Nazi Cola
November 26, 2022 3:21 PM   Subscribe

The soft drink Fanta was invented by Coca-Cola, an American company, inside of Nazi Germany during World War II. Developed at the height of the Third Reich, the new soda ensured the brand’s continued popularity. Fanta became a point of nationalistic pride and was consumed by the German public, from the Fraus cooking at home to the highest officials of the Nazi party. How Fanta Was Created for Nazi Germany

The apple fibers and cheese by-product soda previously.
posted by chavenet (70 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have sought for years for a full length (4m+) full mix of the Don't You Wanta Fanta song, but it doesn't exist. At one point I thought I might try to assemble one, because it would be fun to randomly drop into a DJ night. But I'm too lazy plus not enough material kept me from ever doing the project.
posted by hippybear at 3:24 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


DAMN
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:35 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


“We have German enemies across the water. We have German enemies in this country, too. And the worst of all our German enemies, the most treacherous, the most menacing, are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Miller.”

- John Strange, Prohibitionist and Lt. Gov. of Wisconsin
posted by clavdivs at 3:57 PM on November 26, 2022 [9 favorites]


I knew I hated this beverage for perfectly valid reasons
posted by Jacen at 3:59 PM on November 26, 2022 [19 favorites]


I can't wait to see what they invent in Russia.
posted by Keith Talent at 4:02 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


DAMN

Counterpoint: Daaaaaaamn
posted by medusa at 4:05 PM on November 26, 2022 [7 favorites]


I can't wait to see what they invent in Russia.

Soviet Russia developed this stuff back in the 1960s.
posted by wanderingmind at 4:27 PM on November 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


There are others
posted by BWA at 4:30 PM on November 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


Prohibitionist and Lt. Gov. of Wisconsin

Yes, American entry into World War One was a powerful driver for Prohibition. So many brewers were *Germans*.
posted by doctornemo at 4:35 PM on November 26, 2022 [9 favorites]


I drank quantities of every kind of soda I could get hold of as a kid, including lots of orange and grape Fanta.

As I recall, the bottles were clear, thick glass with a straight up and down shape, and the flavors were strong with a harsh and searing undertone. Whatever the coloring agents were, their hues were vivid and not much changed by my digestive processes.

Nesbitt pop had ostensibly the same flavors and then some, but was almost an opposite of Fanta in every other way.
posted by jamjam at 4:45 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]




I loved drinking it when I lived in Germany. Basically, an ersatz Orangina; both drinks having their roots in WWII Europe, as it happens.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:11 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


Your favorite ___ is a Nazi!
posted by Liquidwolf at 5:20 PM on November 26, 2022 [8 favorites]


I get excited every time Coca-Cola announces a "new formula!" for Fanta, hoping they finally duplicate the German flavor. And then they don't. It just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter until your teeth begin to ache.

Our local grocery has a pretty kickass import isle and they find all kinds of wacky stuff, like Fanta Shokata from Bosnia (family verdict: awful). And everyone has Mexican Coke, of course. But nobody here imports Orange Fanta.

I'm transiting through Frankfurt Airport next week and the only thing the kids want me to smuggle back from Germany is as many 1L bottles that customs will let me bring back.
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:21 PM on November 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


Also of interest in the article is that Coca-Cola was invented by a Confederate junkie.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:33 PM on November 26, 2022 [17 favorites]




I knew a guy who fought in the Pacific during World War II. He refused to drive any Japanese vehicle because he hated the Japanese people. On the other hand, he was a fiddle player, and only played German fiddles, because they were the best. I wanted to ask him how he reconciled that, but couldn't think of a way to ask that wouldn't sound condescending.
posted by jabah at 5:37 PM on November 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


And I thought I was making a dumb cutesy joke off of “Santa baby” and finally made an account after lurking for years. D’oh.
posted by fantababy at 6:20 PM on November 26, 2022 [54 favorites]


¿Por que no los dos?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:24 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


All this German stuff is everywhere; I guess I’ll just stick to good ol’ American beer!
posted by TedW at 6:48 PM on November 26, 2022 [4 favorites]


Is there much root beer in Europe?
posted by y2karl at 6:57 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Oh for fuck's sake.
posted by rhizome at 7:07 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


But nobody here imports Orange Fanta.

Coincidentally I just saw real-sugar Orange Fanta in skinny cans just recently, like in the last two weeks. I forget if it was a major grocery chain or what, I'll try to remember and report back.
posted by rhizome at 7:11 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


I just realized I’ve been mixing up Fanta and Faygo in my mind for years.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:17 PM on November 26, 2022 [10 favorites]


Heretic!

Though Bon Appetit voted Faygo Original root beer, root beer of the year.
posted by clavdivs at 7:27 PM on November 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


That would not be my first choice.
posted by y2karl at 7:39 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


Honestly: in terms of ideas that Nazis came up with, an orange-flavoured soda feels like it's pretty harmless. Fruit-flavoured soda was the norm once upon a time; the only thing Fanta added to the mix was the unique branding. Realistically, the only reason Fanta still exists today is that the Coca-Cola Company, once it re-absorbed its German subsidiary, didn't see any reason to get rid of the brand name, likely because they knew that they could wring all the ideology out of it the way they did with Christmas.
posted by Merus at 7:41 PM on November 26, 2022 [12 favorites]


"The truth is simple, even if it doesn't run trippingly off the tongue: Fanta was the creation of a German-born Coca-Cola man who was acting without direction from Atlanta. This man wasn't a Nazi, nor did he invent the drink at the direction of the Third Reich. Rather, in an effort to preserve Coca-Cola company assets and protect its people by way of keeping local plants operating, he formulated a new soft drink when it became impossible to produce the company's flagship product."

-Snopes
posted by clavdivs at 8:10 PM on November 26, 2022 [51 favorites]


I'll stick to my bubblegum flavored soda.
posted by Jacen at 8:14 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Nazi Fanta is mentioned in this delightful comic about Dr Pepper
posted by signsofrain at 8:44 PM on November 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


Fanta was the creation of a German-born Coca-Cola man who was acting without direction from Atlanta.

He did it his whey.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:10 PM on November 26, 2022 [9 favorites]


If you think the nazi soft drinks are bad, wait until you hear about NASA.
posted by rodlymight at 11:08 PM on November 26, 2022 [15 favorites]


Fanta and Coke and Germany make me immediately think of Spezi. While I enjoyed the actual name-brand drink while in Germany and Austria, here in the US, I create my own makeshift spezi with Orange Fanta and Coke. The best ratio seems to be about 2/3 Coke and 1/3 Fanta.

I was super annoyed (still am!) when those freestyle Coke machines removed the automatic Orange Fanta Coke option and replaced it with Orange Vanilla Coke (yuck). You can still do it the old fashioned way by selecting the Coke option and then going back to the menu and choosing the Fanta option -- but then what's the point of the magic mixing machine???
posted by paisley sheep at 12:11 AM on November 27, 2022 [7 favorites]


Coca-Cola was invented by a Confederate junkie.

That's a bit flip for personal tragedy that's been mirrored in returning veterans down to our own day.
posted by BWA at 5:14 AM on November 27, 2022 [6 favorites]




Coincidentally I just saw real-sugar Orange Fanta in skinny cans just recently, like in the last two weeks.

That's encouraging, but I suspect "real sugar" isn't the same as a change in the recipe, just a thing that Coke does in the US from time to time because consumers became more aware of HFCS and now they realize that actual sugar just tastes better and/or retro. (thus why everyone imports Mexican Coke). There was also a point in time recently where there was a sugar glut and HFCS actually was more expensive.

European Fanta also uses some small portion of actual fruit juice whereas the US version doesn't. That probably is too costly for the US market.

In April 1955, Coca-Cola reintroduced Fanta with a new recipe, this time as an orange-flavored drink.

So what did the original Fanta taste like with all that fruit fiber and whey? Wish the article could have described that.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:42 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


Fanta was the creation of a German-born Coca-Cola man who was acting without direction from Atlanta.


The unusual rhyme of the first and last words in this sentence cry out for a limerick on the subject. Unfortunately the only strong candidates that come to mind for a third rhyme are “manta” and “Santa.” I guess that last one points us in an alt-universe Haddon Sundblom direction where this vile soda is the flagship product of the company and jolly old St. Nick wears vibrant orange, but that’s a lot of ground to cover in five lines.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:52 AM on November 27, 2022 [4 favorites]


I read about this years ago. Prior to that I just assumed Fanta was a brand from Latin America based on the advertisements I saw. Funny how "we already have the copyright for the name" outweighed the "but it's a Nazi product".
posted by tommasz at 7:26 AM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


You probably never saw this 2015 German-market ad, then, which was pulled faster than you can find a third rhyme for 'Fanta.'

(There's 'Mylanta,' but that reference isn't getting any younger.)
posted by box at 8:23 AM on November 27, 2022 [6 favorites]


He did it his whey.

I curd hardly believe it!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:49 AM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


In the early 80s, I was a kindergartner living in Germany with my family stationed at an Air Force base. We did a family trip to East Berlin in our American style van with the captains chairs, couch/bed convertible back seat and plaid curtains. We went through Checkpoint Charlie, notable for the very stern soldiers with machine guns on their shoulders. I feel like we stayed over one or two nights in a hotel, went to museums and had a dinner at the hotel restaurant - schnitzel. What I most remember is my father, a natural paranoiac, being certain that we were being watched, photographed and bugged. He was especially sure that our table was bugged when my brother and I started whining that we wanted another Fanta at dinner and why couldn’t we get one when the waiter comes over with two fresh ones and whisks away the empties. We did the same the next night and about died for all the Fanta we drank. On the way home we toured the outside of the wall, I remember being concerned over some graffiti that threatened “to get her” and my mom assured me it actually read, “We’ll all go off together.”
posted by amanda at 10:02 AM on November 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


I mean, I do get the argument that everyone who supports or benefits from a fascist regime bears some responsibility, but "this tribunal finds you guilty of the heinous crime of making orange soda" might be taking it a bit far.

If you happen to be living in one of the many countries currently being increasingly overrun by fascists, are you morally required to flee the country immediately? What if you can't practically do so? Are you a bad person unless you refuse to create anything at all until the government is overthrown?

I know a few Russians for whom this is not exactly hypothetical right now, and I'm not sure I could tell them with a straight face that they shouldn't make fizzy drinks.

Perhaps one just has to accept that people neuro-writing hot takes about you on the interplanetery hyperweb in eighty years time might be part of the price of surviving the circumstances you find yourself in.
posted by automatronic at 10:17 AM on November 27, 2022 [23 favorites]


Here's a shorts video from My Name is Andong, where he does make the pulp, whey and saccharin (although it looks as if he uses sugar) version of Fanta, but doesn't show it in detail.

He did also do a long video explainer on Max Keith and the creation of Fanta, and a long video where he makes a Coke(-style) syrup, plus lemon-lime and orange syrups which he then bottles to make his own DIY Coke, Sprite and (modern) Fanta.

I'm pretty sure modern European Fanta is made mainly with orange, like what he made, but being in the UK, where carbohydrate-sweetened pop is not on the market, if I drink Fanta, it's US Fanta, because I don't like artificial sweeteners.
posted by ambrosen at 10:34 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


That's a bit flip for personal tragedy that's been mirrored in returning veterans down to our own day.

True enough, and I've known enough people who have had problems with opiates (and a few who ended up dying because of them) that I might have put that a bit differently if I'd thought about it for another minute. I was mostly responding to the "ZOMG N@z1s" framing of TFA; Pemberton's invention of Coca-Cola is a direct result of his treason in defense of slavery.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 AM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


Fanta. Faschistisch und fantastisch.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:01 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


He was especially sure that our table was bugged when my brother and I started whining that we wanted another Fanta at dinner and why couldn’t we get one when the waiter comes over with two fresh ones and whisks away the empties.

More likely, that was a little piece of German restaurant etiquette in action.

If you finish your entire glass that's a silent signal to the wait staff you want another. If you leave a little at the bottom that means you're not ready for more.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:17 PM on November 27, 2022 [7 favorites]


Sunshine (1999 film) [WP, IMDb, YT trailer]:
...follows five generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, originally named Sonnenschein (German: "sunshine"), later changed to Sors (Hungarian: "fate"), during changes in Hungary, focusing mostly on the three generations from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. The family story traverses the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through to the period after the 1956 Revolution, while the characters are forced to surrender much of their identity and endure family conflict.
...
The mid-19th-century patriarch of the Hungarian-Jewish Sonnenschein (meaning "Sunshine" in German) family is a tavern owner who makes his own popular distilled herb-based tonic in Austria-Hungary. The tonic, called Taste of Sunshine, is later commercially made by his son, Emmanuel, bringing the family great wealth and prestige...
...and more than a few problems under multiple dictators.
posted by cenoxo at 12:57 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Since when does Metafilter ape The History Channel's bottomless sensationalization of Nazis? I hope that those looking back at products developed by US citizens while their country was engaged in atrocities both domestic and overseas show more restraint in sensationalizing the connection between the product and the government regime. As a Jew, I think expanding the definition of "Nazi" to include examples such as this dilutes the culpability of actual Nazi instigators and collaborators. This feels kinda gross and I hope we can do better in the future.

Edit: (At closer inspection, pretty much what automatronic said already.)
posted by WaylandSmith at 1:01 PM on November 27, 2022 [12 favorites]


limerick

There once was a Nazi softdrinker
Who was also quite a quick thinker:
With no word from Atlanta,
He came up with Fanta,
Of which the American kind is a stinker.
posted by Not A Thing at 1:08 PM on November 27, 2022 [8 favorites]


My college girlfriend went to Spain with a friend in the summer of ‘84. When she got back, she told me the only Spanish she'd learned was “Una Fanta, por favor” and then dropped the fact that her friend's brother had also tagged along..and yeah, sorry.

So fuck Fanta.
posted by brachiopod at 2:34 PM on November 27, 2022 [4 favorites]


FlavorMan — The Beverage Architects > Drink Origins: Orange Soda > “Another Man’s Trash” Becomes… A German Soft Drink?, July 21, 2021:
We can’t talk about orange soda without also talking about Fanta. While Crush may have been the first, Fanta holds the title as the world’s favorite—and it owes it all to Max Keith.

If “necessity is the mother of invention” then Max Keith must be the father. As the head of Coca-Cola’s German operation in the 1930s, Keith brought prosperity to the formerly struggling branch; in fact, at the time, the Coca-Cola business in Germany was one of the world’s most successful, second only to the company’s sales in the US. Everything changed with the beginning of World War II.

In 1939, Coca-Cola had 43 bottling plants and over 600 local distributors across Germany—but with the outbreak of the war, there was no way to get the ingredients needed from the US to make Coca-Cola products. Enter, Fanta.

Keith was determined to continue business as usual, despite not being able to have any contact with the Atlanta-based headquarters. The company needed a product to sell, so he created one—an exclusively German soft drink. Utilizing the leftovers from other food industries (like fruit pulp and cheese whey) plus saccharin for sweetness, Keith created a pale golden soft drink and called it “Fanta” after the German word “fantasie.”

The drink was a hit and quickly became a household staple; especially when food shortages prompted German families to adopt Fanta as a base for soups and stews. At the end of the war, international business could resume. Despite being a profitable enterprise in Germany, production of Fanta was stopped and replaced once again by regular Coca-Cola. That was the end of the Fanta brand—at least for a little while....
More in the article.

I visited Florida once and had some tasty Nehi ("knee high") orange soda.
posted by cenoxo at 2:59 PM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


There once was a Nazi softdrinker...

Whose name was Adenoid Hynkel...
posted by cenoxo at 3:26 PM on November 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


The inventor of coke offshoot Fanta
Adrift from the suits in Atlanta
Determined to wrassle
The Man in the High Castle
And now we have bright orange Santa
posted by Sparx at 4:07 PM on November 27, 2022 [9 favorites]


That would not be my first choice.

Surely, Root Beer Nehi would be #1. Back in the 80's there was a gas station on the way to Flint that had a Nehi vending machine, selling Nehi in five flavors. Glass bottles, with the bottle cap opener on the machine. Every time we went to visit my mom's family, we'd stop there, and I'd get Nehi. The first time, I got grape, because we were always watching re-runs of MASH, and Radar's Grape Nehi obsession was the only place I'd ever heard of the stuff. The grape was fine, but the Root Beer was pretty awesome, at least as far as forty year old memories hold up.

Fanta, on the other hand, is *everywhere* in Japan. Most restaurants serve Coke products, and Fanta is almost always right there alongside it, including the neon green Melon Fanta, which Mrs. Ghidorah has a childhood nostalgia sweet tooth for.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:12 PM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


I've had a Fanta but I prefer the real Pschitt!
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 4:57 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


As you guys love arguing over rankings lists:  Faygo Flavors, Ranked by Actual Juggalos
posted by jeffburdges at 6:53 PM on November 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


Three more millions when you ask how my day go
Poured up a 4, now that's blueberry Faygo
One false move, and we straight to shooting shit
Two small bands just to take you out real quick (bands)

-Lil Mosey

but in the day

Remember When You Were A Kid?

Comic books and rubber bands
Climb into the tree top
Fallin' down and holdin' hands
Tricycles and red pop
Pony rides and Sunday nights
Roller skates and yo-yo's
Fairy tales and snowball fights
Climb in through the window

[Chorus]
Remember when you were a kid?
Well, part of you still is
And that's why we make Faygo
Faygo remembers
Faygo remembers

posted by clavdivs at 7:32 PM on November 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


The Flavor Rundown: Natural vs. Artificial Flavors, C. Rose Kennedy with figures by Kaitlyn Choi, Science In The News (Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), Sept 21, 2015:
The word “flavor” pervades our daily vocabulary, evoking associations of rich or vivid experiences beyond the experience of eating. Even in the literal context, the Flavor Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA) [website] describes flavor as “the entire range of sensations that we perceive when we eat a food or drink a beverage. Flavor encompasses a substance’s taste, smell, and any physical traits we perceive” [1]. While foods do intrinsically contain flavoring substances, 90% of Americans’ grocery purchases also contain added flavors [2]. These flavors are used to amplify or modulate the sensory experience associated with existing qualities of a product. Furthermore, they may also be used to make healthy yet bland options (like those lacking an excess of sugar or trans-fats) more appealing. For example, flavor agents may make reduced-fat foods seem rich and creamy, or add salty zest to low-sodium products. It’s obvious that flavors have immense power to influence our gustatory experiences, but what are they and where do they come from?
Details in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 9:44 PM on November 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


y2karl: Is there much root beer in Europe?

I don't know about some of the other countries (Europe is really culturally diverse) but I'm in the Netherlands and I'm not sure what root beer is. So, over here, that would be a no.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:21 AM on November 28, 2022 [3 favorites]


The only root beer you can get in most of Europe is imported American stuff. Same for ginger ale (except British), which is a bother because it's good for indigestion and I haven't been able to find it at reasonable prices since M&S upped sticks and left.

Japan has the best Fanta, especially if you don't read Japanese and aren't expecting, say, blackcurrant with jelly bits. A friend got that out of a machine for a "taste of home"... I stuck to CC Lemon.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 4:23 AM on November 28, 2022 [2 favorites]




My college girlfriend went to Spain with a friend in the summer of ‘84. When she got back, she told me the only Spanish she'd learned was “Una Fanta, por favor” and then dropped the fact that her friend's brother had also tagged along..and yeah, sorry.

So fuck Fanta.


Wait, is the implication here that they had so much Fanta it somehow induced her to cheat on you with the friend's brother? I admit I haven't had Fanta in a long time but I'd never considered it an aphrodisiac.
posted by axiom at 10:51 AM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


(Despite the makers of Fanta's best efforts to convince us otherwise.)
posted by box at 11:00 AM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


This thread is bringing back childhood memories of going to the A&W drive-in with Grandma and getting a gallon jug of root beer.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:03 AM on November 28, 2022 [4 favorites]


Mr. Keith, with no help from Atlanta,
Concocted a brew he called Fanta.
He did it his way,
By mixing in whey,
And sugar he got from beet planters.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:17 AM on November 28, 2022 [2 favorites]


I still have my stolen A&W mug.
posted by clavdivs at 3:21 PM on November 28, 2022 [4 favorites]


They're available for sale, these days.
posted by porpoise at 3:43 PM on November 28, 2022 [1 favorite]


not the same
posted by clavdivs at 11:50 AM on November 29, 2022 [5 favorites]


I'll stick to my bubblegum flavored soda.
posted by Jacen

The OP' previous. link is 404 but
"hate the taste of Fanta until you've tried them all:
Apple (Algeria, USA), Apple Mix (Japan 1980s), Apple Splash (UK), Banana, Banana Split, Berry (US 2002), Birch Beer, Bitter Orange (Italy), Black Cherry (US), Blackcurrant (UAE 2002), Blue Cherry, Blue Rasberry, Blue Vanilla, Blueberry, Blueberry Splash (Thailand 2003), Bubble Gum, Cassis (Blackcurreant The Netherlands), Cherry, Cherry Lemonade, Citrus (Kenya, USA), Clear Cherry, Clear Peach (Japan 2000), Clear Pineapple (Japan 1990s), Club Soda (Japan 2003), Cucumber Melon (Hong Kong), Diet Orange (UK), Draft Root Beer (club soda US 1970s), Duchess Pear (Armenia 2001), Exotic (Armenia 2002), Foliz (Morocco, Tunisia),...Water (Indonesia), Spider Strawberry (Australia), Squash Punch (Japan 1980s), Starfruit (Hong Kong), Strawberry, Sunny Melon (Germany 2001), Super Sour Apple, Super Sour Cherry, Super Sour Watermelon, Tarhun (Armenia 2001), Toffee (Taiwan early 1990s), Tonic Water (US 1970s), Tropical Berry with Guarana, Fanta Free (Nordic region 2004), Tropical Fruit (Japan 2003), Vanilla, Very Berry Mix (rasberry, blueberry and currant Japan 2000), Very Strawberry, Watermelon, White Cherry, White Grape Lactic (Hong Kong 2004), White Peach (Japan 2002), Wildberries (Germany 2000), Yellow Cherry, Z (UK, Ireland 2005), Zero Orange (US 2005), Zesty Berry (UK)
("Plain Lactic"???)
posted by pracowity at 10:19 AM on June 1, 2006.
posted by clavdivs at 7:28 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


Fanta Tonic Water would be enough to theme a G&T party around.
posted by rhizome at 10:47 PM on November 30, 2022 [1 favorite]


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