THERE'S NO CREAM IN CREAM SODA

A lively history of popular alternatives to plain tap water.

Pouring out a companion to There’s No Ham in Hamburgers (2021), Zachman chronicles how the “thirst for new beverages” has “influenced science, medicine, history, and culture, and vice versa.” So, though leaving wines, spirits, and beer out of the mix (aside from brief mentions) rather limits her purview, she still manages to dip into a broad range of fields in describing the spread of tea, coffee, and numerous nostrums and soft drinks like Coca-Cola with (at least initially) psychoactive ingredients, considering the supposed health benefits of mineral waters and the real hazards of unclean fresh water and lead plumbing, offering highlights in the quest for ways of preserving animal milk, and delving into the research behind sports drinks like Gatorade and Red Bull…not to mention inventions from tea bags to juice pouches and innovators like Jacob Schweppe (“Father of the Soft Drink Industry”). The author also slips in nutritional notes and DIY experiments or demonstrations, including a 19th-century recipe for root beer that requires, tellingly, 5 pounds of sugar. Donnelly illustrates Zachman’s flow of colorful (occasionally revolting) historical anecdotes with fanciful cartoon images featuring merchants, scientists, and drinkers of diverse era and race.

A sugary spill of facts, fads, and popular fancies.