Fanta-stic Origins

         The year is 1941, the United States have officially entered the second World War, and Coca-Cola is placed in a rather difficult situation: "Should we continue selling Coke to Germany and be ostracized by everyone forever, or should we not sell to America's now sworn enemies?"

I don't care. Let them all burnnnn.

            Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola opted to stop shipping their product to the poor thirsty Nazis. This put a man named Max Keith in a pickle. You see, Keith was the head of operations for Coca-Cola in Germany. And now that Coke and it's secret ingredients were gone from the Fatherland, there was like, figuratively nothing to drink.

God forbid...

           So acting quickly, Keith threw a bunch of stuff in a bottle and called it a beverage. His concoction included whey (watery part of milk after curds have formed) and pomace (stuff left over after pressing fruit), all of which was drown in a bunch of fake sugar. He dubbed the "product" Fanta, and abbreviation for phantasie, the German word for fantasy.

Pictured: whey. My definition of  "fantasy" is a little
different than Keith's.

         Fanta was largely successful in Germany, especially towards the later part of the war, where food shortages ran rampant. Fanta was enjoyed by many hungry Germans as a broth for soup.

         After the war ended, Coca-Cola returned to the now Hitler-free country and Fanta was abolished on the basis that it was practically inedible. That is, until around 10 years later, when Pepsi began enlarging their line of beverages. Coca-Cola, realizing that just brown sugar-water might not be able to compete with Pepsi's variety, brought back Fanta (only with a few changes in the ingredients, making sure it was, you know, fit for consumption).

And people have been enjoying Fanta ever since. I think.