area, we called soda." Tonic water is carbonated quinine water for mixed drinks (gin and tonic, for example). Tonic is flavored carbonated beverage, like coke, pepsi, mountain dew, etc. Another name for tonic would be soda or pop.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Comical Boston Globe article referencing the term tonic going back to 1800s with author seeing if they could find people around today who understood it.

http://www0.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...-that-tonic/NjIT0fssTb7RHWrfkEuE0O/story.html

(Snippets, in case of paywall.)

As the rest of the country divided into “soda” and “pop,” “tonic” enjoyed a century-long run in Eastern Massachusetts as the predominant term used to describe all the fizzy concoctions of the day. This despite the fact that “tonic” was already the name of a specific beverage, a clear liquid made of soda, sugar, and quinine, originally developed as a defense against malaria, whose flavor was so bitter that it actually improved with the addition of gin.

In May of 2018, a Globe reporter undertook an experiment to answer the question: What do you get in 2018 when you ask for a tonic in Boston? Would people know what I was talking about, or would I be looked at like I had three heads? The answers: Yes. And yes.

The quest began at the Roche Brothers in West Roxbury, which was famous for having an entire “Tonic Aisle” at its old location just up the street, according to City Councilor Matt O’Malley, who bagged groceries there as a teenager.

“Can you point me toward the tonic aisle?” I asked the two women working behind the cheese counter.

The first looked at me like she was trying to figure out if I was speaking English, until the second, older woman leaned past her colleague and said “Aisle 7, hun.”

On the way there, I asked a man stocking Raisin Bran the same question. “Tonic is Aisle 7,” he said without looking up, and so I was feeling confident that tonic had survived in West Roxbury, until I arrived at aisle 7 and found plenty of carbonated soft drinks.

But I also found tonic water. We’ll call that inconclusive.

I walked around the corner to the Westbury, an old-school restaurant with a small lunch counter just inside the door. I sat on a stool, and ordered a “small tonic” from a 30-something woman turned her head sideways like she did not understand the words coming out of my mouth. Just then, an older woman named Nancy Slyne came around the corner from the kitchen and stepped in for her younger colleague.

“Do you want Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite?” she said gesturing toward the fountain machine.

The younger woman, who said she was from Albania, looked dumbfounded.

“In Europe, we have a drink called tonic. Here you mean tonic everything?” She threw up her hands and went into the kitchen.

Doyle’s Cafe, the legendary Jamaica Plain watering hole, also passed the test.

“What kind of tonic?” bartender Bob Donato, 65, said when I ordered. “You want Coke, ginger ale, 7-Up?”

The same happened at the Eire Pub in Dorchester, where an older man with a thick Irish brogue knew exactly what I was asking for, and said that people still ordered a tonic all the time, expecting a soda.

“In what part of the country is tonic a word for soda?”

Here. Or, maybe there. Or maybe yesteryear. It all depends on who you ask.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Comical Boston Globe article referencing the term tonic going back to 1800s with author seeing if they could find people around today who understood it.

http://www0.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...-that-tonic/NjIT0fssTb7RHWrfkEuE0O/story.html

(Snippets, in case of paywall.)

As the rest of the country divided into “soda” and “pop,” “tonic” enjoyed a century-long run in Eastern Massachusetts as the predominant term used to describe all the fizzy concoctions of the day. This despite the fact that “tonic” was already the name of a specific beverage, a clear liquid made of soda, sugar, and quinine, originally developed as a defense against malaria, whose flavor was so bitter that it actually improved with the addition of gin.

In May of 2018, a Globe reporter undertook an experiment to answer the question: What do you get in 2018 when you ask for a tonic in Boston? Would people know what I was talking about, or would I be looked at like I had three heads? The answers: Yes. And yes.

The quest began at the Roche Brothers in West Roxbury, which was famous for having an entire “Tonic Aisle” at its old location just up the street, according to City Councilor Matt O’Malley, who bagged groceries there as a teenager.

“Can you point me toward the tonic aisle?” I asked the two women working behind the cheese counter.

The first looked at me like she was trying to figure out if I was speaking English, until the second, older woman leaned past her colleague and said “Aisle 7, hun.”

On the way there, I asked a man stocking Raisin Bran the same question. “Tonic is Aisle 7,” he said without looking up, and so I was feeling confident that tonic had survived in West Roxbury, until I arrived at aisle 7 and found plenty of carbonated soft drinks.

But I also found tonic water. We’ll call that inconclusive.

I walked around the corner to the Westbury, an old-school restaurant with a small lunch counter just inside the door. I sat on a stool, and ordered a “small tonic” from a 30-something woman turned her head sideways like she did not understand the words coming out of my mouth. Just then, an older woman named Nancy Slyne came around the corner from the kitchen and stepped in for her younger colleague.

“Do you want Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite?” she said gesturing toward the fountain machine.

The younger woman, who said she was from Albania, looked dumbfounded.

“In Europe, we have a drink called tonic. Here you mean tonic everything?” She threw up her hands and went into the kitchen.

Doyle’s Cafe, the legendary Jamaica Plain watering hole, also passed the test.

“What kind of tonic?” bartender Bob Donato, 65, said when I ordered. “You want Coke, ginger ale, 7-Up?”

The same happened at the Eire Pub in Dorchester, where an older man with a thick Irish brogue knew exactly what I was asking for, and said that people still ordered a tonic all the time, expecting a soda.

“In what part of the country is tonic a word for soda?”

Here. Or, maybe there. Or maybe yesteryear. It all depends on who you ask.

Oh, my! Such memories that brought back… grew up in JP, hanging out on Centre St. in West Roxbury… *sigh* I even predate Roche Brothers!

Wherever I lived, I knew I was really home when I walked through the door and my father said, “how was your trip? You want some tonic?” lol

 

[PollyannaMom]

When I grew up it was, but somewhere along the line it’s made the switch to soda.

Some of the older folks may still call it tonic.

One of DH's aunts did when I first moved here, so that's when I learned what it was. I couldn't say whether I've heard her use it recently, though.

 

[Skywalker3]

I have been in the habit a long time of calling it all Coke. But what I'm getting is Diet Dr Pepper.....but it's all Coke. Sometimes I do say soft drink. Sometmes called it soda growing up. I also heard 'cold drink' a lot growing up, but we never said that.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Oh, my! Such memories that brought back… grew up in JP, hanging out on Centre St. in West Roxbury… *sigh* I even predate Roche Brothers!

Wherever I lived, I knew I was really home when I walked through the door and my father said, “how was your trip? You want some tonic?” lol

Aww, that’s funny! My father was a tonic guy, too. I spent time in Rozzie growing up.

 

[loves to dive]

Soda where I live.
Family in Missouri calls is sodie or pop.
Family in Texas calls every soft drink Dr. Pepper. "What kind of Dr. Pepper do you want? Orange Soda"
Family in Georgia calls every soft drink Coke "What kind of coke do you want? Pepsi"

Yep, I'm from Georgia so all soft drinks are coke to us. You want a coke? What kind? And don't even think about saying Pepsi. Funny you can say another Pepsi product, things like Mr. Pib and Dr. Pepper are interchangeable or Sprite and 7Up but not Coke and Pepsi. Pepsi is not a Coke, if you want one you have to Pepsi. If I'm outside of Georgia and talking to someone who is not from here, I will say soft drink.

 

[hertamaniac]

Simply called Coke. Growing up, my father would only call a soda when he drank Cel-Ray. It was a hideous celery flavored drink (almost as bad as Moxie soda).

 

[NYCgrrl]

Simply called Coke. Growing up, my father would only call a soda when he drank Cel-Ray. It was a hideous celery flavored drink (almost as bad as Moxie soda).

It’s probably made by Dr Brown’s and is still sold in NYC along with cream, and black cherry sodas at Jewish delis. Yeah it’s definitely an acquired taste

 

[NYCgrrl]

@Pea-n-Me Glad to know I’m not alone in my memories. My older sister went to uni in Boston and I when I visited her ordering a carbonated drink was half the fun of the trip. Also the trams that stopped running at 11:00 PM ish. What a difference 400 odd miles made

 

[leebee]

Nice article, @Pea-n-Me ! I grew up in Peabody and we always called it tonic. When I was young (10-ish, maybe?) we even had a "Tonic Man." We'd order a case of quarts of tonic and he'd deliver them on his weekly rounds. I still remember this: Glass quart bottles, caps you had to pry off, delivered in a wooden box. Great flavors, too!

 

[Kestryl]

Do you say bandaid or Kleenex, xerox, jello, hoover, vaseline? coke with a lower case c is a generic term for soda, same as the other items listed above.

Do you have multiple brands of tissue/Kleenex? If I have someone over and they ask where the Kleenex is, I don’t follow up with asking if they want Puffs, Kleenex, or Up and Up, I just point them in the right direction.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Nice article, @Pea-n-Me ! I grew up in Peabody and we always called it tonic. When I was young (10-ish, maybe?) we even had a "Tonic Man." We'd order a case of quarts of tonic and he'd deliver them on his weekly rounds. I still remember this: Glass quart bottles, caps you had to pry off, delivered in a wooden box. Great flavors, too!

For us that was the Seltzer Man! Somewhat on topic, he delivered a wooden case of carbonated water to my Nana and Papa’s house. We kids called it “shh water”. Recently, someone revived his antecedents’ business (minus the horse and cart) and is delivering throughout the city.

 

[goofyernmost]

Not that I really matters but to me it is very basic. I know the variety to be called soft drinks or soda. Coke is a brand name of a soft drink specifically a brand name of a flavor which is Cola. There are other brands like Dr. Pepper is a brand name and a flavor, A&W is a specific name of Root Beer. When we want a soft drink we seldom, with the exception of Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper order by brand all the others are flavors like orange and cherry and root beer, grape and so on.

 

[nighttowll]

The more I think about it, when we are at restaurants now-a-days, they just ask what do we want to drink because the correct answer is sweet tea, so no one needs to bother with figuring out coke vs soda vs soft drink vs pop!

But, seriously, I hear fountain drink more than anything at restaurants when the question comes up. It used to always be coke, but I think with the addition of drinks like Vitamin Water and Powerade at fast food places, more and more people are just lumping everything together as a fountain drink. Where you use to hear would you like you a coke? Now, you hear would you like a fountain drink? Coke is definitely getting phased out a bit, but is still in use.

Pop and tonic are really the only ones I've never heard in real life. Both soda and soft drink, no one would be confused or think weird if you used, and you do hear and see them.

 

[MillauFr]

They don't even sell Coke or Pepsi at the Seattle Costco anymore. You can't get it in the food court either. People have moved on to the fizzy flavored waters. High fructose corn syrup is an abomination.

 

[ChrisFL]

I've lived in central Florida my whole life. I used to say "soft drinks" when at a restaurant, like "what soft drinks do you have?" but often servers wouldn't understand me, so changed to "soda".

Hearing people say "pop" randomly was very weird. Pop what? popcorn? popsicle? pop tarts? I couldn't get the reference to soda....until occasionally people would say "soda pop" together. Knowing the history, the original people at pharmacies etc. that would serve the drink we're referring to were called "Soda Jerks".

I've also never heard anyone refer to "coke" as generic for any type of soda, unless you're asking specifically for it.