ToniCol
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ToniCol is the name of a naturally-flavoured vanilla and caffeinated soft drink manufactured in Mexico. It is most popular in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, especially in the city of Mazatlan, though it can be found typically in the western states, such as Jalisco.
[edit] Name
The name ToniCol comes from the man who invented its formula: Antonio Espinosa de los Montero from Rosario, Sinaloa. It is a blend of the shortened form of his first name "toni" and the drink "cola," even though ToniCol is not strictly speaking a cola but is actually a cream soda due to its vanilla flavour. The name of the soft drink is most often spelled ToniCol, although in the past several ways were used, and older bottles and/or publications may include any of the following: "Toni Col", "Toni-Col", and "Tonicol" [1].
The soda's slogan is presently "ToniCol .....es diferente" (which translates to "ToniCol .....is different"), although the slogan provided on bilingual bottles is "ToniCol .....it's different!". The website slogan has instead "se diferente" at the end which drastically changes the slogan to "be different." Previous slogans include "ToniCol..... el refresco diferente" ("ToniCol... the different soft drink").
[edit] Production
ToniCol is bottled in Rosario, Sinaloa, by El Manantial S.A. de C.V., also known as "El Rosario." It is the one of the few independent bottlers in Mexico [2] today.
[edit] Ingredients
The soft drink's recipe calls for almost all-natural ingredients, including "concentrated natural vanilla extract," citric acid, sodium benzoate as well as sugar rather than corn syrup. Though the company touts its "all natural recipe," the drink contains the artificial colouring red #40, which has been linked to health problems in children[3] in some research and is banned in several European countries.
ToniCol has now also released a "diet" formulation which contains Splenda (sucralose) in lieu of natural sugar, which has its own health effects.
[edit] References
- ^ ToniCol official website
- ^ http://www.tonicol.com/historia.html, "historia" document, accessed 29 September 2009
- ^ Graham Tibbetts. "Artificial colourings as harmful as leaded petrol for children", Telegraph, 7 April 2008
