Fanta
Due to the English blockade of Germany from the onset of World War 2, Coca-Cola Deutschland (Coca-Cola GmbH) had great trouble sourcing Cola Coca-Cola syrup for making Coca-Cola. This even became entirely impossible after Germany attacked the Soviet Union and after the war was declared on the US following Pearl Harbor.
To keep the company going, Max Keith, the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland (Coca-Cola GmbH), decided to create a new product for the German market, using only ingredients available in Germany at the time, including apple peelings and pomace, sugar beet root & whey (a cheese byproduct).
The origin of the name is contested. Some say it came from Keith encouraging his team to “use their imagination” (Fantasie in German), while others say it came from Keith saying “Fantastisch” when sampling what would become the final product for the first time. In either case, a Coca-Cola Gmbh Salesman, Joe Knipp, coined the shorter “Fanta,” which became the name of this new product.
In 1943, 3 million Fanta cases were sold in Germany. Many bottles were not consumed as beverages but as cooking ingredients to add sweetness and flavor to soups and stews, as sugar was severely rationed.
After the war, the US main office of Coca-Cola was surprised to find their German sub-branch alive and thriving. They adopted the Fanta product back into the company’s mainstay, although the recipe was heavily reworked in 1955 and again in the late 1980s.