Fanta Orange

Fanta Orange tastes every bit the flavor of orange, there isn't any chemical finish that some drinks have. Although the artificial color is nothing natural. The carbonation is light but not flat. The sweetness is not overpowering like some other fruit flavored sodas which are able to make you sick after drinking too much. Fanta has been in America since the 1960's, but since the 1980's Coca-Cola's starting line-up of fruit flavored sodas in America was Minute Maid. Coca-Cola began phasing out the Minute Maid line in the mid-2000's since both brands were owned by Coca-Cola.

Most American's don't know that Fanta began in Nazi occupied Germany between 1940-1941. Coca-Cola began operating under the Coca-Cola GmbH company in Germany in the 1930's. This german division advertised heavily throughout Germany and it's media outlets with pro-Nazi bias and helped sponsor the 1936 Berlin Olympics. German born, Max Keith, took over the german Coca-Cola GmbH operations in 1938 when the previous director died. Due to import restrictions at the onset of the war Coca-Cola could no longer get the syrup needed to keep producing it's signature cola.

With no way to continue making Coke, Max Keith looked to create a new product to sell in Germany from the ingredients that he could find. Using things like apple scraps, whey and other fruit by products as they were available they formulated a new orange soda. Common lore states that a salesman named Joe Knipp devised the name Fanta after Max Keith began a naming contest directing his staff to "use their imaginations". The word imagination in german is "fantasie". Because they needed to make the drink with whatever scraps and ingriedients were available at the time the actual flavor of the Fanta orange soda varied during the war. Although Max Keith had a lot of influence in Germany at the time, he is not said to have ever joined the Nazi party. It has also been reported that the Coca-Cola GmbH company took advantage of forced labor during the war years.

Because Max Keith gave the company's earnings to Coca-Cola after the war one might say that they profited from it on both sides. Many American companies provided products to G.I.'s during the war and due to heavy support by the company for the Allied forces during the war, which included building entire bottling plants overseas to provide continuous supply for the troops, Coca-Cola benefitted from supporting both sides of the war. Although I have not found proof of the fund online, it's reported that Coca-Cola has paid into an account for reparations to the forced labor from the war.

Coca-Cola purchased Fanta in 1960 and is currently sold in more than 150 countries in some 70 flavors. Many flavors are found only in specific regions or countries and include Aloe Vera Muscat, Banana, Pineapple, Grenadine, Honey Lemon, Lemon Lime Mint, Floral Lemon, Bubble Gum, Cranberry White Grape, Tamarind, Bitter Water, Blackcurrant, but Orange is still the most popular.