I love Guaraná and agree that Antarctica is the superior brand! Wikipedia describes the taste as "mild and slightly apple-like, with a berry after-flavour" [0] but I agree it is more like ginger ale or like spiced ginger beer. It is pronounced "gua-da-NAH".
It is also called "Brazilian champagne" [1], has as much caffeine as Coke, but much less sugar even though it tastes as sweet due to the Guaraná taste.
AFAIK Guaraná Antártica doesn't have much caffeine at all, that's one of the reasons I like it more (can drink it at night). It might not even have caffeine at all, although I can't find that information anywhere.
That's actually certainly possible, most of it is probably water and sugar lol. Although I haven't managed to actually find the amount of caffeine online, when I get another one I'll see if that information is available in the drink.
Anecdotal [0]: The federal government has attempted in the 40s to require that Guaraná sodas had at least 0.5% of it's contents in Guaraná seeds, however even that was already too much caffeine so it didn't happen!
edit: Found a source for this, Guarana Antarticá has around 1/10 of the caffeine in Coca-Cola [1].
Several sites I found list Guaraná Antarctica as having 30 mg of caffeine vs Coke's 34 mg [0]. It is also similar in sugar content contrary to what I initially found.
That doesn't match with my personal experience comparing the effects of Guaraná Antarctica and other sodas (eg Coke). Also, websites in Portuguese [1] claim that Guaraná contains only 2-4 mg of caffeine per 350ml. I wasn't able to find an official source.
Another interesting thing about Guarana is that it's a relative of Lychee, Rambutan, Longan, Quenepa, etc. -- you can see it by the fruit and the black seed in the middle. And many seeds in this family can be used to produce a soap, though some are better than others.
Yes, they are all in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). One has to be a little careful, though, because many of the seeds of plants in this family contain bioactive compounds that can be quite poisonous. For example, in ackee. By the way, maple (Acer species) have also now been moved into this family based on genetic evidence.
I've almost given up on soda for the last 12 years. The funny thing is that my taste has shifted and all the colas have become nasty, but Guaraná I still enjoy.
I remember a friend of mine from the University brought me along to one of the LAN parties in his home town. And one of the things he told me to look forward to was that they sold Bawls Guaraná at the party. He was right, they did and it was the first time I’d tasted it. I liked it.
They were blue bottles of glass, with kind of a bumpy texture of a surface. Looks like these bottles look about the same, or even exactly the same, still, judging from results on Google Images.
I first heard of it from watching PurePwnage, then it became a hipster soda in my town a few years later. 05/06 was an interesting time.
I think I've had it once or twice, but nothing memorable. The real tragedy is that I haven't been able to find Stewarts Key Lime locally in the better part of a decade.
Fruki is pretty good, roughly as good as Antártica imo (though I'd give Antártica a slight edge still). But it's only found in Southern Brazil, while Antártica is available nationwide, so the latter is much more popular.
The one regional soda I'd like to see become more popular is Mineirinho, which I've only ever seen sold in Rio de Janeiro (the state). It's such a peculiar/interesting taste, have not had it in years now.
Rio also has a regional guaraná called Guaravita, but it's not really a soda as it's not carbonated. It's more like a juice (and it's marketed as "natural guaraná"). It's pretty good too!
I must say every time I leave Brazil, even though I don't really enjoy the country that much, I REALLY miss Guaraná LOL. It's so much better than any other soda, specially in the US where Coke has something like 5 tons of sugar per milliliter. I often wonder why the national companies haven't managed to widely export these or produce them elsewhere, I think a lot of people would really enjoy it.
Meanwhile Coca-Cola has made their own version of Guaraná called Kuat [0], but it's mehh at best, I seriously hope it doesn't mess with outsider's perception of the drink. They then created yet _another_ soft drink with Guaraná under the Fanta brand [1], that one is better IMO but a lot of people don't like it too. Wonder what's so different between those recipes.
Unfortunately never tasted it, seems like it's also pretty hard to find nowadays. Next time I hop in the US I might take the plunge and order it from their online store LOL. Something I do know is that Guaraná soft drinks generally have really low caffeine amounts (they have less than 0.5% of the composition as actual Guaraná extract), meanwhile Brawl is highly caffeinated, not sure if added or just a higher concentration of Guaraná.
I was just looking to try this soda and it looks like regular Guarana has almost exactly the same amount of sugar as a Coke.
If anyone is interested in other sodas I recently had the chance to try Materva, a yerba mate soda, and I would recommend it if you can find the sugar free variety or have room in your life for a sugary treat.
In which country? Coke has different amounts of added sugars in between regions to adapt to regional tastes. AFAIK the United States is the one with the most sugar, although don't quote me on that.
I was going to say. Americans have a sweet tooth but Brazilians are the world champions of adding sugar.
Only place I've ever been where it's considered perfectly normal to add sugar to your orange juice in the morning.
Guaraná is definitely just as sweet as American sodas. I personally find it too sweet because it doesn't have as much acid balancing it that Coke does.
Presumably OP means freshly squeezed orange juice, which might taste a bit sour. I cannot imagine adding sugar to some sugar-flavored orange water like Sunny Delight. Or maybe it is that bad.
I don't know about the oranges in Asia, but in Brazil they are not bitter at all.
And people only put sugar in it when they are bad/old, and even then it's uncommon.
Yes, drinking sour or acid juice makes no sense, unless a person will not take sugar because of health issues or is on a strict diet. In the same sense, drinking coffee without sweetening is a bit silly and a punch to the stomach, and provides no benefit, just a macho bragging feeling.
Brazilian here and I can confirm. We do have a sweet tooth. Guaraná tastes just as sweet as coke, everyone drinks it and loves it. But coke is also a massive success, Brazilians love it even more than guarana.
Our beloved brigadeiros are easy to make at home. But Americans often find it too sweet to bear. While it's actually the most delicious treat in the world.
It's a cost cutting measure. If you're in a family that can't afford to buy enough oranges to squeeze enough pure juice for everybody, you just buy fewer oranges, dilute the juice with water, and then add cheap sugar to partially counterbalance taste loss due to dilution.
I don't get it. In my family we only ever add sugar to lemonades and coffee. I don't see other people overusing sugar either. Maybe I'm just not observant enough.
Guaraná is just as sweet as Coca-Cola. No difference there, they both have about 20 g of sugar per can.
I think it's just that it occupies the same "place" as lemon-lime soda (Sprite, 7-Up) in other countries like the US. It's the main "fruity" alternative to Coke.
Obviously guaraná and lemon-lime taste different, but you don't really need both in the same market. Just one main fruity non-cola.
(I'm speaking from the perspective of product lines of course. I totally realize individual consumers may prefer guaraná over lemon-lime or vice-versa.)
Coca Cola brought Crush and shut it down some 30 years ago. Some times try to get some market back in one city or another by using the brand again, but I know of no place where it lasts.
You're both right in terms of who distributes it, as happens frequently with food and drink brands internationally [1]:
> Crush is a brand of carbonated soft drinks owned and marketed internationally by Keurig Dr Pepper, originally created as an orange soda, Orange Crush. Crush competes with Coca-Cola's Fanta.
> It is distributed by various Pepsi bottlers, the biggest being the Pepsi Bottling Group United States... In contrast, in some countries of Latin America the Crush brand is distributed by The Coca-Cola Company, using the same colours and bottles as Fanta.
> I often wonder why the national companies haven't managed to widely export these or produce them elsewhere
The reverse is true as well. Some popular soft drinks in the USA are unknown in Brazil -- such as root beer, Dr Pepper, and cream soda.[1]
I think guaraná would be a success in the US and root beer could be a success in Brazil too. My assumption is that nobody wants to spend the money to create the market in a new country unless they're going to have a monopoly for at least awhile. But nobody own the flavors of guaraná and root beer, or even those names. After you've spent all the money to educate the public, some established domestic company would swoop in and take the market away from you.
as a German who LOVES root beer, it is kind of an acquired taste and most of the friends I introduced to root beer don't like it.
You can actually buy root beer in larger supermarkets here but there isn't a guarantee that its in stock always and I am sure its a low sales volume item).
So IMHO root beer has its market share in the US because it got popular at a time when there wasn't such a great variety in sugary drinks, kind of a founder effect, and that is not replicated in a different market, as competition is hire so people don't get to drink the 3-4 cans of root beer that I guess are necessary to get hooked.
As an Argentinian who LOVES root beer (and Dr Pepper, and Guarana) I agree. Enough people like Guarana in Argentina, but I don't imagine root beer succeeding.
Weirdly, a mate-based soda is super popular in Germany, but when we had a (different) mate-based soda in Argentina it came and went very quickly.
Interestingly I've never heard chimarrão here in Paraná, here it's either chá mate (can be hot or cold) or tereré (cold), so it might be a RS & SC thing.
Guarana Antartica is very popular in our family. The best part is that they have a diet version and it’s no different than the regular. If anyone wants to try it, there are plenty of sellers on Amazon (no pun intended)
If anyone in the US wants to try it, I used to find it at Brazilian-owned ethnic markets.
Beware that it can have a lot of caffeine. (Personally, I now minimize caffeine intake, for health reasons.) If you want caffeine, hopefully you can get an accurate ballpark of how much a particular soda will contain, and work it into your intake budget.
Among other things, caffeine for me (even the amount in a decaf) seems to overall adversely affect sleep, mood, and GI. It can also be bad for some inner ear conditions.
I'm fortunate to be energetic and enthusiastic by default, and don't need to be caffeine-powered on top of that.
The whole coffee aesthetic experience is neat (including nursing one in a cafe, a warm mug cupped hands on a lazy weekend morning, or the image of carrying one as walking to the office on a crisp morning with purpose), but I can find other experiences, and the cravings for the taste of it subside within a couple months of quitting.
Guaraná Antarctica is my all time favorite soft drink. I've stopped drinking soft drinks more or less entirely, but I still allow myself a can of Guaraná Antarctica every now and then. Luckily it's very hard to come by, and at $3-4 per can, prohibitively expensive to buy in any quantity.
In North Carolina I've found Guaraná Antarctica much cheaper at grocery stores like Compare Foods (carries Latin American products, even cashew-fruit concentrate (Marañon in Spanish, not Cajú), another great Brazilian beverage).
I found this drink in my local supermarket in Finland and decided to try it. It was amazing, but after a little research I realised that it probably had way too much caffeine which as a coffee drinker, I should have less of. As someone who has integrated into Finnish culture, nothing was going to replace my coffee, so I stopped drinking it.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 144 ms ] threadThink ginger ale with a kick.
You can find it in many Latin grocery sections in CA, FL, and TX.
It is also called "Brazilian champagne" [1], has as much caffeine as Coke, but much less sugar even though it tastes as sweet due to the Guaraná taste.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%A1_Antarctica [1] https://sodapopcraft.com/what-is-guarana-soda/
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarana
Anecdotal [0]: The federal government has attempted in the 40s to require that Guaraná sodas had at least 0.5% of it's contents in Guaraná seeds, however even that was already too much caffeine so it didn't happen!
edit: Found a source for this, Guarana Antarticá has around 1/10 of the caffeine in Coca-Cola [1].
[0]: https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%A1_Antarctica (in portuguese, try translating with DeepL or Google Translate)
[1]: https://www.mundoboaforma.com.br/lista-de-20-alimentos-que-c... (in portuguese, try translating with DeepL or Google Translate)
[0] https://sodapopcraft.com/what-is-guarana-soda/
[1] https://www.mundoboaforma.com.br/lista-de-20-alimentos-que-c...
They were blue bottles of glass, with kind of a bumpy texture of a surface. Looks like these bottles look about the same, or even exactly the same, still, judging from results on Google Images.
I think I've had it once or twice, but nothing memorable. The real tragedy is that I haven't been able to find Stewarts Key Lime locally in the better part of a decade.
The one regional soda I'd like to see become more popular is Mineirinho, which I've only ever seen sold in Rio de Janeiro (the state). It's such a peculiar/interesting taste, have not had it in years now.
Rio also has a regional guaraná called Guaravita, but it's not really a soda as it's not carbonated. It's more like a juice (and it's marketed as "natural guaraná"). It's pretty good too!
Damn, this conversation made me thirsty lol
Meanwhile Coca-Cola has made their own version of Guaraná called Kuat [0], but it's mehh at best, I seriously hope it doesn't mess with outsider's perception of the drink. They then created yet _another_ soft drink with Guaraná under the Fanta brand [1], that one is better IMO but a lot of people don't like it too. Wonder what's so different between those recipes.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuat_(drink)
[1]: https://the-soda.fandom.com/wiki/Fanta_Guarana
It's pink, tastes like bubblegum and sweeter than other Guaraná sodas I've tasted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%A1_Jesus
Edit: the can depicted in the Wikipedia picture is not the design I like and am familiar with:
https://www.sucos.com/artikel/guarana-jesus/
If anyone is interested in other sodas I recently had the chance to try Materva, a yerba mate soda, and I would recommend it if you can find the sugar free variety or have room in your life for a sugary treat.
https://www.actiononsugar.org/media/actiononsugar/news-centr...
Only place I've ever been where it's considered perfectly normal to add sugar to your orange juice in the morning.
Guaraná is definitely just as sweet as American sodas. I personally find it too sweet because it doesn't have as much acid balancing it that Coke does.
But yes our sodas have the same amount of sugar as the US ones.
Our beloved brigadeiros are easy to make at home. But Americans often find it too sweet to bear. While it's actually the most delicious treat in the world.
Guaraná is just as sweet as Coca-Cola. No difference there, they both have about 20 g of sugar per can.
Obviously guaraná and lemon-lime taste different, but you don't really need both in the same market. Just one main fruity non-cola.
(I'm speaking from the perspective of product lines of course. I totally realize individual consumers may prefer guaraná over lemon-lime or vice-versa.)
In the US if you go to an event and there are two sugary sodas they'll probably be Coke and Sprite. In Brazil they'll be Coke and Guaraná.
And Guaraná is a lighter fruit flavor. As is lemon-lime. Coke is not -- it's a harsher, more intense flavor.
Crush has been made by the Keurig Dr. Pepper / Pepsico groups for several decades now.
> Crush is a brand of carbonated soft drinks owned and marketed internationally by Keurig Dr Pepper, originally created as an orange soda, Orange Crush. Crush competes with Coca-Cola's Fanta.
> It is distributed by various Pepsi bottlers, the biggest being the Pepsi Bottling Group United States... In contrast, in some countries of Latin America the Crush brand is distributed by The Coca-Cola Company, using the same colours and bottles as Fanta.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_(soft_drink)
Seems to be unambiguously false. It's such a bizarrely false thing to claim that it's difficult to tell if the author genuinely believes it.
The reverse is true as well. Some popular soft drinks in the USA are unknown in Brazil -- such as root beer, Dr Pepper, and cream soda.[1]
I think guaraná would be a success in the US and root beer could be a success in Brazil too. My assumption is that nobody wants to spend the money to create the market in a new country unless they're going to have a monopoly for at least awhile. But nobody own the flavors of guaraná and root beer, or even those names. After you've spent all the money to educate the public, some established domestic company would swoop in and take the market away from you.
[1] http://brazilsense.com/index.php?title=Common_in_the_USA_and...
You can actually buy root beer in larger supermarkets here but there isn't a guarantee that its in stock always and I am sure its a low sales volume item).
So IMHO root beer has its market share in the US because it got popular at a time when there wasn't such a great variety in sugary drinks, kind of a founder effect, and that is not replicated in a different market, as competition is hire so people don't get to drink the 3-4 cans of root beer that I guess are necessary to get hooked.
Weirdly, a mate-based soda is super popular in Germany, but when we had a (different) mate-based soda in Argentina it came and went very quickly.
Fanta is trying to compete with Antarctica (that is from AmBev).
I'm buying Fanta because it's cheaper than Antarctica.
2L pet bottle is here: R$ 3.99 Kuat R$ 5.99 Fanta Guaraná R$ 7.99 Antarctica
In US$ it's about 0.79 1.20 1.60
It’s part of the touristic attraction of many small towns to taste a local guaraná soda.
http://flavorsofbrazil.blogspot.com/2010/10/guarana-pureza-m...
https://youtu.be/unZL_HwMLIg
Interesting fact: Uruguay is a heavy consumer of Mate, but doesn't produce any.
https://www.amazon.com/Guarana-Antarctica-Guaraná-Flavoured-...
Beware that it can have a lot of caffeine. (Personally, I now minimize caffeine intake, for health reasons.) If you want caffeine, hopefully you can get an accurate ballpark of how much a particular soda will contain, and work it into your intake budget.
I'm fortunate to be energetic and enthusiastic by default, and don't need to be caffeine-powered on top of that.
The whole coffee aesthetic experience is neat (including nursing one in a cafe, a warm mug cupped hands on a lazy weekend morning, or the image of carrying one as walking to the office on a crisp morning with purpose), but I can find other experiences, and the cravings for the taste of it subside within a couple months of quitting.
Some truckers use it all the time, under the tongue, to avoid controlled meds as well.
I'll try to mix with my mate, never tried. :)
edit: ok so it seems that is the case for the brand (guarana antarctica) I know of (and the only one I saw sold/advertised where I come from)
And when it's on the weekend, you can also put a little bit of vodka