Making a virtue of necessity: the invention of Sanpellegrino Aranciata at the fair

Sanpellegrino pre-eminently typifies the excellence that lies in the Italian gastronomical and entrepreneurial traditions, a symbol of quality, passion, and conviviality all around the world. It is a story that goes a long way back, as flavours and values take time to consolidate, forming a fundamental ingredient even for big businesses. Established in 1899, Sanpellegrino kept pace with the developments that swept society in the twentieth century, shaping people’s habits and customs in Italy and around the world.

While it is its celebrated sparkling mineral water, exported worldwide since 1908, that stands out most in the collective imagination—from the menus of award-winning restaurants and major supermarket chains to the dressing rooms of pop stars and the tables of Hollywood movie sets—the other product that has brought Sanpellegrino decades of success is its sparkling orange soft drink, first launched in the early 1930s and a consumer favourite ever since.

Its popularity caught on quickly, growing to such proportions that by public demand a first bitter variation on the theme was released in 1949, Aranciata Amara, followed in 1958 by Sanpellegrino Chinotto, a tangy-flavoured soft drink with subtle citrus notes.

But let’s stop and take a step back, because sparkling orange soft drink, like all inventions that make a difference, originated in inspired intuition, a stroke of genius that came at a moment calling for virtue to be made of necessity. Its story is simple, mixing just a few fundamental ingredients: the Milan Fair, a visionary entrepreneur with a sharp practical vein, a group of thirsty visitors, sparkling mineral water, and orange juice.

Ezio Granelli was a pharmaceutical sales rep, but also an industrial chemist and successful businessman, member of the Milan Fair Board’s general council from 1928 to 1930, before becoming its deputy chairman for two years (1931–1933). In 1924 he purchased Sanpellegrino, a company in decline that would turn to the path of innovation, research, and development under his guidance. Thanks to the production of citrus-flavoured soft drinks, a major engine of sales and visibility for the brand in Italy and the world, Granelli turned around the fortunes of Sanpellegrino, steering it towards a future of astonishing success.

It is to him that we owe the invention of sparkling orange soft drink—at the Milan Fair, in 1932, when he had the brilliant idea of mixing sparkling mineral water with orange juice and a spoonful of sugar to quench his guests’ thirst. The drink went down so well with his guests that Granelli decided to launch his brainwave on the market, giving the go ahead to the mass production of Sanpellegrino Aranciata. In no time, the soft drink took Italy and the world by storm. The brilliant idea would change the destiny of the beverage maker from San Pellegrino Terme. Even the distinctive flask-shaped bottle designed in 1932 for the orange soft drink would become an icon and symbol of Italian industrial design, thanks to its rounded shape and grainy texture, reminiscent of an orange and its peel.

Every Italian has a memory tied to Sanpellegrino sparkling orange soft drink. Whether they prefer it sweet or bitter, or refuse to swap it for any of its American competitors, it is practically impossible not to spot a bottle in the family photo album, on the table at a birthday party, a wedding banquet, or for Christmas lunch.

A popular favourite, its refreshing taste was not disdained by even the most aloof of intellectuals. As Carmelo Bene recounts, when he and an employee once met Albert Camus in a coffee bar to ask permission to stage his play Caligula, after hearing out their proposal Camus “called out to the bar tender and ordered ‘an aranciata for me. And you?’ ‘The usual for us, double whisky.’ That’s exactly how it went. He looked me in the eyes and ordered an orange soft drink. The deal was done. It sparked this strange sort of trust. He didn’t even want the royalties.”

Sparkling orange soft drink would become with time a daily staple in Italian households (and not only). Its immense popularity even inspired writers of the likes of Gianni Rodari, who featured the beverage in his “The Mysteries of Venice, or Why Pigeons Don’t Like Orange Soft Drink,” one of the funniest tales in the collection Novelle fatte a macchina (Short stories written on a typewriter), featuring stories from his column in the newspaper Paese Sera in 1972.

Rodari writes: “Doctor Martinis, a young advertising genius full of hope and promise goes to Venice with a load of pigeon feed disguised in pavers, on a secret mission for his employer, the maker of Frinz orange soft drink. Quite rightly he figures, “Before Venice is swallowed up and gulped down by the Lagoon, let’s make use of it at least to promote such an agreeable product, one especially recommended for children, the elderly, and archbishops. On a certain morning, Doctor Martinis would scatter the feed in Saint Mark’s Square, but not haphazardly or here and there, but according to a precise design, so that when the pigeons, attracted by the banquet, settled in the square, they would spell out an eighty-four-metre-long sign reading, ‘DRINK FRINZ!’”

Quality and wholesomeness are two fundamental values for Sanpellegrino. Ever since its beginnings, the company has strived to export these concepts from Italy around the world, exploring all the potential of the language of advertising and graphic design by working with the best designers and artists. In doing so, the group’s advertising posters and campaigns have become an emblem of the “Italian way of life,” where living means doing, with all the know-how that entails—a dolce vita rooted in an age-old tradition of craftsmanship, skill, and excellence.

As part of a story based on a taste for good food, sharing, and conviviality, Sanpellegrino soft drinks have become a historical and cultural symbol celebrated the world over.