What is your favourite pop to drink?

[Ichinisan]

coke = any cola pop for me

Where do you live?

 

[CZroe]

Do they? I wonder how that works. If I want rootbeer, how do I tell the waitress what kind of "coke" I want? What if I want Coke coke? I find it hard to believe anyone does that. I use coke as a generic term for cola, but that's not hard to figure out what I'm asking for.

You forget that they are using it as a substitute for "pop," which is also similarly non-specific. If you want a root beer, you don't request a "pop" and leave it at that. Similarly, we say "drink" the vast majority of the time others might say "pop" and it leads to no confusion. I'm sure that the people using "Coke" generically are more specific when they need to be. If the cooler only has Sprite in it they might ask for a Coke.

I think the perceived prevalence of this actually comes from calling a beverage vending machine a "Coke machine" regardless of what brands/products it contains. I've heard something like "get me a Dr. Pepper from the Coke machine" many times when the person knows it is a machine full of Pepsi products. Those same people do not call Sprite, Dr. Pepper, etc "Coke."

 

[KMFJD]

Where do you live?

Canada, I've never called it soda....

 

[Red Squirrel]

Coke = Coka cola
Soda = Those fruity colour ones, ex: Cream Soda
Pop = all soft drinks

 

[zerocool84]

This has been shown many times. Basically the lower populated areas of the country use pop. The better parts of the country call it a normal name.

 

[Darwin333]

Pepsi Max and Mountain Dew

 

[Red Squirrel]

This has been shown many times. Basically the lower populated areas of the country use pop. The better parts of the country call it a normal name.

North America is best America! The only way to be bester is to come to Canada.

 

[Kaido]

I was recently introduced to Foxon Park sodas...my new favorite.

My all-time favorite would have to be Virgil's Bavarian Nutmeg root beer (special edition in the cool flip-top glass bottle, made with cane sugar). I limit it to once a year for my birthday so that I don't spoil it. Amazingly good.

 

[ControlD]

My favorite mainstream pop is Vernors, even though they have made it weaker since I was a child. In a close second would be Squirt. I don't drink much pop though, I prefer tea most of the time.

 

[shortylickens]

My favorite mainstream pop is Vernors, even though they have made it weaker since I was a child. In a close second would be Squirt. I don't drink much pop though, I prefer tea most of the time.

I love Squirt. But so few places carry it these days.

 

[CZroe]

This has been shown many times. Basically the lower populated areas of the country use pop. The better parts of the country call it a normal name.

Yes, it has been posted many times, but it also seems to go in one ear and out the other when it is refuted every time. It's useless. I don't just mean "ZOMG! It says that we say 'Coke' in GA when we totally do not (that too), but even the base assumption (that we all have and frequently use a specific word to refer to sweetened carbonated beverages) is wrong. Most say "drink" when there is no need to be more specific where someone from another region would most likely say "pop." Assuming that we always say soda or soft drink or Coke in the same context is incorrect.

It seems that people who say "pop" are almost trying to use it wherever they can and use it where there is absolutely no need to distinguish it from other drinks. It's actually kinda funny. I hear it so often when my family from WV comes to visit and very rarely was there a reason to say it instead of "drink" (IOW, where we would have said "soda"). Even the people claiming to say "soda" or "Coke" or whatever don't realize the the vast majority of the comparable times they do not use the word they just claimed to use. The question is asked as if they need to pick the similarly-specific word they would use to substitute without actually asking which they would use in the same contexts (ordering food, requesting beverages, etc).