Beverage, syrup, juice?

[Tait-ka]

Please tell me what you would call the liquid in the Coca Cola bottle above.
Beverage? Syrup? Juice? Or something else?

 

[jutfrank]

It's 'Coke'.

 

[Tait-ka]

It's 'Coke'.

Sorry, I didn't ask about the name of the bottle. Surely it's a Coca Cola or simply a Coke. I asked about what you would call the blackish color liquid.

 

[teechar]

Beverage?

That's possible, but "beverage" is quite generic,

Syrup? Juice?

No.

Or something else?

Try "soft drink". For Coke, Pepsi, and other such similar drinks, you can use "(a) cola".

 

[PeterCW]

In BrE "juice" would refer to pure fruit juice and "syrup" to a very concentrated solution of flavoured sugar. "Beverage" more likely to be used in the plural in business situations to refer to a an assortment of drinks of different types.

"Coke" is sometimes used incorrectly as a generic term for cola based drinks.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's a "fizzy drink". It's sometimes referred to generically as a "soda" but that's used more in AmE than BrE.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's a "soft drink," commonly called "pop" or "soda" regionally in the US.

Except for the folks in the South who call them all "coke" as a generic term.

 

[jutfrank]

Sorry, I didn't ask about the name of the bottle. Surely it's a Coca Cola or simply a Coke. I asked about what you would call the blackish color liquid.

Yes, the word for the black liquid is 'Coke', which is a kind of cola, so it's a bottle of Coke. The Coke is in the bottle.

 

[Tait-ka]

Yes, the word for the black liquid is 'Coke', which is a kind of cola, so it's a bottle of Coke. The Coke is in the bottle.

Thanks. Can you please explain more about "cola"?

 

[jutfrank]

Can you please explain more about "cola"?

What would you like us to explain? Don't you use the same word in Urdu? کولا

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks. Can you please explain more about "cola"?

That's the generic name of the black liquid. In this case, it's a cola made by the brand Coca-Cola. There are probably hundreds of brands making cola. Each one will have its brand name on the bottle but the contents will be cola. Each cola will have a very specific set of ingredients. Coca-Cola have kept the exact recipe of their version secret since it was founded in 1886.

As PeterCW indicated earlier, some people use the word "Coke" for any brand but that is incorrect. Coca-Cola have trademarked both terms so unless you're drinking the Coca-Cola brand itself, you shouldn't say you drink Coke. Don't get me wrong - no one cares if you use "Coke" instead of "cola" in your everyday conversations. Everyone would know what you meant.

A classic example of this difference is McDonald's. If you go to the counter at one of their places and say "Can I have a Coke?", their response will be "It's McDonald's cola. Is that OK?" They're legally obliged to explain to their customers that if they order "a Coke", they're not actually going to get Coca-Cola.

 

[Skrej]

A classic example of this difference is McDonald's. If you go to the counter at one of their places and say "Can I have a Coke?", their response will be "It's McDonald's cola. Is that OK?" They're legally obliged to explain to their customers that if they order "a Coke", they're not actually going to get Coca-Cola.

Huh, that must just be a UK thing. McDonald's in the US still serves actual Coca-Cola. Some Coke aficionados claim the Coke at McDonald's tastes better - supposedly something special on how they handle their fountain drinks. Something about chilling the syrup and filtering the water, blah, blah. In fact, even the bottled water brand they sell at McDonald's, Dasani, is owned by the Coca-Cola company.

I don't drink Coke even when I do enjoy pop, so I wouldn't know. I'm a Dr. Pepper man, myself.

Except for the folks in the South who call them all "coke" as a generic term.

I once heard a guy with a drawl order "an orange coke" in a restaurant.

 

[emsr2d2]

I should have pointed out in post #11 that I've never actually ordered a cola (or anything else) at McDonald's! I'd been in a couple when I was a teenager while friends ordered something and I heard the "It's McDonald's cola. Is that OK?"
I've just checked online and it seems that in 1993/1994, they switched to serving actual Coca-Cola in the UK.