A soft drink (also referred to as soda, pop, soda pop, coke or fizzy drink) is a non-alcoholic beverage typically containing water and a flavoring agent. Many are carbonated and sweetened, and may contain additional ingredients such as fruit juice. Small amounts of alcohol may be present, but the level would generally remain under 0.5% of the total volume for the drink to be considered non-alcoholic. Soft drinks are most often consumed chilled, and sometimes at room temperature. Common soft drinks include cola, flavored water, sparkling water, iced tea, sweet tea, sparkling lemonade (or other lemon-lime soft drinks), squash, fruit punch, root beer, orange soda, grape soda, cream soda, and ginger ale.
The adjective "soft" is employed in opposition to "hard", the latter being used in reference to drinks with a high alcohol content. Further, soft drinks are not thought of as containing milk or other dairy products. Hot chocolate, hot tea, coffee, tap water, juice, schorle or spritzer and milkshakes also do not fall into this classification.
Many carbonated soft drinks sweetened with sugar or corn syrup are available in diet versions sweetened instead with non-caloric sweeteners.
