Spezi

A couple of years ago I reviewed Mezzo Mix and Schwip Schwap, two German cola and orange soft drinks. I also remarked at how the orange and cola combo were unusually popular in Germany but not much of a think elsewhere. Recently, I encountered yet another German orange and cola soda in Spezi. The Riegele Brewery in Augsburg, Germany created the Spezi name in 1956 and it was originally the name of a beer. Many American breweries got involved in bottling soft drinks during the prohibition era, but Germany never had such a period. Although Riegele owned the Spezi name they did not enter the soft drink market until many years later when they discovered that pubs were making cola and orange soda drinks mixed to order. Because this was inefficient for bartenders Riegele decided to bottle pre-mixed cola and orange sodas with the Spezi name. Spezi ColaOrange grew in popularity as the so-called "original" orange cola. But soon demand outpaced supply and Riegele spun off Spezi into a separate company in the 1970's and licensed the bottling rights to local breweries all over.

It's an attractive looking bottle at just a quarter-liter, or about 8.5 ounces. The pleasant orange aroma is not unlike the other orange cola sodas tested previously. Carbonation levels are light. I find this flavor a pretty even mix between the orange and cola, however I think the orange tastes more like orange juice than an orange soda which is interesting. It also doesn't leave much of an aftertaste. All in all its not unpleasant but not surprisingly great either. It's a fresh option and I'd recommend giving it a taste if you are lucky enough to come across it on your journeys. 

Mezzo Mix

What an interesting find at the World Market this was. This can of Mezzo Mix is made by Coca-Cola and is canned and sold in Germany. Back in May I posted about Schwip Schwap a German made cola and orange soda from PepsiCo. It would appear this is Coca-Cola's answer to that. Just like in America, Pepsi and Coca-Cola battle each other for market share often with their own takes on the same flavors. As I remarked before, it's a little weird though that us Americans get cola with lemon, cola with lime, but Germans get cola with orange. Since it is so difficult to find cola with orange here, it makes me wonder if it is equally as difficult to find cola with lemon or lime there. I certainly don't recall coming across lemon or lime variations in the UK on any my trips there, nor did I come across either such drinks in Austria. 

I'm a little off topic so let me return to talking about Mezzo Mix. Apparently, this brand from Coca-Cola was released back in 1973 in what was then West Germany. However both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are copying an earlier cola and orange soda, named Spezi, introduced in the 1950's. There are also generic or store-brand versions as well. The tagline pictured at the bottom of the can, "cola küsst orange," translates as "cola kisses orange." 

A crack of the can shows good carbonation, but there's very little scent. A tinge of orange in the air but hardly any cola scent. I've got to say that I personally favor this one over the Schwip Schwap option. Whereas Schwip Schwap gave me a more powerful orange flavor, the orange in this drink is more subtle. It's much more like a cola with an orange garnish rather than mixing equal parts cola and orange soda, so I'm giving the edge to Coca-Cola on this one. But if you favor stronger orange, opt for one of the other cola and orange brands. 

Sinalco Bitter Orange

This bottle was something of a mystery when I found it. Located in a nearby market for middle eastern foods, it has arabic labeling on the cap and on one side, but said it was bottled in Germany. I had to turn to the internet and their own website claims they are a popular global brand and the oldest soft drink in Europe, yet I had never heard of them before. 

The story goes that Friedrich Eduard Bilz, who had an interest in natural healing methods, opened a sanitarium in 1895. In 1902, Bilz created a drink called Bilz-Brause to serve to his sanitarium patients. The drink consisted of mineral water and citrus juice. Brause translating as "lemonade" or "fizz." It sounds as if he and John Harvey Kellogg, creator of corn flakes, would have been buddies had they lived closer to each other. In 1905, Bilz and Franz Hartmann joined together and renamed the drink to Sinalco. This name is a mash up of the Latin for "without alcohol." As the oldest soft drink company in Europe, they've released other flavors of Sinalco, and grown to include a stable of drink brands, much like a PepsiCo or Coca-Cola Company.

I find there's very little scent from the bottle. It takes a very deep whiff to get a hint of something more akin to the smell of grapefruit. There's a good level of carbonation from the bottle and even though it's a single use bottle it has the feel of the old reusable, returnable bottles. I do like this and think the citrus nature of it makes it a nice choice for a morning soda. It finishes clean with no aftertaste and is refreshing. 

Schwip Schwap Cola & Orange

Here's an interesting find I came across in London. From PepsiCo Deutschland comes this interesting flavor combo. I can't find evidence of other flavors from the Schwip Schwap label, so it may only be the cola and orange option. It sounded intriguing and there are certainly precedents for it where both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have released lime and lemon combinations with cola. 

It does smell like a glass of cola with a slice of orange added for garnish. However, I find the orange flavor is overpowering the cola taste. This is much more like an orange juice with a touch of cola added than the other way around. The concept seems solid, but the taste isn't really there, in my opinion. Nonetheless its supposedly popular in Germany. 

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.