Fanta was Coca-Cola’s World War II-era German soft drink created in 1940.
During World War II, Coca-Cola’s German subsidiary faced shortages that made it difficult to produce the standard Coca-Cola beverage. Company manager Max Keith developed a substitute using ingredients available in Germany, including fruit by-products and other locally obtainable materials. The resulting drink was named Fanta, derived from the German word “Fantasie,” meaning imagination.
The wartime version was not identical to the orange Fanta sold internationally today. Its ingredients and flavor varied according to what was available. After the war, Coca-Cola discontinued that original German formula, but the Fanta name was later revived for a fruit-flavored soft drink.
Modern Fanta became especially associated with orange flavor. The brand’s wartime origin is therefore different from the later global product line, a distinction that prevents the two versions from being treated as identical recipes.