ABSTRACT
A. HISTORY OF SOFT DRINKS The first carbonated beverage, of sorts, was provided by nature, and dates back to antiquity, when the first carbonated natural mineral waters were discovered-although they weren’t usually used for drinking. Instead, they were used for bathing by the ancient Greeks and Romans, owing to their purported therapeutic properties. It wasn’t until thousands of years later, in 1767, that the British chemist, Joseph Priestley, was credited with noticing that the carbon dioxide he introduced into water gave a “pleasant and acidulated taste to the water in which it was dissolved” (1). The history of carbonated soft drinks (CSDs) is somewhat sparse during its early evolution, but most agree that development of CSDs is due, in large part, to pharmacists.
