Lemonade

A lemonade, colloquially also briefly soda ( in large parts of Bavaria also Gracherl ), is an alcohol-free, and usually sweetened carbonated soft drink with fruit extracts based on water. In the original sense of the word lemonade is a beverage of diluted lemon juice with water.

The sodas are also caffeine-containing cola beverages and most energy drinks. Often sodas will also be mixed with other drinks. Relates to the lemonade is the shower, which may also contain artificial or nature-identical flavoring and coloring agents.

Known mixed drinks with lemonade are about spritzer and Spezi. There are also many mixed beer drinks.

History

Already in ancient Roman times was a lemonade -like soft drink known, which remained under the name Posca centuries popular. Drinking water was simply mixed with a dash of vinegar. The taste depended very much on the dose of vinegar. Also the type of fruit, from which the vinegar was produced had a decisive share in the taste. When the present form of the lemonade was, however, remains unclear. One of the first evidence dates back to the 16th/17th. Century from Spain. At the Dresden court in 1688 they drank sodas " of lemons, roses, raspberries, cinnamon, strawberry, quince, Hippokras and Orsade ". Over time, other variations were always developed and sold. The prototype of all modern sodas, the English Lemon Squash, was originally a pure natural product made from water, sugar and lemon juice, but was artificially produced since the end of the 19th century.

Ingredients

In Germany, according to the guidelines for soft drinks of the German Food Manual lemonade out of drinking water, natural mineral water or spring and / or bottled water. In addition, flavoring preparations and / or natural flavoring substances and usually citric acid. For the flavor base and orange is used along with lemon often. Lemonade has a sugar content of at least 7 percent, an upper limit does not exist. In reduced-calorie lemonade, the sugar is completely or partially replaced by sweeteners.

Another ingredient is not fruit juice concentrate, fruit puree, fruit puree concentrate or a mixture of these products are added ( each also in preserved form ). Sodas with fruit juice content contain at least half of the usual of fruit drinks fruit juice proportions, ie:

Other ingredients may be:

• Caramel with caffeinated and the corresponding thereto in the flavor decaf sodas and sodas with apple flavor, with or without fruit juice content and clear herbal sodas
• Caffeine in caffeinated soft drinks in a proportion of at least 65 milligrams per liter and more than 250 milligrams per liter
• Whey products
• Beta -carotene and riboflavin and coloring foods, except for clear sodas with citrus aroma
• Extracts of ginger root, such as in the known product Ginger Ale
• Bitter substances such as quinine ( from the bark of the tree China ). Contains a lemonade at least 15 mg / l quinine tonic as it is called ( max. 85 mg / l quinine ).
• Glucose -fructose corn syrup (corn syrup) is in the industrial production of lemonade in use

Production

The industrial production of soft drinks is fully automated and includes only a few steps: the water is (actually CO2 ) is added in the feed by a waterproofing pump with carbonic acid, then mixed continuously with prefabricated lemonade base and sweeteners and bottled in bottles or cans, which are finally sealed gas-tight. The process goes back to Johann Jacob Schweppe, the method for moving water invented the late 18th century with carbonic acid.

Naming names and

The Italian term lemonade (lemon water) came towards the end of the 16th century Germany, the original roots of the concept lie in the Persian language, where laimun to German lemon means.

The name is " Lemonade ". The flavoring fruit is given in addition - for example, " apple lemonade ". As an indication of the taste are also terms such as " lemonade with apple flavor " or " lemonade with apple flavor " common. In sodas with plant extracts - for example, spices (about ginger), herbs, licorice - a designation as is " with lemonade ... Extract " used. In soft drinks without gas addition, the names shall be supplemented by an appropriate indication.

Kracherl

In Austria and parts of southern Germany, the term Kracherl for lemonade drinks is common. The name comes from the fact that the first lemonade bottles were designed as a ball closure bottle. When closing a glass ball was used that was pressed into the conical bottle neck by the pressure of carbonic up and locked this. The closure of each bottle was achieved either by a rubber seal or by insertion of a bottleneck and a ball. To open the glass ball was pressed with the thumb, which was usually accompanied by a crackling sound. Since the cleaning of this closure is complex, these bottles were replaced by those with clip closure and later with bottle caps and screw caps. Original bottles with glass balls are coveted by collectors rarities today.

Health aspects

Mark Pereira of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota provides sodas under the suspicion of being responsible for an increased risk of disease pancreatic cancer: before A higher by 87 percent cancer risk lies already in people who consume per week, two soft drinks and more. Pereira holds responsible for the high sugar content. According to the American Heart Association, the excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages such as sodas and juice beverages worldwide are brought annually in connection even with around 180,000 deaths. Intensive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, therefore, leads to obesity, which in turn increases the risk of developing a number of serious diseases. On the basis of data that were collected as part of the Global Burden of Diseases Study in 2010, the researchers were able to show that the intensive consumption of sugary beverages is causally related to approximately 133,000 annually diabetes -associated deaths, 44,000 deaths as a result of heart disease and 6,000 deaths is due to cancer.