Beverage Trivia
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This beverage trivia quiz has 176 free questions with answers and covers the whole drinks cabinet, not just the bar. There are 176 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 176 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
New Coke launched on 23 April 1985; taste tests favoured it, but public protest brought the old recipe back as Coca-Cola Classic that July, 79 days later.
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 sold it as Brad's Drink at his New Bern pharmacy from 1893 and renamed it Pepsi-Cola in 1898; the company went bankrupt in 1923 before Charles Guth revived it.
Q 05Pepsi got its 1898 name from a supposed benefit for which bodily function?
Digestion
Bradham claimed the drink aided digestion: the name nods to pepsin, a digestive enzyme, and early adverts 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 prune juice rumour has dogged Dr Pepper for decades; the company's official FAQ flatly denies it, and one theory blames a rival's delivery driver for starting the story.
Q 08Which ingredient in 7 Up's original 1929 formula was removed in 1948?
Lithium citrate
7 Up launched in 1929 as 'Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda'; its lithium citrate, a mood stabiliser, stayed in the formula until it was removed in 1948.
Q 09Fanta was created in 1940 in which country, after a trade embargo cut off supplies of Coca-Cola syrup?
Germany
Max Keith of Coca-Cola Deutschland created Fanta in Germany in 1940 from whey, apple pomace and beet sugar; the name came from 'Fantasie' after staff were told to use their imagination.
Q 10Before it was a soda, 'mountain dew' was 19th-century slang for which drink?
Whiskey
'Mountain dew' meant moonshine whiskey; the Hartman brothers of Knoxville, Tennessee, first sold the soda in the 1940s as a whiskey mixer, with a hillbilly label showing a barefoot mountaineer and a rifle.
Q 11Root beer's traditional flavour comes from the root bark of which tree?
Sassafras
Sassafras root bark gave root beer its classic flavour until the FDA banned its safrole oil in 1960; Charles Hires chose the name 'root beer' over 'root tea' 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
Coca-Cola launched Sprite in 1961 to take on 7 Up, then the dominant lemon-lime soda; it began life in West Germany in 1959 as Fanta Klare Zitrone, '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 opened its first store in 1971 in which city?
Seattle
The first Starbucks opened in Seattle in 1971 at 2000 Western Avenue, moving to Pike Place Market a few years later; for its first decade it sold only beans and equipment, inspired by roaster Alfred Peet.
Q 22Black, green, oolong and white tea all come from the leaves of which single plant species?
Camellia sinensis
Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub, is the single species behind all true teas; it originated around southwestern China and northern Myanmar, and processing alone separates black, green, oolong and white.
Q 23After plain water, which is the most widely consumed beverage in the world?
Tea
Q 14Which country is home to the bright orange soft drink Irn-Bru?
Scotland
Irn-Bru has been made in Scotland by A.G. Barr since 1901; its 'made from girders' slogan nods to the 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, a Belfast apothecary, made the first dark 'golden style' ginger ale around 1851; the pale 'dry' style came later from Canadian John McLaughlin.
Q 16Where is Kaldi, the goatherd credited in legend with discovering coffee, usually said to have lived?
Ethiopia
Legend places Kaldi in Ethiopia, where his goats grew lively after eating coffee cherries; the story first appears in 1671 with the goatherd unnamed, 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
Brazil, where coffee arrived in 1727 and boomed after independence in 1822, produced roughly 31% of the world's coffee in 2023, with Vietnam a distant second.
Q 19Luigi Bezzera filed his 1901 espresso machine patent in which Italian city?
Milan
Milan engineer Luigi Bezzera patented his steam-driven espresso machine in 1901; Desiderio Pavoni bought the patent in 1903 and began building La Pavoni machines in Milan in 1905.
Q 20Starbucks takes its name from the chief mate in which novel?
Moby-Dick
Starbuck is the first mate of the Pequod in Moby-Dick; co-founder Gordon Bowker admitted the novel had little to do with the business, as partner Terry Heckler just thought words beginning with 'st' sounded powerful.
Tea is the world's most-drunk beverage after water; China alone grows roughly 45% of the world's tea, with India a distant second.
Q 24Which country topped per-capita tea consumption in the 2010s, ahead of Ireland?
Turkey
Turkey topped per-capita tea consumption throughout the 2010s at roughly 3 kg a person a year, ahead of Ireland, where it is brewed strong and usually taken with milk.
Q 25Roughly how many chests of tea did the Sons of Liberty throw into Boston Harbor on 16 December 1773?
342
The 342 chests, holding about 46 tons of tea, took roughly three hours to dump; days later Philadelphia patriots forced the tea ship Polly to sail home unloaded.
Q 26Some of the men who dumped the tea in Boston Harbor dressed up as which people?
Mohawk warriors
Some participants dressed as Mohawk warriors; hiding their faces was a legal necessity, but the Native costume was a deliberate symbol of American identity rather than a mere disguise.
Q 27Masala chai is made by simmering black tea and spices in water and which other liquid?
Milk
Masala chai simmers black tea with milk, water, sugar and spices such as cardamom, ginger and cinnamon; street vendors known as chai wallahs sell it across India.
Q 28Matcha'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 29Bubble tea, with its chewy tapioca pearls, originated in the 1980s where, before spreading with the East Asian diaspora?
Taiwan
Taiwan invented bubble tea in the 1980s; the oldest version mixed hot black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk and syrup or honey.
Q 30Which country is the world's largest producer of milk?
India
India has been the world's largest milk producer since 1998, turning out roughly a quarter of global output, about half of it from buffalo rather than cattle.