This beverage trivia quiz has 180 free questions with answers and covers the whole drinks cabinet, not just the bar. There are 180 questions on soft drinks (why Fanta exists, what 7 Up once claimed to contain, which soda is older than Coca-Cola), coffee and espresso, tea from the Boston Harbor to bubble tea, energy and sports drinks, bottled water, hot chocolate, kombucha and a round of world drinks like yerba mate, horchata, lassi, kvass and ayran. Beer, wine, spirits and cocktails get a lighter touch here because they have their own quizzes on BrainPickle, but you will still meet the oldest sparkling wine, the 9,000-year Guinness lease, the Gibson and the Red Snapper. It is built for pub quiz hosts, trivia-night organisers and anyone who has ever argued about where mountain dew got its name. Every answer was checked against a primary source, mostly the relevant Wikipedia article or the brand's own history, and the difficulty runs from easy warm-ups to a handful of questions that will stump most food and drink experts.
30 of 180 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city did pharmacist John Pemberton first sell his new temperance soda in 1886?
Atlanta
The first glasses were poured at Jacob's Pharmacy for five cents each, after Atlanta and Fulton County went dry.
Q 02In what year did Coca-Cola replace its formula with the short-lived 'New Coke'?
1985
Taste tests actually favoured the new recipe, but nostalgia forced the old one back as Coca-Cola Classic within three months.
Q 03Which company put a red-suited Santa in its ginger ale ads in 1923, before Coca-Cola?
White Rock Beverages
White Rock had already used Santa to sell mineral water in 1915, so the myth that Coca-Cola invented the red-and-white Santa is exactly that.
Q 04Under what name was Pepsi first sold in 1893 at a North Carolina drugstore?
Brad's Drink
Caleb Bradham renamed it Pepsi-Cola in 1898; the company went bankrupt in 1923 before being revived by Charles Guth.
Q 05Pepsi got its 1898 name from a supposed benefit for which bodily function?
Digestion
Early adverts called it 'The Pepsin Drink' and promised relief from dyspepsia, headaches and drowsiness.
Q 06Charles Alderton created Dr Pepper at a drugstore soda fountain in which Texas city?
Waco
Regulars simply ordered 'a Waco'. The name Dr Pepper was in commercial use by 1885, a year before Coca-Cola.
Q 07A rumour circulating since the 1930s claims Dr Pepper secretly contains which ingredient?
Prune juice
The company's official FAQ flatly denies it; one theory blames a rival's delivery driver for starting the story.
Q 08When 7 Up launched in 1929, its formula was claimed to include which mood-stabilising substance?
Lithium citrate
Regulators forced the health claims out in 1936, and the name was shortened to plain '7 Up' the following year.
Q 09Fanta was created in 1940 in which country, after a trade embargo cut off supplies of Coca-Cola syrup?
Germany
Max Keith's team improvised with sugar beet, whey and apple pomace; the name came when a salesman answered his call to 'use your imagination' (Fantasie) with 'Fanta!'.
Q 10Before it was a soda, 'mountain dew' was 19th-century slang for which drink?
Whiskey
The Hartman brothers of Tennessee first sold it as a mixer, with hillbilly labels showing a barefoot mountaineer and a rifle.
Q 11Root beer's traditional flavour comes from the root bark of which tree?
Sassafras
Charles Hires wanted to call it 'root tea' but chose 'root beer' to appeal to Pennsylvania coal miners.
Q 12Sprite was introduced in the United States in 1961 as a direct competitor to which drink?
7 Up
It began life in West Germany two years earlier as Fanta Klare Zitrone, or 'Fanta Clear Lemon'.
Q 13The word 'cola' comes from a caffeine-bearing nut of which plant?
Kola
Modern colas usually get their caffeine elsewhere, but a kola-based stimulating soda was on sale by about 1880.
Q 21Starbucks takes its name from the chief mate in which novel?
Moby-Dick
Co-founder Gordon Bowker admitted the book had nothing to do with the business; a partner just thought words beginning with 'st' sounded powerful.
Q 22Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 in which city?
Seattle
For its first decade it sold only beans and equipment at Pike Place Market, inspired by roaster Alfred Peet.
Q 23Black, green, oolong and white tea all come from the leaves of which single plant species?
Camellia sinensis
The evergreen shrub originated in the borderlands of southwestern Asia's tea heartland and northern Myanmar.
Q 14Irn-Bru has been the top-selling soft drink for over a century in which country?
Scotland
Its 'made from girders' slogan is a nod to the drink's rusty colour and the 0.002% ammonium ferric citrate on the label.
Q 15The first ginger ale was manufactured in the 1850s by an apothecary in which city?
Belfast
Thomas Cantrell's dark 'golden style' came first; the pale 'dry' style was later created by Canadian John McLaughlin.
Q 16Where is Kaldi, the goatherd credited in legend with discovering coffee, usually said to have lived?
Ethiopia
The story does not appear before 1671 and the goatherd is unnamed in the earliest telling, so Kaldi is probably a later invention.
Q 17The earliest credible reports of people drinking coffee, in the mid-15th century, come from Sufis in which region?
Yemen
Until the end of the 17th century most of the world's coffee was still shipped out of Yemen.
Q 18Which country grew about 31% of the world's coffee beans in 2023, more than any other?
Brazil
Coffee reached Brazil in 1727 but only took off after independence in 1822; Vietnam is now the clear number two.
Q 19Luigi Bezzera filed his 1901 espresso machine patent in which Italian city?
Milan
Desiderio Pavoni bought Bezzera's patents two years later, and the first machines took 45 seconds per cup.
Q 20Modern high-pressure espresso with its layer of crema was pioneered by Gaggia in which decade?
1940s
Early Gaggia machines called the result 'crema caffè', cream coffee, after the foam that older steam machines could not produce.
Q 24After plain water, which is the most widely consumed beverage in the world?
Tea
China alone grows about half of the world's supply, with India a distant second.
Q 25Ireland is the second-biggest per-capita tea drinker in the world. Which country comes first?
Turkey
The Irish get through roughly 2.7 to 4 kg per person a year, brewed strong and usually taken with milk.
Q 26Roughly how many chests of tea did the Sons of Liberty throw into Boston Harbor on 16 December 1773?
342
It took about three hours; nine days later Philadelphia patriots simply forced the tea ship Polly to sail home unloaded.
Q 27Some of the men who dumped the tea in Boston Harbor dressed up as which people?
Mohawk warriors
Hiding their faces was a legal necessity, but the choice of costume was a deliberate symbol rather than a mere disguise.
Q 28Masala chai is made by simmering black tea and spices in water and which other liquid?
Milk
Sweetened with sugar, it is often poured from a height to aerate it, a trick performed by masters known as 'tevanas'.
Q 29Matcha's vivid green colour and strong umami flavour come from which step in growing the leaves?
Shading them from the sun
The powder is whisked into hot water rather than steeped, so you drink the whole leaf.
Q 30Bubble tea, with its chewy tapioca pearls, was invented in the 1980s where?
Taiwan
The oldest version mixed hot black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk and syrup or honey.