// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Gaseosa say to its friend? You're a gas.
 Gaseosa can | |
| Type | Soft drink |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Los Portales SA[1] |
| Distributor | Ciego Montero[1] |
| Origin | Cuba |
| Colour | Clear |
| Flavour | Lemon-lime |
| Variants | Gaseosa Cero Calorías |
| Related products | Refresco Naranja (Orange Soda), Refresco tuKola (Cola), Refresco Piñita (Pineapple Soda), Refresco Mate, Agua Tónica (Soda Water) |
| Website | Los Portales: products |
Gaseosa is a lemon-flavoured soft drink produced in Cuba by the joint-venture company Los Portales S.A. and sold under the Ciego Montero trademark.[1][2] It is one of the three flavours that form the core of the Ciego Montero range, alongside the cola tuKola and the orange soda Naranja,[3] and is comparable in taste to other lemon-lime drinks such as Sprite and 7 Up.
The brand name is also the ordinary Spanish word for a carbonated soft drink, and in Spain the same term denotes a lightly sweetened clear lemon soda of the kind marketed by La Casera.[4]
Production
[edit]Gaseosa is bottled at the plant of the joint venture company Los Portales S.A. in Guane, Pinar del Río Province.[2] According to the plant's director, every flavour in the Ciego Montero line, including Gaseosa, is produced exclusively at Guane, as are the soft drink brands of the Cimex corporation; together these account for more than 90 per cent of Cuban national output of canned and PET-bottled soft drinks.[2]
The plant was re-equipped in the late 1990s through an investment made in partnership with Nestlé, and at the time was described as the largest mineral water and soft drink facility in the Caribbean. Output rose from 12 million units in 1999, the first full year after the technology changeover, to 48 million plastic bottles in four formats and 153 million cans across 12 flavours by 2009.[2]
The drink is sold in 355 ml aluminium cans and in PET bottles of 330 ml and 1.5 litres.[3] In 2022 the company reported that roughly 55 per cent of its soft drink production ran on the canning line and 45 per cent on the PET line.[5]
For the 500th anniversary of Havana in 2019, Los Portales issued a commemorative series of 355 ml cans illustrated with landmarks of the city; the Gaseosa can carried an image of the Havana Cathedral.[6]
Shortages
[edit]Production of Ciego Montero soft drinks fell sharply from 2019 onward. Granma reported that combined can and bottle output dropped from 278 million units in 2018 to 247.9 million in 2019, 112 million in 2020 and 86 million in 2021. Canned production was the worst affected, reaching 23.5 million units in 2021, about 10.6 per cent of the 220-million-unit capacity of the line. Company officials attributed the decline to the difficulty of importing aluminium cans and lids, a lack of foreign currency liquidity, the United States embargo against Cuba and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The company projected around 50 million cans for 2022.[5]
The scarcity became a subject of public comment in Cuba. In June 2022, while Ciego Montero drinks were largely absent from Cuban shops, 1.5-litre bottles in cola, orange, lemon and mate flavours were photographed on sale at a Latin American grocery in Montreal, prompting criticism on social media.[7]
By August 2023 the company stated that only three of the twelve flavours it had previously made remained in production: cola, orange and lemon. At the same event Los Portales launched a zero-calorie line in those three flavours, in 330 ml and 1.5-litre bottles and 355 ml cans, having acknowledged that sugar shortages had forced changes to its recipes.[3]
Name
[edit]Gaseosa derives from the adjective gaseoso ("gaseous", "fizzy"). The Real Academia Española defines it as a refreshing, effervescent, non-alcoholic drink.[4] In much of Spanish America the word is the generic term for any carbonated soft drink, while in Spain it refers more narrowly to a clear, lightly sweetened lemon soda, most often associated with the La Casera brand, which is commonly mixed with red wine to make tinto de verano or with beer to make a clara.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 (in Spanish) Los Portales' products: soft drinks
- 1 2 3 4 5 Suárez Rivas, Ronald (20 January 2022). "¿Cuáles son las principales causas de la escasez de refrescos enlatados?" [What are the main causes of the canned soft drink shortage?]. Granma (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 "En medio de la escasez de refrescos nacionales presentan línea de cero calorías" [Amid the shortage of domestic soft drinks, a zero-calorie line is presented]. CiberCuba (in Spanish). 12 August 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 "gaseoso, gaseosa". Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish). Real Academia Española. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
- 1 2 "Producción de refrescos cubanos: ¿Se volvieron invisibles?" [Cuban soft drink production: have they become invisible?]. Cubadebate (in Spanish). 31 May 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
- ↑ "Los Portales S.A." (in Spanish). Los Portales S.A. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
- ↑ "En venta refrescos Ciego Montero en un mercado en Canadá" [Ciego Montero soft drinks on sale at a market in Canada]. CiberCuba (in Spanish). 18 June 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
External links
[edit]- (in Spanish) Los Portales S.A. products