100 years ago in Shanghai There was also a bottle of 'fresh orange soda' exclusively for Shanghai locals. 100 years ago, the most commonly consumed soda by Shanghai's youth was not 'Coca-Cola' but 'Zheng Guanghe'; 100 years later, Zheng Guanghe's orange soda, made with an old recipe and a classic bottle design, will be launched during the 'May 5 Shopping Festival', becoming a 'new national product' created by Zheng Guanghe. A reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News recently learned from Shanghai Maling that the replica 'Zheng Guanghe Soda' has already gone into production and will be available in June. -01- The most fashionable soda over 100 years ago Zheng Guanghe soda is a memory for several generations of Shanghai residents.
In 1864, a British merchant founded 'Guanghe Foreign Firm' in Shanghai, which was renamed 'Zheng Guanghe Foreign Firm' 18 years later, meaning 'to clarify the source, widely circulate, and be amiable'.
In 1892, the Zheng Guanghe Soda Factory was officially established in the Tilanqiao area of Hongkou, naming the factory and products 'AQUARIUS' (English for 'water bottle'), symbolizing the use of precious bottles to hold 'holy water'. In 1921, the factory expanded and moved to its current location at 400 Tongbei Road.
In 1954, Zheng Guanghe was placed under the management of the Shanghai Local Industry Bureau; in 1966, it was renamed 'Shanghai Soda Factory', achieving full nationalization, making it a true first-generation national product. Since its inception, Zheng Guanghe soda has been a trendsetter in the domestic soda market. In production technology, it adopted an improved triple distillation device, leading in equipment and product quality; in marketing, it pioneered newspaper ads, horse-drawn carriage ads, and delivery by car fleets, all industry firsts. In the 1830s, Zheng Guanghe soda dominated the domestic soda market with a 90% market share; after nationalization, Zheng Guanghe continued to innovate, and in the 1970s and 1980s, its orange soda and Happiness Cola were among the most popular beverages of the time. -02- Local soda brands reappear However, in the late 1980s, domestic soda companies fell into difficulties. At that time, more and more foreign beverage brands entered the Chinese market with the tide of reform and opening up. Coca-Cola and Pepsi acquired the seven major domestic soda factories other than Zheng Guanghe, including Beibingyang and Wuhan No. 2 Factory, shelving these state-owned soda brands and using their distribution channels to sell their own products, 'enclosing land'. Although Zheng Guanghe resisted acquisition pressure and retained its national brand, it was forced to suspend soda production due to market pressure and instead proactively transformed, pioneering a new world in the drinking water market. 'Now is the time for Zheng Guanghe soda to return,' said Zhu Weidong, a relevant person in charge of Shanghai Zheng Guanghe Drinking Water Co., Ltd. In recent years, the market has been full of praise for innovations by time-honored brands and various 'new national products' and 'new national trends', and domestic soda brands have followed suit. Soda companies like Beibingyang and Wuhan No. 2 Factory have new packaging that looks retro, but the flavors are new and the marketing is new, evoking memories for older consumers while attracting a new generation. Zheng Guanghe soda has not been idle either, starting with salt soda, which is popular among Shanghai consumers, launching new products every year, and last year collaborating with a coffee company on a 'coffee soda' pop-up store. These market-popular innovations by time-honored brands convinced Zheng Guanghe to make a decision: 'This year, we want to create a "hit product" to show what the most fashionable soda looked like 100 years ago.' -03- The secret of the replica: 'old bottle, new soda' The 'most fashionable 100 years ago' soda is the upcoming replica orange soda. Zhu Weidong said that because it is a 'replica', both the bottle design and flavor formulation have a basis. The bottle comes from a private collector of soda bottles in Shanghai. Zheng Guanghe selected a 1946 soda bottle from a pile of old bottles. That year, this soda, as a first-generation national product, was exported overseas; its domestic sales also far exceeded brands like Coca-Cola, reaching a peak. Clearly, the soda bottle from that year has special commemorative value. However, the replica bottle has a slight change. For example, products for the foodservice market continue to use caps that require a bottle opener; but for the retail market, the caps are replaced with pull-ring easy-open or twist-off caps for consumer convenience. 'This product is aimed at the current market, so it needs both continuity and innovation, following new market demands,' Zhu Weidong said. Photo of the replica soda sample Innovation is also embedded in the formula. Finding the century-old recipe was a stroke of luck. In November 2013, as a Shanghai outstanding historical building, the Zheng Guanghe Building on Tongbei Road was moved 38 meters to adapt to new urban planning. During pre-construction inspections, an employee found the old orange soda recipe in the archives of the old laboratory. 'At that time, everyone thought that when the time was ripe, this recipe could be used again, because it is the pride of a national soda company,' recalled veteran Zheng Guanghe employees. Seven years later, the opportunity to use the recipe came. But new problems arose: with the recipe in hand, restoring the old taste could not be done by simply copying it—after all, it is a recipe from nearly a century ago, and today's water quality, food ingredients, and technology are vastly different, and consumer demands have changed. For example, the old orange soda used flavor additives, but today's consumers prefer health and real fruit juice. So, Zheng Guanghe compared the old recipe and invited several retired technical experts to repeatedly adjust and improve it. They not only replaced some additives with healthier orange juice but also increased the carbonation pressure from the national standard of 1.6 atmospheres to 2.8 atmospheres. This means that when consumers open the bottle and drink the new soda, they will instantly get a 'sharp taste'—a strong, pleasant stimulation from carbon dioxide on the mouth, making them feel refreshed. Thus, this replica is 'old bottle, new soda'. Newly designed retro poster And this is only the first step in Zheng Guanghe's soda innovation. The first batch on the market is the replica orange soda, but afterwards, there will be a steady stream of new flavors, including passion fruit and lychee, all using real fruit juice. To cater to young consumers' preferences, Zheng Guanghe also designed cultural and creative derivatives for the replica soda in advance, including eco-friendly bags and badges. 'Originally, we thought refrigerator magnets would be good, but unexpectedly, the post-90s members of the team said that refrigerator magnets are preferred by the post-70s and post-80s, while Generation Z (referring to young people born between 1995 and 2009) prefer badges. So, we made badges,' Zhu Weidong said. The most important reason for launching the replica soda is to let young people see that time-honored brands have not stopped innovating. Speaking of Shanghai's 'Zheng Guanghe'. One cannot help but mention the influential 'Eight Major Soda Factories'. The eight major factories are Beijing Beibingyang, Tianjin Shanhaiguan, Qingdao Laoshan, Shenyang Bawangsi, Chongqing Tianfu, Wuhan No. 2 Factory, Guangzhou Asia, and Shanghai Zheng Guanghe (in no particular order). According to China's diverse dietary habits, soda has also formed brands and flavors with unique local characteristics. 1. Beijing Beibingyang The company producing Beibingyang soda was formerly the Beijing Ice Factory, established in 1936 by Wang Yusheng, nephew of Hubei military governor Wang Zhanyuan. After the factory closed in 1948, it was nationalized and became the Beijing New Ice Factory. In June 1950, it was renamed Beijing Food Factory and registered the Beibingyang trademark and the snow mountain white bear logo. In 1956, Watson's brought several integrated bottling lines from Shanghai and cooperated with Beijing Food Factory to produce Beibingyang soda. From then on, the streets and alleys of Beijing echoed with the clinking of empty soda bottles and loud orange-flavored burps. 2. Tianjin Shanhaiguan The Shanhaiguan Soda Factory was established in 1902 by a British merchant. Later, the British merchant withdrew investment, and the factory was taken over by the local government. In 1986, Shanhaiguan Soda Factory partnered with Coca-Cola to establish Tianjin Jinmei Beverage Co., Ltd. With the introduction of new production lines, the soda produced by Jinmei Company was more stable in taste and quality than before, far surpassing the township enterprises licensed to produce soda at the same time. In August 2014, Shanhaiguan soda made a comeback, still with the original taste, still the Shanhaiguan in Tianjin people's memories. 3. Qingdao Laoshan Cola In 1905, German Ma Ya drilled China's first mineral water well—the Hedgehog Well—and later established the Laoshan Soda Factory around it. In the 1930s, the water plant was sold to the German Melchers & Co., producing China's first bottle of mineral water. Like Beibingyang and Shanhaiguan, Laoshan Cola experienced a process of being extremely popular in the domestic market → declining from prosperity → making a comeback. When Laoshan Cola reappeared in 2004, its formula also added 11 Chinese herbal medicines. 4. Shenyang Bawangsi Bawangsi was once the family temple of Prince Ying of the Qing Dynasty. The spring water from the ancient well in front of the temple caught the eye of a brewery owner with a business sense, who rented 3 mu of land west of the ancient well to establish the Bawangsi Soda Factory. In 1922, Zhang Huilin, secretary of the warlord Zhang Zuolin, invested to expand Bawangsi, turning it into a large factory capable of producing 4.8 million bottles of soda annually. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Bawangsi soda briefly prospered, but then, like several other soda factories, it was shelved, merged, and production halted during joint ventures with Coca-Cola. Around 2006, Bawangsi soda reappeared on the market. 5. Chongqing Tianfu Cola In 1940, the then Chongqing Beverage Factory and the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Chinese Medicine jointly developed Tianfu Cola, which, in addition to cola, included several Chinese herbs such as white peony root, rehmannia, and angelica. It was a popular specialty of Sichuan and Chongqing at the time. In 1985, it was designated as a 'state banquet beverage' by the Government Offices Administration of the State Council. 6. Wuhan No. 2 Factory Wuhan No. 2 Factory was formerly the Heli Soda Factory established by the British in 1921. After liberation, it was taken over by the local government and became the state-owned Wuhan Beverage No. 2 Factory. Orange, lemon, lychee, and banana flavors, at one mao per bottle, were mainly ordered in bulk by companies as employee benefits. In 1986, the factory's lemon soda was even voted the number one best consumer product in Wuhan. However, by the early 21st century, the glorious days of No. 2 Factory soda had a gap. When No. 2 Factory soda returned to public view, it had quietly changed. 7. Guangzhou Asia Soda In 1946, former Watson's employees established the Asia Soda Factory, which replaced Mexican sarsaparilla with the local plant Meiye Dongqing (Ilex asprella) and achieved bottling. In 1993, Asia Soda Factory formed a joint venture with Pepsi, and Asia Sarsi gradually disappeared. After restructuring and being acquired by Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Asia Sarsi finally returned to shelves. Source: FMCG Elite Club (ID: FMCG-CLUB)