Fanta
It's from 1940, before you were born.
- Maker
- The Coca-Cola Company
- Origin
- Germany
- Debuted
- 1940
- Type
- Fruit soft drink
As an Amazon Associate, OlderThan earns from qualifying purchases.
About
As of 2026, it's 86 years old.
Fanta has a genuinely wild origin story: it was invented in 1940s Germany when wartime trade cut Coca-Cola off from the syrup it needed, so the local team improvised a fruit soda out of whatever leftovers they could find and named it Fanta. A drink born of supply-chain desperation became a global staple.
Best known for its bright orange flavor, it sells in a dizzying range of fruit varieties that change wildly from country to country — Fanta tourism is a real and delightful thing.
Bright, fruity, and improbably born from scarcity, Fanta is the soda that turned 'we'll figure something out' into a worldwide brand.
Fanta through the years
Improvised in wartime Germany
Created when Coca-Cola syrup became unavailable.
Relaunched worldwide
The orange flavor becomes the global standard-bearer.
