The marble
The marble in the bottle
How a glass ball came to seal the world's fizzy drinks, why it vanished, and where it never left.
4 min readRead
The Pop Journal
Read it while it’s cold.
Short reads on the marble, the fizz and the shelf. Every piece opens with a 60-second sip, names its sources, and promises nothing a soda cannot do.
- Know your fizzWhat is in a soda, said plainly.
- The marbleThe bottle, and the 150 years behind it.
- On the shelfMarkets, rules and the trade.
- Pop cultureHow it is opened, poured and remembered.
The marble
Goli soda, banta, ramune: one bottle, three names
The same English bottle became a street drink in India and a festival drink in Japan. A short guide to the family.
4 min readRead
Nutrition
- 1Fibrethe reason it exists
- 2Sugarper bottle, and per 100 ml
- 3Bottle sizewhat the figures are measured in
Then the ingredients: which sweetener?
Know your fizz
What is a prebiotic soda? A plain answer
The fastest-growing corner of the soft drinks aisle, what the word on the can means, and how to read the label.
5 min readRead
Know your fizz
The fibre gap, in numbers
How much fibre adults are advised to eat, how much they actually eat, and what 6 g looks like beside both.
3 min readRead
On the shelf
The Gulf's sugar tax of 2026: what changed on 1 January
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia stopped taxing sweetened drinks by price and began taxing them by sugar. What that means for a drink, an importer and a shelf.
4 min readRead
- 1Tearthe seal band
- 2Liftthe plunger
- 3Pressand hold
- 4Poptilt and sip
Pop culture
How to open a marble soda (and not wear it)
Four moves, one rule, and the small trick with the marble that everybody learns on their first bottle.
2 min readRead
A question the journal has not reached?