The Soda Glossary

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Soda fountain

A counter, often in an old pharmacy, where flavored syrups were mixed with carbonated or plain water and served by the glass. The birthplace of many American sodas, including Boost!.

Syrup (concentrate)

The flavored base of a soda, sweetened and concentrated, meant to be diluted with water. Non-carbonated brands like Boost! were sold as syrup to mix at home.

Non-carbonated soda

A soft drink with no added carbon dioxide, so it has no fizz. The flavor reads fuller and less sharp than a carbonated cola. Boost! is a classic example.

Carbonation

Dissolved carbon dioxide that gives a soda its bubbles and bite. Added at the fountain in the early days, later sealed into bottles and cans.

Phosphate

A tart fountain drink made with flavored syrup, carbonated water and a few drops of acid phosphate. The cherry and lime phosphate were soda-fountain staples.

Egg cream

A New York fountain drink of milk, carbonated water and chocolate syrup, despite the name, it contains neither egg nor cream.

Float

A scoop of ice cream dropped into a glass of soda, such as a root beer float. Boost! was also served this way over ice cream.

Root beer

A sweet, non-alcoholic soda traditionally flavored with sassafras or other roots and barks. One of the oldest American soda styles.

Birch beer

A soda flavored with oil from birch bark, ranging from clear to dark red. A regional favorite across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Sarsaparilla

A root-beer-like soda flavored with the sarsaparilla vine, popular in the 19th century and still made as a specialty soda.

Cream soda

A sweet, vanilla-forward soda, sometimes clear and sometimes bright red, as with Texas’s Big Red.

Ginger ale

A ginger-flavored soda, from dry styles to the golden aged ginger of Detroit’s Vernors.

Cola

A soda flavored with a blend built around kola nut and citrus notes. Boost! is a non-carbonated, cola-style syrup.

Tonic

In parts of New England, a regional word for soda in general; elsewhere, a quinine-flavored mixer.

Seltzer

Plain carbonated water with nothing added. Used at the fountain to mix syrups and enjoyed on its own.

Club soda

Carbonated water with added minerals for a slightly saltier taste than seltzer.

Soda jerk

The person who worked the soda fountain, "jerking" the tap handle to draw carbonated water. A soda-fountain profession in its own right.

Crown cap

The crimped metal bottle cap, invented in 1892, that sealed most glass soda bottles for a century.

Half-gallon jug

The signature format for Boost!, a large glass jug of concentrate a household bought and mixed over time.

Regional soda

A soft drink strongly tied to one area, often because bottling was cheaper locally than shipping national brands in.

Craft soda

A small-batch soda, usually cane-sugar sweetened, from an independent maker rather than a national bottler.

RTD (ready-to-drink)

A soda sold pre-mixed in a bottle or can, as opposed to a syrup or concentrate you dilute yourself.

Pop vs. soda

Two regional words for the same thing: "pop" dominates the Midwest and Northwest, "soda" the Northeast and California, with "coke" common in the South.

Discontinued

A brand no longer produced. Some, like Crystal Pepsi and Surge, return as limited-run revivals; most stay in the graveyard.

See the terms in the wild: the vanished sodas database, the regional soda map, and the Boost! soda history.