Coke
Generic Name for Soft Drinks by County (U.S.A.)
I mostly grew up in Northwest Florida, which is a mere 12 hours to Miami by automobile. The culture of the Panhandle is distinctly “Southern.” However, no one ever believes me when I say that my Florida bears little resemblance to the Florida they’d know from Orlando or Miami or Key West, etc.
Finally, some proof of Florida’s cultural diversity: in my part of the state, we say “Coke” as a generic term for all soft drinks. This is also true in Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. In South Florida, it’s a bunch of Northern immigrants who say “Soda.” This also explains why the state is a battleground state every election
June 17, 2008 at 11:19 am
Where do the people who say “Pop” live?
June 17, 2008 at 11:41 am
Midwest, apparently.
June 18, 2008 at 4:21 am
pop is midwest.. also said in my home town. “rochester” ny.. witch is new buffalo. but i called soda pop “pop” growing up.. its pop.. orange pop, or grape pop.. whatever. thats what the generic brand cans said! if the cans says pop. its pop.. imo calling it soda is lame. wtf? soda.. thats already something. its soda! hence soda pop. its soda. with flavor. that pop.. pop is way better slang.. and coke makes no sense. thats a freaking brand. its like calling all sneakers nike’s..
“coke” as a generic term is also used in texas. though in dallas. coke actually means dr. pepper.
June 18, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I’m with you, buddy.
June 19, 2008 at 12:21 am
Whatever. We said “soda” in Albany.
June 19, 2008 at 1:31 pm
And you were wrong every time!
June 19, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Northern CT = firm “soda” territory
I’ll concede that at least “pop” is as accurate as “soda” in describing carbonated drinks, but why would people call every carbonated drink “Coke” when things like grape soda are so clearly different? Is it just that those areas historically lacked a choice of soft drinks?
June 19, 2008 at 4:25 pm
It’s a Southern thing. You wouldn’t understand.
September 18, 2008 at 11:18 am
You may be interested in this: http://popvssoda.com:2998/
ABSTRACT
“Using the World Wide Web to gather and process data from across English-speaking North America, I intend to plot the regional variations in the use of the terms “Pop” and “Soda” to describe carbonated soft drinks.”
Soda=Dems
Coke=Republicans
Pop=Independents
Also, Obama and McCain are tied at 48% in FL today.