Soda as first sold as a medicine in 1914, and was not advertised as a tasty beverage on its own right, to drink for pleasure only. Cold (soft) drinks appeared rather later in both newspapers (after the mid 1930s). Before the 1930s, they were probably competed by either alcoholic (beer, spirits, wines) or hot drinks (especially tea and to a lesser extent, cocoa). Both Chinese and foreign consumers were offered various forms of cold drinks in the 1940s: sodas, fruit juices...