A nonalcoholic beverage is a drink, which doesn't contain alcohol. It is opposed to hard drinks, which contain smaller or larger percentage of alcohol. Nonalcoholic beverage contains water, flavouring, a sweet syrup or artificial sweetener. Among the great variety of nonalcoholic beverages we should single out a group of soft drinks. This term is used to refer to cold beverages only.
Tea, coffee, hot chocolate and milk cocktails are not considered soft drinks. Soft drinks are usually carbonated. They are sold in cans and bottles. Most popular of them are produced by local or regional companies. In order to save on production costs many companies in the USA now use High-Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener, which is cheaper to produce than sugar. Carbonated beverages are known as soda in some parts of the USA, particularly in California and Florida.
In Australia and New Zealand the term "lolly water" is used in reference to soft drink. "Lemonade" can refer to "lemon drink", but it is used only for a citrus-flavoured beverages, such as 7-Up or Sprite. The term "coke" is used not only for Coca Cola Company production, but for other brands of cola as well. In China soft drinks are called "air water". Many enterprises specialize in producing energy drinks, marketed towards sportsmen and people on the go.
Such drinks contain stimulants, vitamins, minerals and caffeine. One of the first energy drinks was Jolt Cola, released in 1980s. Energy drinks must not be mixed up with sports drinks, whose mission is to restore sugar and other nutrients. In 1927 the first sport drink Lucozade was manufactured. Such nonalcoholic beverage as coffee is consumed often in the morning, since it contains caffeine, which acts stimulating. Non- alcoholic beer is popular with drivers, though it still has low alcohol content. For this reason some states have laws prohibiting its sale to minors. Nonalcoholic beer is recommended for people, who cannot use alcoholic drinks for any reasons.
Today there are many varieties of soft drinks and a large number of companies, which founded their businesses on soft-drinks production. There is a strong competition for customers. One of the world's largest corporations is Coca Cola company, founded in 1886. It is a leading marketer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage syrups. Today Coca Cola produces nearly 450 beverages, which are popular in 200 countries of the world. The company keeps in secret the formula of its drinks. It is known though that Coca Cola is the largest consumer of vanilla extract in the world. Its advertising has a great impact on the American culture and is now seen as an essential part of it. Coca Cola was also the first sponsor of the Olympic games in 1928. Since 1978 it has supported FIFA World Cup.
"Cola wars" is a term, used in reference to the competition among soft drink producers. At some of the restaurants in the USA the products of only several largest and the most influential nonalcoholic beverage producers such as Coca Cola or PepsiCo are available.