Well, it all began with the marketing of lemon juice. In the 17th century, a company sold the drink to people in Paris. Sweetened with honey, the vendors carried it in tanks and sold it in cups while wandering the streets.

A century later, there was a revolution of sorts in the beverage industry with Joseph Priestley, the multifaceted Englishman, inventing a method of producing carbonated water. He treated chalk with sulphuric acid (then known as oil of vitriol) to generate carbon dioxide. He dissolved it in a bowl of water, which he found to have a pleasant taste. Priestley’s apparatus was refined by others finally making it feasible to produce carbonated water in large quantities. Soon, juices, spices and other flavours were added to it.

In 1899, a glass blowing machine that was used to produce bottles was invented. This device allowed production of bottles (previously hand blown) to increase greatly. Cardboard cartons were invented in the 1920s and beverages started to be bottled as well. Soft drink vending machines too appeared in the same period. And later, aluminium cans came to be used. Beverages started to be bottled extensively in the early 20th century.