Traubi or traubisoda is a brand of

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...

flavored with

grape juice Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as ''must''. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be u ...

. It is produced in Hungary, Austria and Croatia. Before 1995, in Hungary, it was made by a factory called Traubi HungariaTraubisoda
located in the village of

Balatonvilágos Balatonvilágos is the northernmost as well as the easternmost village of Somogy county, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to ...

. The company produces the drink from a special type of Hungarian grapes, called saszla. The name Traubi derives from the German word Trauben that means

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

. Visiting the factory in Balatonvilágos one can follow the steps of production from grapes harvest to bottling. In Austria, it's produced by Waldquelle Kobersdorf GmbH from

Kobersdorf Kobersdorf ( hu, Kabold, hr, Kobrštof) is an Austrian market town in Oberpullendorf, Burgenland. Geography Kobersdorf is located in Middle Burgenland and is divided into the districts of Kobersdorf, Lindgraben, and Oberpetersdorf. The municip ...

. A Croatian company Trento sokovi licenses it from Waldquelle since 2006, and produces it in Brestovac.

The History of Traubi

The aroma was originally invented by Lenz Moser of Austria in 1954. It was licensed to Traubi Hungaria in 1971. The new flavour became popular not only due to the successful advertisement but also as it appeared to be the first Hungarian fizzy drink. As a result of the growing interest, Traubi was also produced in

Kunbaja Kunbaja (german: Kumbaj or ) is a village and municipality in Bács-Kiskun county, in the Southern Great Plain region of southern Hungary. The village name reflects the presence of Kumans in this region. Geography It covers an area of and h ...

Csány Csány is a village in Heves County, Northern Hungary Region, Hungary. Sights to visit * Szigeti-castle * Melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can re ...

and in

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

. In response to the first fizzy drink success, in 1973 another product, called Márka, appeared on the Hungarian market. This drink proved to be popular that time just as well it is nowadays. Márka is liked for its special orange, grape, sour cherry and raspberry flavor. In the 1980s, due to the spread of Coca-Cola, Traubi became less popular, the production decreased by 20%. In 1992, Traubi Hungaria bought the factory of the Traubi in Balatonvilágos. However, in 1995, the trademark itself of "Traubi" and the licence to produce this soft drink was bought by the Ráthonyi Ltd, after the bankruptcy of the Lenz Moser Ltd. Since 1995 both Traubi Hungaria and the Ráthonyi Ltd used the same trademark, which resulted in a two decades long criminal and civil trial between these two parties. Salamon Berkowitz, the owner of the company Traubi Hungaria claimed that the original publicity campaign team, which had created the first campaign, was working on the company's advertisements and image. Despite these and the fact that Berkowitz used the former Traubi factory in Balatonvilágos and uses the same name as the original producer company had, several court rulings decided in favour of the Ráthonyi Ltd and condemned Berkowitz for fraud, tax evasion, and trademark infringement and imposed a fine on him and his accomplices.

Popularity

The popularity of the drink was tested through a market research conducted by the producer. The findings clearly showed, that there was a strong nostalgia for the drink among Hungarians who were teenagers in the '80s. Drinking Traubi evokes memories from Hungarian people's past, therefore a special importance belongs to this drink.

Márka

Márka is another soft drink product of the Traubi Hungaria. Its production started in 1973 and it is still popular. The com iany currently makes a variety of soft drinks. Márka soft drinks as of 2022 consists of pear-sage, ginger-lime, grape, sour cherry, jaffa, cola, orange and raspberry. Márka also makes lemonade, iced tea, and flavoured water.

References

{{Grape soft drinks Grape sodas Hungarian drinks Hungarian brands