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Pop - Drink

Den

Den

proper brummie kid
Hi
what does the word "pop" mean? Is it beer, or other alcohol, water or tea ?
Is it a birmingham word?
from a letter written by my grandmother to her sister living in nechells. "... it was so hot today that Bert drank all the pop."
Den
 
Hi Den,
Pop means any soft fizzy drink, called sodapop in America, believe it
originates from the sound made when you open the bottle or can
similar to when you open champagne.
Regards John.
 
Hello there Den,
John has beaten me to it but I'll post just the same.
“Pop” in the context used my your grandmother is probably a non-alcoholic, carbonated, flavoured, and sweetened soft drink usually commercially prepared and sold in bottles or cans. “Sprite”, manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company, and therefore - I imagine - readily available in Australia, is pop. It is not specifically a Birmingham word and in the UK is sold in a number of different flavours: lemon, lime, orange, raspberry, blackcurrant, dandelion and burdock, etc.
If you have read a wide variety of posts on this forum, it is highly likely that you have come across the word “Vimto”, which contains the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants, flavoured with herbs and spices. It was a very popular “pop” when I was a boy, i.e. 1950 to 1960 and probably well before that and possibly afterwards as well. It is still produced but I can’t comment on its popularity today.
Although a form of “pop”, I have never heard of Coca-Cola being referred to in this way.
Best regards,
db84124
 
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I just put the meaning on the Forum from a online Dictionary and it has to be approved?:(
 
Bottles of pop were usually 'Corona','Vimto' or 'R Whites' lemonade,all of which came in proper glass bottles I seem to recall!
 
Pop round Brum I remember was usually Masons, Corona was more expensive I think, and had bottles with the wires on the cork, like some fancy german beer bottles do.

Then thre was the bigger bottles, Cheathams, and Beaumonts - or something lke that.
 
Hi ..i remeber vimto. It must be a very old "pop" because my mom is 88 yrs old and she told me her friends called her the vimto queen when she was young so .there you go...never did like it much myself...corona orange crush was my favorite it had all the bits of orange in it .do you remember the stone screw cap on the bottles ??
We got our pop from the outdoor (or off license as its called now ).on the corner of frank st and conybere st .called copesticks....they sold draught beer as well i always remember she had a lovely vase of fresh flowers on the counter ......anyone remember the family .the kids were called michael and patsy......
 
Hi All,

I believe that the expression 'pop' originates from the
Victorian Codd bottle (the one with the marble in the neck)
The bottle was sealed by the marble pressing against a
rubber seal in the top of the neck under gas pressure, and
was opened by pressing down on the marble, causing a pop
as the gas was released. The same bottle also gives us the
expression Coddswallop.

Several contributors have mentioned Vimto, I wonder if anyone
remembers R. White's version 'Valento', or R. White Lant's version
'Lanto'?

Kind regards

Dave
 
Dave89 said:
Hi All,

I believe that the expression 'pop' originates from the
Victorian Codd bottle (the one with the marble in the neck)
The bottle was sealed by the marble pressing against a
rubber seal in the top of the neck under gas pressure, and
was opened by pressing down on the marble, causing a pop
as the gas was released. The same bottle also gives us the
expression Coddswallop.

Several contributors have mentioned Vimto, I wonder if anyone
remembers R. White's version 'Valento', or R. White Lant's version
'Lanto'?

Kind regards

Dave
Click to expand...



'Codswallop' The first recorded usage was not until the mid 20th, century.....so there is some point of doubt concerning Hiram Codd's bottle being the source of the expression.
 
JohnO said:
'Codswallop' The first recorded usage was not until the mid 20th, century.....so there is some point of doubt concerning Hiram Codd's bottle being the source of the expression.
Click to expand...


Hi JohnO,

I can certainly remember the expression in use in the 1950s, but
I expect the question of verifying it as originating from the Codd
bottle comes down to qualifying it for the OED.

It will be interesting to see if earlier written records come to light.

Kind regards

Dave
 
I vaguely remember being told that "codswallop" came from the leftovers of a trawlers catch which was "rubbish" or useless.
 
My family have always called soft drinks pop..

I think it may be a brummie thing as have not noticed the use of the word when living outside of Brum but could be wrong.

A bit like stera milk,never seen that outside of brum .:)
 
You could get sterilised milk in leeds up to about 1990, as I remember being asked to go and get some from a local shop there, but can't speak about after that time. I personally am not a fan, and would rather drink things without milk than use it
 
In Somerset where I originate from pop is called fizz and as a kid the most popular fizz down there was Tizer.
Regards stera milk, that was on sale in Weston- Super- Mare ( Birmingham -on-Sea) years ago which is hardly surprising!
 
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mikejee said:
You could get sterilised milk in leeds up to about 1990, as I remember being asked to go and get some from a local shop there, but can't speak about after that time. I personally am not a fan, and would rather drink things without milk than use it
Click to expand...

I never knew about any other kind until I grew up and had a family of my own :) Gladly left it behind me.
 
Anyone remember 'Cheethams' pop? It came in larger bottles than normal and not too many shops sold it. I used to have to walk round to a shop in Aston Church Road on a Sunday morning to get our weekly supply, it was heavy too, usually included an orange, an ice cream soda[may have been an American cream soda] a dandelion & burdock and a limeade. By the time I got home my arms seemed like they were inches longer!

Brummiegirl,
Steralised milk was usually available in the bigger cities, London and Liverpool dairies certainly sold it. Presumably because it kept longer and you needed less to colour the tea and therefore it went much further. I can remember going to the Birmingham Dairy Co Ltd. in James Watt Street, when I went with my Dad and seeing the bottles in the metal crates, all stacked on their sides, when they had just come out of the oven still red hot. When I worked for them they had been bought by Handsworth Dairies [Island Road] and James Watt Street was closed down, we worked from the old stables in Old Cross Street before moving to the old Bovril warehouse in Coleshill St or A B Row, before that was closed and we were moved out to Middlemore Trading Estate.
Apologies I seem to have wandered off topic!! Ah! memories!:D
Bill.
 
Where does this saying come from?Half a pound of tuppenny rice ,half a pound of treacle,mix it up and make it nice,pop goes the weasle, DEK:stare::stare:
 
Fizzy drinks of all kinds were always called "pop" by my 3 Sisters & 3 Brothers and me (i am 80yrs now) and by Mom & Dad circa 1850 it was also used in other parts of GB, Sterilized milk was used because only rich persons had fridges, if we bought full cream milk for a special occasion it was kept in a bucket of water in a cool place. Len.
 
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When I first moved to Brum my relatives told me Stera milk was pas milk nearing the end of it's doorstep life (nowadays sell by date) and boiled in the crown topper bottles for resale as stera. The result was milk that lasted longer if you could stand the taste. When I was young my folks used to boil pas milk in the summer to stop it going off as we didn't have a fridge and always called it scalded milk. It tasted just like stera as well.
 
Pasteurised milk in third pint bottles which had frozen in the cold and melted in front of the school fire for several hours before drinking tasted a bit like sterilised as well. I think that's the reason I've never been very keen on milk, particularly when its yaste isn't covered up with some other taste.
mike
 
Good morning lencops,
When you write "fizzy drinks of all kinds were always called 'pop' by my 3 Sisters & 3 Brothers and me (i am 80yrs now) and by Mom & Dad", would your family - later on of course - have referred to Coca-Cola as 'pop'? Coke follows all the dictionary definitions quoted by Forum members but I - nor apparently OtherHalf - have ever heard of the world's most popular carbonated soft drink being called 'pop'.

Is this due to the formidable strength of advertising? The Coca-Cola Company is one of the world's greatest spenders on publicising its products and it seems to have got its 'pop' into another, independent category of fizzy soft drinks, i.e. colas.
Does anybody on the BH Forum refer to Coke as pop?
 
Does anyone remember a fizzy pop called sasparilla,(not sure about the spelling).
My gran used to sell it in her shop in Holborn Hill.
 
db84124 said:
Is this due to the formidable strength of advertising? The Coca-Cola Company is one of the world's greatest spenders on publicising its products and it seems to have got its 'pop' into another, independent category of fizzy soft drinks, i.e. colas.
Click to expand...
think that answers itself "the wonderful power of advertising":)
 
When leaving the house to purchase Alcoholic Drinks my Father would say

" I am just off to the Pop Shop "

Pop Shop another term for Outdoor/ Off Licience.

Bo
 
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