List of fictional beverages

Many works of fiction have incorporated into their world the existence of beverages - liquids made for popular consumption - which may create a sense of the world in which the story takes place, and in some cases may serve to advance the plot of the story. These products may be fictional brands which serve as a stand in for brand names, and in that capacity may be a vessel for mockery of the marketing culture associated with brand name products (e.g., Duff Beer from The Simpsons; Buzz Beer from The Drew Carey Show). In science fiction, beverages from alien races may enhance the sense of a futuristic society (e.g. Romulan Ale in Star Trek).^[1]

While there are many fictional liquids that can be consumed, fictional liquid medicines and magical potions (such as the liquid that causes Alice to shrink in Alice in Wonderland) may not be widely available for common consumption, or may simply not be described as being used for that purpose, and thus would not be considered "beverages" at all.

Alcoholic or intoxicating beverages

In literature and print

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Moloko Plus (Nadsat for "Milk Plus")	A Clockwork Orange	1962	Aka "milk with knives in it"; drunk by the protagonist to get him in the mood for "a bit of the old ultraviolence" [2]
Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	1978	The effect of one "is like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick".
Victory Gin	Nineteen Eighty-Four	1949	A cheap, low-quality drink supplied by the government. Winston Smith, the protagonist, frequently drinks it despite its disagreeable taste and smell.

In film

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Black Pony Scotch	Laura[3]	1944	A bottle of this brand is found in the apartment of the title character (who is understood to have been murdered), leading the detective investigating the crime to develop suspicions based on his belief that she would not drink so cheap a brand. In the stage play of the film, the product is called "Four Hourses Scotch".[3]
Elsinore beer	Strange Brew	1983	The plot was loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, but the key characters were either stakeholders or employees of a the company that made this beer, which was contaminated by an evil mastermind in a plot to control the world.[4][5]
Norbecker Beer	Beer	1985	The beer produced by Norbecker Brewery and marketed with the slogan "Whip out your Norbecker."

In television

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Alamo Beer	King of the Hill		The favorite brand of Hank, Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer. At one point, Hank's wife Peggy takes a job at the company that produces it and finds evidence of tainted beer being shipped to Mexico.
Amgrosia	Battlestar Galactica		Alcoholic beverage, often mis-heard as "ambrosia," was made is the 12 Colonies of Man, and also as the prison labor product on a penal colony, although the freed inmates descendants complained of the quality of the Colony-produced version.
Binge Beer	NASULG	1999	Created by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges for a series of television commercials in their anti-drinking campaign.[6]
Buzz Beer	The Drew Carey Show	May 8, 1996	A mixture of beer and coffee brewed and mixed by the characters in Drew's garage.[7][8] The production and marketing of this product created numerous situations in which the dynamics of the characters played out. In one episode, a product with the same ingredients called Cap-Beer-Cino was made by a competitor.
Duff Beer	The Simpsons.[7][9]		Consumed by many characters, this beer has been prevalent throughout the series since its introduction in May 1990, and provides a basis for numerous storylines. Variations include Duff Lite, Duff Dry, and Duff Dark. Fudd Beer is sold in competition with Duff Beer, and is reportedly popular in Shelbyville despite having blinded hillbillies.
Flaming Moe (Flaming Homer)	The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's"[7]	November 21, 1991	Drink invented by Homer Simpson and then co-opted by the Moe the bartender, which becomes wildly popular. It consists of several alcoholic beverages mixed together with children's cough syrup and is set on fire before serving.
Girlie Girl Beer	Married with Children		Lead character Al Bundy's favorite beer, and the official beer of his anti-feminist club, NO-MA'AM - that is, until Yoko Ono becomes the brand's official spokesperson.[10]
Panther Pilsner Beer	The Three Stooges short subject, Three Little Beers;[11]	November 28, 1935	In this short, the Three Stooges work for the beer company that manufactures this product, and end up sending barrels of it rolling through the streets.
Shotz Beer	Laverne and Shirley[7]		The product of the Shotz Brewery, the fictional company by which the title characters were employed as bottle cappers throughout the first five seasons of the series. The catalyst for the show's Season 6 move from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Burbank, California was the supposed elimination of the jobs of the title characters to automation.
Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor	Saturday Night Live	February 5, 2000	In three episodes airing February 5, 2000, March 18, 2000, and May 13, 2000; "Uncle Jemima" (played by Tracy Morgan), is the husband of Aunt Jemima, "the pancake lady", and the creator of the beverage in this commercial parody. The commercial jabs at old-time racial stereotypes perpetuated by products like Aunt Jemima. Uncle Jemima comments that while his wife says "sellin' booze is degradin' to our people", "I always say that black folk ain't exactly swellin' up with pride on account of you flippin' flapjacks".[12]
Vitameatavegamin	I Love Lucy episode, "Lucy Does a TV Commercial"	May 5, 1952[13][14]	Lucy schemes to get on Ricky's TV show by appearing in a commercial for this beverage, which is said to contain "vitamins, meat, vegetables and minerals." As Lucy does repeated takes of the commercial and swallows dose after dose, her increasingly tipsy behavior reveals that the product also contains alcohol.
Mudder's milk	Firefly episode, "Jaynestown"	October 18, 2002	Simon Tam equates Mudder's Milk to the Ancient Egyptian's beer given to workers. According to Simon, it gave essential nutrition as well as making them docile.
Jumbo Jim's Grape Scotch	"How I Met Your Mother" episode, "Architect of Destruction"	October 18, 2010	When Barney claims that, in all situations, new is always better, Ted offers to buy the newest scotch they have at MacLaren's. The waitress warns him, "Don't let it touch your skin!"

In games

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Grog	Monkey Island	October 1990	This lurid and foul green drink is consumed by several pirates and is referenced to throughout the series. It is named after, but is not to be confused with, the real drink grog. Grog is said to be a secret mixture of one or more of the following: kerosene, propylene glycol, artificial sweeteners, sulphuric acid, rum, acetone, red dye #2, scumm, axle grease, battery acid and/or pepperoni. It is known for its extremely caustic and volatile properties and has been shown to melt straight through metal.
Juggernog	Nazi Zombies	-	Costs 2500 points and grants X2 health.
Double Tap Root Beer	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 2000 points and allows the player to fire 33% faster.
Speed Cola	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 3000 points and increases reload speed by 50%.
Quick Revive	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 1500 points and allows the player to revive fallen teammates more quickly. It costs 500 points on solo.
PhD Flopper	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 2000 points and allows the player to dive into prone from a height and cause a large explosion,it also makes the player immune to falling damage and Explosive damage.
Stamin up	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 2000 points and gives the player a longer sprint time and faster movement
Deadshot Daiquiri	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 1500 points and moves the aim assist from the torso to the head, tightens the player's crosshairs, and removes swaying with scoped sniper rifles.
Mule Kick	Nazi zombies	-	Costs 4000 points and allows the player to hold 3 weapons.
Pißwasser	Grand Theft Auto IV	April 29, 2008	A fictional lager of German origin advertised in-game with satirical intent. Correctly spelled "Pisswasser," it is a German slang term for a watery tasting beer and literally translates to "pee water".

Miscellaneous

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Heisler Beer	Various		Essentially a placeholder name for a beer, this brand has appeared in many films and television shows.

Non-alcoholic beverages

In film

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Booty Sweat energy drink	Tropic Thunder	2008	Part of the multi-pronged product empire of that film's character, Alpa Chino.[15] The drink, like other products, supports the use of Chino as a parody of other rappers or musicians who become multi-product moguls. Chino has a supply of the beverage throughout the film, and plugs it (anachronistically) during the filming of the Vietnam war film-within-a-film.
Buzzz Cola	Surf II: The End of the Trilogy	1984	A popular soft drink that the film's antagonist, teenage mad scientist Menlo Schwartzer, chemically alters to turn its drinkers into garbage-eating zombie slaves as part of a scheme to rid Southern California of its surfer population.[16] The preferred drink of rebellious youth and mindless drones.
Slusho!	Cloverfield, Star Trek	2008 (earlier in Alias)	As part of the viral marketing campaign, the drink Slusho! has served as a tie-in. The drink had already appeared in producer Abrams' previous creation, the TV series Alias.[17]

In games

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Quafe	EVE Online	2003	A popular soft drink in the EVE Online universe.[18]
Nuka-Cola	Fallout	1997	The most popular soft drink in the post-nuclear world of Fallout.[19]
Sunset Sarsaparilla	Fallout: New Vegas	2010	A root beer inspired carbonated beverage found around the post-nuclear remains of New Vegas.[20]
Bonk! Atomic Punch	Team Fortress 2	2009	A favorite beverage of the Scout, Bonk! is an energy drink full of radiation, which gives the Scout the ability to temporarily become invincible by allowing him to move fast enough to dodge bullets.[21]
Crit-A-Cola	Team Fortress 2	2009	The second beverage of the Scout, Crit-a-Cola is an energy drink that allows the player to gain Instant Critical Hits on the enemy for a short time.[22]
Perk-a-Cola	Call of Duty	2008	The common name for several beverages in the zombie levels of Call of Duty: Black Ops. The beverages give added perks to the player.[23]

Magical/fantasy beverages

In literature and print

Beverage	Source	Date of first mention	Description and significance
Butterbeer	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	May 31, 2004	The drink of choice for younger wizards. Though House-elves can become intoxicated on butterbeer, there is a very small amount of alcohol in it, and humans are usually unaffected by it save for a feeling of "warmth". In the sixth book, Harry wonders what Ron and Hermione might do at Professor Slughorn's Christmas party "under the influence of Butterbeer", indicating that it can lower inhibitions, though presumably in very large amounts. J. K. Rowling said in her interview to Bon Appétit magazine that she imagines it "to taste a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch". Butterbeer can be served cold or hot but either way it has a warming effect.
Ent-draught	The Lord of the Rings		An extremely invigorating drink of the tree-like Ents. Characters Merry and Pippin drink this while traveling with the Ents, which results in both characters growing taller.
Getafix's magic potion	Asterix		The magic potion the druid Getafix makes to give the villagers superhuman strength to fight the Romans.
Lacasa	The Road to Oz		"A sort of nectar famous in Oz and nicer to drink than soda-water or lemonade."
Nectar and Ambrosia	Greek mythology	Before 424 BC	In ancient Greek mythology, nectar is drunk by the gods, and ambrosia (αμβροσία, Greek: immortality) is sometimes the food, sometimes the drink, of the gods, often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it. Ambrosia was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves (Odyssey xii.62), so may have been thought of in the Homeric tradition as a kind of divine exhalation of the Earth.

Fictional beverages later marketed

Some real-life beverages were created and marketed after appearing as fictional, as is the case with Duff Beer from the TV show The Simpsons. To promote The Simpsons Movie, convenience store 7-Eleven marketed a Duff-branded energy drink.

• Booty Sweat - Tropic Thunder^[15]
• Brawndo - Idiocracy^[24][25]
• Duff Beer - The Simpsons^[7]
• Squishee - The Simpsons
• Swill - Saturday Night Live
• Buzz Cola - The Simpsons
• Romulan Ale - at the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, NV.
• Klingon Raktajino - also available previously at the Star Trek Experience.
• Slurm - Futurama

See also

• Independent Studio Services, provider of props, including several fictionally branded beers, to television and movie productions
• List of Middle-earth food and drink#Beverages

References

1. ^ Robin Andersen, Jonathan Gray, Battleground: The Media‎ (2008), p. 386.
2. ^ Toxic substances, semiotic forms: Towards a socio- and textual analysis of altered senses - Semiotica. Volume 2007, Issue 166, Pages 409–426, ISSN (Online) 1613-3692, ISSN (Print) 0037-1998, DOI: 10.1515/SEM.2007.064, August 2007
3. ^ ^{a b} Eugene McNamara, "Laura" as Novel, Film, and Myth‎ (1992), p. 10.
4. ^ Duane Swierczynski, The Big Book O' Beer: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Greatest Beverage on Earth (2004), p. 182-83.
5. ^ "Rick Moranis opts out of cartoon take on iconic comic duo Bob and Doug". CKWS. November 3, 2008. "And we can't drink Elsinore beer because we don't own that, MGM does. And all these big companies are so litigious and so proprietary that you can't mess ..." 
6. ^ "Anti-Binge Forces Tap 'Beer' Ad". CBS News. 1999. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/09/10/health/main57669.shtml. Retrieved 2009-05-11. "The ads feature a bottle of the fictional beverage, which is not available in any stores. The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULG), sponsor of the campaign, doesn't intend to sell the fictional beer to college students, but to convince them and their parents that binge drinking is dangerous." 
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} McDuffee, Keith (February 5, 2008). "Nine fictional beverages from TV". TV Squad. http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/02/05/nine-fictional-beverages-from-tv-videos/. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
8. ^ Barry Nalebuff, Ian Ayres, Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small‎ (2006), p. 168.
9. ^ Jonathan Gray, Watching with The Simpsons: television, parody, and intertextuality‎ (2006), p. 80.
10. ^ "Married with Children" And Bingo Was Her Game-O, IMDB (1995).
11. ^ Robert Kurson, The Official Three Stooges Encyclopedia (1999).
12. ^ Script of SNL commercial.
13. ^ Michael Karol, Lucy A to Z‎ (2004), p. 197,
14. ^ Karin Adir, The Great Clowns of American Television (2001), p. 12.
15. ^ ^{a b} "Booty Sweat". Paramount Pictures. http://www.bootysweat.com/. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
16. ^ "Surf II > Overview - AllMovie". http://allmovie.com/work/surf-2-47926. 
17. ^ Silas Lesnick (2007-12-14). "Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves". IESB. http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3945&Itemid=99. Retrieved 2007-12-22. "One of the weirdest aspects of the advertising has been the Slusho tie-in. It was also later referenced in the beginning bar scene during the 2009 film Star Trek, as it too was directed by Abrams." 
18. ^ CCP Games. "EVE Online Chronicles - Quafe". eve-online.com. CCP Games. http://www.eve-online.com/background/potw/mar01.asp. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
19. ^ The Vault. "Nuka-Cola". http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Nuka-Cola. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
20. ^ The Vault. "Sunset Sarsaparilla". http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Sunset_Sarsaparilla. Retrieved 2010-11-16. 
21. ^ Valve. "Bonk! Atomic Punch". http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Bonk!_Atomic_Punch. Retrieved 2010-09-11. 
22. ^ Valve. "Crit-A-Cola". http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Crit-A-Cola. Retrieved 2010-09-11. 
23. ^ Call of Duty Wiki. "Perk-a-Cola". http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Perk-a-Cola. Retrieved 2010-11-16. 
24. ^ "Brawndo". Twentieth Century Fox as Omni Consumer Products. http://www.brawndo.com/. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
25. ^ "Energy Drink Puts Hair on Your Breath". National Public Radio. January 17, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18176703. Retrieved 2009-05-11. "Brawndo started out as a fictional beverage in Idiocracy. Now James Kirby has turned it into a real energy drink ..."