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I must say every time I leave Brazil, even though I don't really enjoy the country that much, I REALLY miss Guaraná LOL. It's so much better than any other soda, specially in the US where Coke has something like 5 tons of sugar per milliliter. I often wonder why the national companies haven't managed to widely export these or produce them elsewhere, I think a lot of people would really enjoy it.

Meanwhile Coca-Cola has made their own version of Guaraná called Kuat [0], but it's mehh at best, I seriously hope it doesn't mess with outsider's perception of the drink. They then created yet _another_ soft drink with Guaraná under the Fanta brand [1], that one is better IMO but a lot of people don't like it too. Wonder what's so different between those recipes.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuat_(drink)

[1]: https://the-soda.fandom.com/wiki/Fanta_Guarana

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> I often wonder why the national companies haven't managed to widely export these or produce them elsewhere

The reverse is true as well. Some popular soft drinks in the USA are unknown in Brazil -- such as root beer, Dr Pepper, and cream soda.[1]

I think guaraná would be a success in the US and root beer could be a success in Brazil too. My assumption is that nobody wants to spend the money to create the market in a new country unless they're going to have a monopoly for at least awhile. But nobody own the flavors of guaraná and root beer, or even those names. After you've spent all the money to educate the public, some established domestic company would swoop in and take the market away from you.

[1] http://brazilsense.com/index.php?title=Common_in_the_USA_and...

Guarana flavored soda is the original flavor of Bawls energy drink, based in the US. Pretty tasty.

How I first learned about Guarana, and Bawls had something that still outshines everything else since.

as a German who LOVES root beer, it is kind of an acquired taste and most of the friends I introduced to root beer don't like it.

You can actually buy root beer in larger supermarkets here but there isn't a guarantee that its in stock always and I am sure its a low sales volume item).

So IMHO root beer has its market share in the US because it got popular at a time when there wasn't such a great variety in sugary drinks, kind of a founder effect, and that is not replicated in a different market, as competition is hire so people don't get to drink the 3-4 cans of root beer that I guess are necessary to get hooked.

As an Argentinian who LOVES root beer (and Dr Pepper, and Guarana) I agree. Enough people like Guarana in Argentina, but I don't imagine root beer succeeding.

Weirdly, a mate-based soda is super popular in Germany, but when we had a (different) mate-based soda in Argentina it came and went very quickly.

I was just looking to try this soda and it looks like regular Guarana has almost exactly the same amount of sugar as a Coke.

If anyone is interested in other sodas I recently had the chance to try Materva, a yerba mate soda, and I would recommend it if you can find the sugar free variety or have room in your life for a sugary treat.

In which country? Coke has different amounts of added sugars in between regions to adapt to regional tastes. AFAIK the United States is the one with the most sugar, although don't quote me on that.

Both versions I checked were in the USA, but the Guarana page was in Portuguese so it may be the version in Brazil.

Wow! Almost everything has more sugar in America/North America except Thailand Sprite.

https://www.actiononsugar.org/media/actiononsugar/news-centr...

By the way I got a chance to try the soda, it's very good!

I was going to say. Americans have a sweet tooth but Brazilians are the world champions of adding sugar.

Only place I've ever been where it's considered perfectly normal to add sugar to your orange juice in the morning.

Guaraná is definitely just as sweet as American sodas. I personally find it too sweet because it doesn't have as much acid balancing it that Coke does.

Most of Asia also adds sugar to orange juice as the raw juice taste is often bitter.

I'm curious, where? I've never been to any part of Asia where drinking orange juice was common.

Other than Tropicana which is available most “orange juice” is Asia is more similar to Sunny Delight —which is not my glass of orange juice.

Presumably OP means freshly squeezed orange juice, which might taste a bit sour. I cannot imagine adding sugar to some sugar-flavored orange water like Sunny Delight. Or maybe it is that bad.

I don't know about the oranges in Asia, but in Brazil they are not bitter at all. And people only put sugar in it when they are bad/old, and even then it's uncommon.

Brazilians will only add sugar to bad orange juice (it's a clear signal that they think it's bad). Did you get it in a foreigner-focused hotel?

But yes our sodas have the same amount of sugar as the US ones.

Yes, drinking sour or acid juice makes no sense, unless a person will not take sugar because of health issues or is on a strict diet. In the same sense, drinking coffee without sweetening is a bit silly and a punch to the stomach, and provides no benefit, just a macho bragging feeling.

Brazilian here and I can confirm. We do have a sweet tooth. Guaraná tastes just as sweet as coke, everyone drinks it and loves it. But coke is also a massive success, Brazilians love it even more than guarana.

Our beloved brigadeiros are easy to make at home. But Americans often find it too sweet to bear. While it's actually the most delicious treat in the world.

My grandmother is Brazilian. She used to add sugar to my instant chocolate milk.

It's a cost cutting measure. If you're in a family that can't afford to buy enough oranges to squeeze enough pure juice for everybody, you just buy fewer oranges, dilute the juice with water, and then add cheap sugar to partially counterbalance taste loss due to dilution.

I never thought of it that way -- that makes a lot of sense, thanks.

I don't get it. In my family we only ever add sugar to lemonades and coffee. I don't see other people overusing sugar either. Maybe I'm just not observant enough.

Guaraná is just as sweet as Coca-Cola. No difference there, they both have about 20 g of sugar per can.

Coca-cola has acquired one of the most prominent regional variations (as mentioned below by tambourine_man) - Guaraná Jesus

It's pink, tastes like bubblegum and sweeter than other Guaraná sodas I've tasted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaran%C3%A1_Jesus

Edit: the can depicted in the Wikipedia picture is not the design I like and am familiar with:

https://www.sucos.com/artikel/guarana-jesus/

Guaraná Jesus is largely a novelty in most of the country, and don't even register as worthy of mention. It is funny to have a soda named *Jesus ".

Kuat today is full of sugar and added caramel, to be cheaper and compete with smaller brands.

Fanta is trying to compete with Antarctica (that is from AmBev).

I'm buying Fanta because it's cheaper than Antarctica.

2L pet bottle is here: R$ 3.99 Kuat R$ 5.99 Fanta Guaraná R$ 7.99 Antarctica

In US$ it's about 0.79 1.20 1.60

I think it's just that it occupies the same "place" as lemon-lime soda (Sprite, 7-Up) in other countries like the US. It's the main "fruity" alternative to Coke.

Obviously guaraná and lemon-lime taste different, but you don't really need both in the same market. Just one main fruity non-cola.

(I'm speaking from the perspective of product lines of course. I totally realize individual consumers may prefer guaraná over lemon-lime or vice-versa.)

Guaraná is more of a direct competitor to Coke, it's not a "fruity" (if you want to call lemon by that) option at all.

That what I meant by alternative.

In the US if you go to an event and there are two sugary sodas they'll probably be Coke and Sprite. In Brazil they'll be Coke and Guaraná.

And Guaraná is a lighter fruit flavor. As is lemon-lime. Coke is not -- it's a harsher, more intense flavor.

Isn't Crush a popular drink too?

Coca Cola brought Crush and shut it down some 30 years ago. Some times try to get some market back in one city or another by using the brand again, but I know of no place where it lasts.

Huh?

Crush has been made by the Keurig Dr. Pepper / Pepsico groups for several decades now.

You're both right in terms of who distributes it, as happens frequently with food and drink brands internationally [1]:

> Crush is a brand of carbonated soft drinks owned and marketed internationally by Keurig Dr Pepper, originally created as an orange soda, Orange Crush. Crush competes with Coca-Cola's Fanta.

> It is distributed by various Pepsi bottlers, the biggest being the Pepsi Bottling Group United States... In contrast, in some countries of Latin America the Crush brand is distributed by The Coca-Cola Company, using the same colours and bottles as Fanta.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_(soft_drink)

> Coca Cola brought Crush and shut it down some 30 years ago.

Seems to be unambiguously false. It's such a bizarrely false thing to claim that it's difficult to tell if the author genuinely believes it.

Do you have any experience with BAWLS (guarana) & how it compares to what you get in Brazil?

Unfortunately never tasted it, seems like it's also pretty hard to find nowadays. Next time I hop in the US I might take the plunge and order it from their online store LOL. Something I do know is that Guaraná soft drinks generally have really low caffeine amounts (they have less than 0.5% of the composition as actual Guaraná extract), meanwhile Brawl is highly caffeinated, not sure if added or just a higher concentration of Guaraná.

GUS soda available in many supermarkets is not as sugary as most other brands, if you’re looking for dryer soda pop.

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