It was the Americans who invented the orangeade (but not the one you think). Before the Fanta, however, Aranciata San Pellegrino was born. It was 1932
It was 1924 when Ezio Granelli, then owner of the San Pellegrino water company, started work to invent a new refreshing drink. The commendatore, an open-minded entrepreneur, invests in research and development and eight years later, in 1932, presents to the public at Milan Trade Fair, the Aranciata San Pellegrino.
A little orange juice, a pinch of sugar and water: the formula seems easy, so much so that it is the same as the homemade orange drink recipe, traditionally made in the Italian houses of the time in exactly the same way. But the idea is to add sparkling water, the San Pellegrino, and to bottle the product.
In the early twentieth century in America, the home of carbonated soft drinks, a similar product had already appeared locally, the Orange Crush, and it should not be forgotten that in 1927 the marketing of Coca Cola also began in Italy. But it is thanks to San Pellegrino that the orange drink is born as we know it today, and with it the iconic bottle, the club, round and buccellata like an orange, which has since been inextricably linked to the very idea of orange juice. The product was very popular and not only in Italy, as it was immediately exported abroad, where it became synonymous with made in Italy.
THE'Orangina (indeed, oranginà, to put it in French) was born later, in 1935, while for the Fanta it is necessary to wait until the years of the Second World War when the Coca Cola plant in Germany remains cut off from supplies due to the embargo of the secret recipe, and in order not to close a new product is invented, sweet and carbonated and flavored with fruit from time to time available. Fanta is born, which was acquired in 1960 as an American Coca Cola Company brand.
The orange drink today
Since its inception, San Pellegrino Orange has hardly changed: without preservatives and produced respecting the all-Italian raw material. The suppliers are in fact indicated on the label, it starts only from real fruit and the orange content is 20%. Over the years the lemonade, the vhinotto, the bitter orange juice were added to the orange drink and in 2019 a restyling of the historic glass club was inaugurated and the organic line was also born, a recipe with oranges and lemons 100% Italian from organic farming, unrefined organic cane sugar and natural aromas of orange and lemon.
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