A carbonated beverage is a beverage that contains the characteristic of carbonation. Carbonation creates bubbles and fizzing in a carbonated beverage due to the presence of the carbon dioxide gas. Carbonation occurs both naturally and artificially. Carbonated beverages include spring water, beer and soda, or "pop."

Spring water is a carbonated beverage that is naturally carbonated. Spring water absorbs carbon dioxide from the ground. Beer is another carbonated beverage that is naturally carbonated as carbon dioxide is created in the fermentation process.

Soda, or "pop", such as flavored cola is an example of an artificially carbonated beverage. Joseph Preistly invented artificial carbonation in England in 1767. Jacob Schweppes made a carbonated beverage of mineral water commercially in Switzerland in 1783. Benjamin Silliman commercialized the process in the United States in 1807 by selling bottled seltzer water. Seltzer was once naturally carbonated from its source in southwest Germany, but, like club soda, it is produced and sold as an artificially carbonated beverage.

Soda fountains were popular in drugstores in the 1800s and the fountains usually offered a carbonated beverage in flavors such as orange and grape. Philadelphia pharmacist Charles Elmer Hires is said to have invented Hires root beer in 1866. Jacob Schweppes created Schweppes ginger ale in 1870. Texan pharmacist Charles Aderton invented the Dr. Pepper carbonated beverage in 1885 and John S. Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. Pemberton was a druggist living in Atlanta, Georgia and he combined kola nut extract with coca extract as he was trying to make a cure for hangovers and headaches.

The Coca-Cola company soon became one of the most successful companies in the world. Caleb Bradham from North Carolina invented Pepsi cola in 1898 and the Pepsi-Cola company became a successful competitor of Coca-Cola. The carbonated beverage called cola also became known as "pop" because of the sound the fizzing bubbles produced by carbon dioxide made as they exploded. Cans and bottles of soda may explode when the containers are shaken due to the build up of the carbon dioxide gas which becomes pressurized. The carbon dioxide in soda also causes burping as a release of the gas when ingested in the body.

The carbonated beverage called soda, cola or "pop" is also known as a soft drink. A soft drink can also refer to other drinks without alcohol. Alcohol is sometimes referred to as "hard" liquor. Punch is a soft drink that is not usually, but may be, a carbonated beverage. Lemonade is also a soft drink and it is not usually carbonated.