What d'you call any carbonated, sugary beverage?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

Soda? Pop? Coke (even when it's a Sprite)? Something else?

Soda all the way, here. Born and raised in the same damned house in southern Maine. Never heard in person anyone call it anything else. :D

[Gormy Cuss]

1. It's tonic in the Boston area

Soda is club soda.

I of course call it soda.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. Bostonians.

:rofl:

:P

[Cant trust em]

55. You'd call a Coca-Cola tonic?

America is an interesting country.

[Gormy Cuss]

57. No, I'd call it soda.

Around Boston however the natives call it tonic and they often bought it at the spa, which is what they called the little grocery markets in the neighborhood.

Tonic's actually a sensible name when one remembers that Coca-Cola and other early blends were marketed as patent medicine.

[maveric]

82. Its all Tonic except for Coke.

When I left Boston and moved to Tampa I was surprised that no one else used "Tonic".

[LiberalEsto]

67. And a milkshake is a frappe, except

among older Bostonians who call a milkshake a "cabinet". When I was waitressing one summer in Worcester, MA, back in 1971, an elderly woman sat down and ordered a coffee cabinet.

Now as a New Jerseyan, I'd been told that Massachusetts people say frappe when they mean milkshake, but this was a poser. I thought she might be a few pancakes short of a stack.

I gently told the woman that we didn't sell furniture. How the other waitresses roared when they overheard!

[Gormy Cuss]

81. Ah, the pitfalls of regional terms.

The first time I saw it on a menu in New York, I couldn't figure why anyone would want an 'egg cream.'
;)

Cabinet is more common in Southeastern MA and RI, I think. They also use the term 'coffee milk' which is whipped milk & coffee syrup.

[Dangerously Amused]

Do you know what a bubbler is?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

A drinking fountain?

I don't personally call it that, but I know some do. :D

[Dangerously Amused]

22. Yep!

Just wondering how widespread the word is. When you ask where there's a bubbler in the south, people go, "Do what?"


:rofl:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

28. I've never actually heard anyone use the term--sort of a "hick" thing to do, I think.

I always just say, "I'm gonna go get a drink," and everyone knows that I mean I'm going to go to a water fountain.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

43. A handheld water pipe used primarily for the smoking of

the ganja? That's the only thing I know of. . .

[Dangerously Amused]

66. I will have to take your word on that.

O8)

:)

Otherwise, it's the word I grew up using for what other people call a "drinking fountain."

[BarenakedLady]

70. We always called it a bubbler in RI

I still do.

[Dangerously Amused]

71. Yay! We are speaking again!

You must have forgiven me for my egregious squirrel feeder faux pas.

:bounce:

[BarenakedLady]

74. LoL.

Oh yes, your squirrel feeder snafu was forgiven.

JUST DON'T DO IT AGAIN!!!!

:P

[lost-in-nj]

2. Here in NJ

we say

I'm going to buy soda

do you want

Pepsi?
Coke?


etc


SODA!!!!!!!



lost



:hi:

[Swede]

Soft drink is the common term here.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

11. Soft drink.

Whoaaaaa.

:D

[I Have A Dream]

21. Same here: soft drink, although everyone else here who is native...

says pop.

[trof]

60. Yep, common in Alabama.

[shanine]

3. I call it soda now

but growing up it was "tonic"

[DarkTirade]

5. Bad for your teeth?

:P

[johnnie]

6. Pop

Like any other normal person.

[Traction311]

73. I never hear anyone say pop

unless I am watching a cartoon from the 50's. Could be a location thing. I live in NYC. :)

[lizziegrace]

7. Coke

"I want a coke"
"okay, what'll you have?"
"Dr. Pepper"


Kind of like calling a photocopy a Xerox...

It's a southern thing...

[WritingIsMyReligion]

9. OMG so weird!

:rofl::rofl:

:P

:hi:

[Ava]

17. a lot of people around here do that too

either coke or soft drink

[lizziegrace]

24. Yep

it *is* a southern thing. ;)

[littlebit]

29. I thought it was a Texan thing.

When I moved from Tx to CO I use to annoy people when I did that.

[lizziegrace]

31. We said it in Memphis too

and it isn't just tea, it's sweet tea...

:)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

33. Okay, question for you southerners: is "sweet tea" what I, a northerner, would call "iced tea"?

If I say "tea" up here, with no modifier, I mean the hot stuff. "Iced tea" is cold tea, with or without some kind of sweetening. Is "sweet tea" interchangeable with "iced tea," or does it specifically refer to cold tea that has sweetening in it? Does the south even have a concept of cold tea without sweetening? Does the south even have a concept of HOT tea?

:D

:hi:

[lizziegrace]

34. It's iced tea

with a ton of sugar already added. If you want unsweetened iced tea, you have to be very specific.

:hi:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

36. Ooh, okay.

Up here (it might be just my family!) I always said when I was younger that I hated iced tea, since it tasted bitter (no sweetening added to it.) I didn't know until I was about ten that people ever added sugar to iced tea. :D

[RoyGBiv]

54. There's such a thing as hot tea?

Who knew? :shrug:

Seriously, I'm a Southern blasphemer. I grew up hating tea, which I later discovered was because I hate sweet tea, which is just tea. I don't much like cold regular tea either.

But I do like hot tea, which I knew existed before because even the iced tea is made hot at first, but only the Lipton variety that was immediately iced after brewed. When I was a kid, I thought something must be wrong with it while it was hot.

Discovered really good hot tea on my first trip to California, which is what many family members insist is wrong with me. :-)

[unsavedtrash]

62. Here when I ask for tea I automatically get sweet, iced tea. I think it is assumed that's what is

being ordered.
I did that in a diner in West Chester, PA and the server brought hot tea. I realized it had to be ordered iced tea.
We do have unsweetened tea. Also asked for by saying, "I'd like unsweet tea."
As far as hot tea, sure but it's called coffee. Kidding, yes, just ask for a cup of hot tea.
One day while sitting in my favorite meat and three hole in the wall, I heard a woman ask for diet tea. The server never came back to the table. I have never heard it called diet tea. Where does is that used?

[littlebit]

46. I figured that one out when I moved to NC.

The first time I ordered ice tea I almost ended up in a sugar coma. :hi:

[Robeson]

45. It's a southern thing.

[Cannikin]

76. I second lizzie's post. Dat's how it is in AR.

[fizzgig]

8. soda all the way

pop irritates me and soda pop makes me insane. yeah, i know, i need to chill out :P

[TZ]

10. Soda here in MD....when I go to Cleveland its ALWAYS pop

:)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

12. I can't decide which irks me more: "Coke" for a non-Coke product, or "pop."

Like seriesly: "pop"?

:rofl:

:D

:hi:

[TZ]

15. I remember when I first encountered this

as a young girl. I wondered why in the world these crazy people (my relatives btw) all called soda..pop......:rofl:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

19. Haha.

:rofl:

"pop"

:rofl:

[Xipe Totec]

13. Crap nt

[Ava]

14. whatever its name is, lol

sprite, is sprite. coke, is coke. diet coke, is diet coke and so on.

other than that though, people call 'em "soft drinks" around here.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

16. There's no catch-all word?

Like here, if I went into a restaurant and they asked me what I wanted to drink, I might say, "What do you have for soda?" and they'd list off specific brands. I know if you said, "What do you have for pop?" you'd be laughed at, and if you said, "What do you have for coke?" they'd assume you meant Coke, coke.

:D

[Ava]

20. i would say "i want a diet coke"

and they might say "we don't have cokes, but we have pepsis" and i would go "ok then, a diet pepsi" ;)

as for menus.. here all of the local places have them listed as "soft drinks"

[WritingIsMyReligion]

25. At least you're not a "coke"'er, even for other brands.

:D

[OhioChick]

18. Pop n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. You mean, generically or specifically?

Specifically, obviously I would call it by its name - "Coke", "Pepsi", "Dr. Pepper", and so forth.

In a generic sense, if it's soda pop to which I am referring, I call it "soda". I grew up in the midwest, though, and so learned to call it "pop", but enough years on the East Coast taught me the proper, non-rube way of referring to carbonated sodas.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

26. "proper, non-rube way of referring to carbonated sodas."

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

:thumbsup:

[johnnie]

32. You're very easily entertained...

...aren't you?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

35. I actually enjoyed seeing "rube" on DU, since I never see that word anymore.

Other than that, I don't seriously think of "pop" sayers as "rubes," "hicks," or anything else. :)

[Elidor]

27. Poison

I've never understood the attraction. I'll sip a coke if I'm doing some hot yard work and someone offers it to me (though I'd prefer tea or water), but I've never gone out of my way to seek one out. It doesn't satisfy.

[CatholicEdHead]

30. Pop, no doubt

This "soda" thing is only for eastern Wisconsinites, like the bubblers.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

38. Eastern Wisconsinites have the bubbler concept?

Cool. :D

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

37. Pop, of course

Soda and Tonic are two varieties of tastless colorless bubbly stuff only good with lime and vodka.

Coke is just one kind of pop.

:hi:

[GoneOffShore]

39. Voted other, call it soda, but it's really crap.

[philosophie_en_rose]

40. s o d a

:bounce:

[krispos42]

41. Soda

[youthere]

42. I call it all crap.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

44. I have a midly amusing story about this.

My friends and I went to BW's one time, all of us stoned (Ohio btw). My one friend was just running around wildly, so I went up to the counter and asked for a soda. The chick was cute, about my age. She gave me the cup, and said it was free. So I went and got my sprite, all the time thinking that the chick thought I was hot. Then before we left, she came up to me and and told me that she knew that I got pop and was giving me a hard time about it. Me being stoned out of my gourd, I just looked at her confused and then walked out the door. About 20 minutes later I realized that soda usually means soda water around here. So I basically spent my night feeling like a dumbass.

[MilesColtrane]

47. My dear departed daddy used to call soda pops "belly wash".

As in, "Hey, were going to stop up ahead at the store. You want a belly wash?"

He was a depression era child from Arkansas. I'm not sure where he got that from, but I always thought it was funny.

[fishwax]

48. I use any and all of the top three in your list, but

I've moved around a lot over the years, so I've picked up some odd habits :rofl:

[Fox Mulder]

49. Pop.

Saying it any other way is just...odd.

[Critters2]

50. Pop, of course. Except when visiting friends in Boston. Then it's "tonic"

I'll call it tonic, but I'm chuckling inside when I do. Tonic :eyes:

[BlueJazz]

51. Soda is the only Logical answer.

[liberaltrucker]

52. We heah in da South jes call em Coke

Doesn't matter the brand name or flavoring. It's a Coke.

T' y'all up Nawth, we prolly jest a buncha heathens, huh?

Just kidding, WIMR. Research on! When you're 21, LTwife and
I will buy you the drink of your choice. You'll have to fly
into BHM to claim it, though!

:)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

64. Yeah, we's heathens.

:P

:rofl::rofl:

[NV Whino]

53. Other

Yucky.

[jobycom]

56. Coke. Creeps me out when I hear people say pop or soda.

It sounds like something from a 20s movie or something.

[last_texas_dem]

58. I'm from an area that says "Coke" but that always bothered me

since it was applied to all of these drinks that tasted nothing like Coke! So, honestly, I've never really had a term for it. I've just always said, "Would you like something to drink?" If forced to be more specific, I'd call it its particular name. But if I had to choose between soda, pop, coke, or tonic, to distinguish- it would come down to soda or coke. I never really use the other two terms.

[Duer 157099]

59. Carbonated beverage

or soda. Never pop, and only coke when it means coca-cola.

Although actually I rarely use the terms at all, preferring to refer to the specific ("I'll have a root beer") but if someone is over at the house, I would say "Would you like a can of something to drink?" and then all options are open, even beer)

[TommyO]

61. I call it soda

but when I travel I sometimes have to correct myself and call it a pop.

[lightningandsnow]

63. Pop.

Must be a Canadian thing.

I've only ever heard it referred to as a "soda" where I live if it's one of those uber-colorful Jones Soda drinks.

[TZ]

75. Not a Canada thing exclusively

My relatives in Cleveland always called it "pop". Its a midwestern thing in the US. Didn't know it was a Canadian thing

[bikebloke]

65. Soft drink

Soft drink most of the time. Sometimes, I'll refer to them as sodas.

[Stargazer99]

68. tooth rottener

[BarenakedLady]

69. Soda

Always soda. I'm from RI. Here in WNY I think it's 1/2 and 1/2 between soda/pop.

[lavenderdiva]

72. Soft Drink

I didn't see it as an option, so I couldn't vote-

[1gobluedem]

77. It's pop here in Michigan

Soda is soda water, floats are made with pop and ice cream. Like a Vernors float, for example.

[Crabby Appleton]

78. Ask for soda here and you'd probably get this

[applegrove]

79. Soft drink.

[hippywife]

80. Poison. n/t

[grannylib]

83. Pop. Some midwesterners say "soda" but I hear pop more often.

I was SO confused down South when waitresses were asking "Y'all want a Coke with that? We got Sprite coke, Orange coke, root beer coke..." etc., and I thought they were INSANE! *lol*