All About the Bubbles Baby

August 21, 2018
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Billion Dollar Bubbles

What Pepsi’s latest $3 Billion purchase tells us about the beverage industry (and our drinking habits).

What’s old is new

Pepsi Buys SodaStream

  • Pepsi says purchase expands healthier options, better for environment (people can create soda at home, with reusable bottles).
  • Big Picture: Major brands are battling for bubbles. Last year, CocaCola bought TopoChico, a sparkling water brand, for more than $200M.
“Sparkling water has grown far more strongly than the overall bottled water category in the U.S.”



Wall Street Journal, on how sparkling water market has grown more than 30% in recent years. In the meantime, Americans are drinking less soda.

Are Bubbles Actually Healthier?

What we know (from somewhat limited studies) about carbonated water:

  • Helps with hydration.
  • Doesn’t strip bone density (as reported in mid-2000s).
  • May (mildly) impact your teeth enamel.

The man who invented sparkling water also discovered oxygen (as we know it) … and the rubber eraser! The Englishman believed in the American Revolution & was lifelong friends with Benjamin Franklin. We have his must-read bio on our source page.

Bubbling Beverages
In 1767, Priestley was offered a ministry in Leeds, Englane, located near a brewery. This abundant and convenient source of “fixed air — what we now know as carbon dioxide — from fermentation sparked his lifetime investigation into the chemistry of gases. He found a way to produce artificially what occurred naturally in beer and champagne: water containing the effervescence of carbon dioxide. The method earned the Royal Society’s coveted Copley Prize and was the precursor of the modern soft-drink industry.

by Jenna Lee,

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