What is a Softdrink

A soft drink is a beverage that does not contain alcohol. (Carbonated soft drinks are more commonly known as soda, pop, tonic, fizzy water or soda pop in parts of the United States and Canada, or Fizzy drinks in the U.K.; called minerals in Ireland) The name "soft drink" specifies a lack of alcohol by way of contrast to the term "hard drink". The term "drink", while nominally neutral, often carries connotations of alcoholic content. Beverages like colas, sparkling water, iced tea[citation needed], lemonade, squash, and fruit punch are among the most common types of soft drinks, while hot chocolate, hot tea, coffee, milk, tap water, and milkshakes do not fall into this classification. Many carbonated soft drinks are optionally available in versions sweetened with sugars or with non-caloric sweeteners.

Uses of Carbonation

In many consumer beverages such as soft drinks (well known examples include Coca-Cola, 7 Up and Pepsi), carbonation is used to give "bite". Contrary to popular belief, the fizzy taste is caused by dilute carbonic acid inducing a slight burning sensation, and is not caused by the presence of bubbles. This can be shown by drinking a fizzy drink in a hyperbaric chamber at the same pressure as the beverage. This gives much the same taste, but the bubbles are completely absent.

Natural and artificial carbonation

Carbonation can occur as a result of natural processes: when yeast ferments dissolved sugars sealed in a pressure-tolerant bottle or keg; when underground volcanic carbon dioxide carbonates well water; or when rainwater passes through limestone into a cave and forms a stalactite. Or it can be done artificially by dissolving carbon dioxide under pressure into the liquid. Sometimes natural carbonation is called conditioning while the term carbonation is reserved for the artificial process.

How to measure Carbonation ?

The quality of carbonated beverages including softdrinks, seltzer and beer is affected by the amount of dissolved CO2 (the gas that causes carbonation) and the amount of carbonic acid in the drink. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has an infrared absorption wavelength of 4.27 micrometers can be measured online using an infrared carbonation sensor. This is an improvement to the traditional inferred measurement method using temperature and pressure for Henry's Law coefficients because this methodology is influenced by changes in density and alcohol content. Infrared measurements are not affected by changes in density or alcohol content because they are actually measuring the CO2 molecule using the Beer-Lambert law. The amount of carbonation in a beverage is measured in Volumes or grams/liter. This is because introducing CO2 into a beverage will change its weight. An easy experiment to prove this is to take a seltzer bottle and weigh it. Carefully remove the top slowly so no liquid escapes from the bottle as the gas escapes the weight of the bottle of seltzer will go down. Shaking the bottle closed and then opening it to remove more CO2 will increase this effect.

Foaming of Carbonated Drinks

It is commonly said that shaking a carbonated beverage will cause large amounts of foam to erupt upon opening, and it is often believed that shaking a bottle containing a carbonated beverage will cause the pressure inside to rise. Contrary to this myth, when a pressure gauge is attached to a pressurized bottle of a carbonated beverage, it is found that the pressure within does not increase. It is instead the formation of tiny bubbles from the agitation that causes the foam. Upon opening, the size of the bubbles will rapidly increase due to the reduction in pressure, resulting in excessive foaming.

Agitating carbonated liquid in a resealed vessel increases the rate that CO₂ is released from the solution and the rate that it approaches equilibrium pressure. The equilibrium pressure depends on the temperature, composition, and purity of the liquid, not the agitation of it.

Fizzle !

"Fizzle" is a word used to describe the action or sound of gas bubbles moving through and escaping from a liquid. Fizz also describes the formation of a foam of this gas and liquid at the top of the liquid's container. The word itself is an example of onomatopoeia, derived from the sound the multiple bubbles make together as they "pop" when they escape.

A carbonated beverage, such as cola or beer, will form bubbles when the dissolved carbon dioxide is depressurized to form emulsions at the top, and it will make "fizzing" sounds when it is opened or poured into a container. In the United Kingdom, soft drinks are often referred to as 'fizzy drinks'. A cocktail based on carbonated water and an acidic juice is called a Fizz, such as the Gin Fizz.

What is Effervescence?

Effervescence is the escape of gas from an aqueous solution. The term is used to describe the foaming or fizzing that results from a release of gas. In the lab, a common example of effervescence is the addition of hydrochloric acid to a block of limestone. If a few pieces of marble or an antacid tablet are put in hydrochloric acid in a test tube fitted with a cork, effervescence of carbon dioxide can be witnessed.

This process is generally represented by the following reaction, where a pressurized dilute solution of carbonic acid in water releases gaseous carbon dioxide at decompression:

In simple terms, it is the result of the chemical reaction occurring in the liquid which produces a gaseous product.

What is Carbonation ?

There are several definitions for Carbonation


1. Carbonation occurs when carbon dioxide is dissolved in water or an aqueous solution. This process yields the "fizzle" to carbonated water and sparkling mineral water, the head to beer, and the cork pop and bubbles to champagne and sparkling wine.


2. Sparkle caused by carbon dioxide, either created during fermentation or injected later.


3. This term is used to describe both the amount of CO2 in the beverage, as well as the process of putting CO2 into the beverage. There are two types of carbonation - forced carbonation and natural carbonation