Cream Soda

Cream soda is a carbonated soft drink whose main ingredients are water, sweetener, and vanilla. Although some bottlers use cane sugar for the creamiest texture, most varieties are made with high-fructose corn syrup. Cream soda is naturally clear, but most are colored with caramelized sugar, which also adds a slight flavor. Red cream soda has been popular occasionally, and there has even been a vogue for blue cream soda.

There are a number of explanations for the name “cream soda.” The most obvious is the soda’s creamy feel in the mouth. Another possibility is that some recipes call for cream of tartar, which adds to the creaminess of the drink. And, last, some people believe that it was originally called “ice cream soda,” because it tastes as though it were made from vanilla ice cream.