Kelamí League: Difference between revisions

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=== Foodstuffs ===
Foodstuffs make up the largest industry in the League. An estimated 71% of rural League communities are focused on agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, or hunting. The products created by these small towns, combined with the Black Zone large-scale agricultural projects, have provided the basis for the League's development and wealth. The most profitable foodstuffs industry in the League is soft drinks, accounting for 62% of all revenue in 2020.
[[File:Leaguesoda.jpeg|thumb|A typical soda bottle used by Mountain Ice, seen here containing a grapefruit soft drink.]]
 
==== Soft Drinks ====
[[File:Sodagroup.jpg|thumb|A collection of typical soda bottle shapes. Some have remained unchanged since the 1800s. ]]
The soft drink industry in the League is regarded as what the nation is best known for internationally. Employing around three million people across the country in various fields like marketing, bottle-making, transportation, and corporate planning, the manufacture and sale of carbonated beverages has been a cash cow since the mid-1600s. The soft drink industry brings in approximately $40 billion in revenue each year selling both domestically and abroad. The mountains of the League states are dotted with naturally carbonated springs, which have been used throughout history for their medicinal and recreational qualities. The state of Thàpèkunkwèké and its constituent tribes are named after these springs. The Thàpèkunkwèké people are historically known for distilling beverages from spring water and the bark and sap of trees, usually maple and birch. In a similar vein, the Pahsaèkatëmatwa'áku people would mix sassafras roots with spring water for a medicinal drink. As the League states modernized and began more regular trade with other nations, these carbonated drinks became highly-prized for their taste, unusual physical effects, and purported remedial qualities. The introduction of honey, and from warmer climates, sugar, increased the popularity and value of the drinks, which would come to be known as ''mpe'chgeyne,'' roughly meaning "bubble water." One urban legend purports an Antoran lord paid almost a metric ton of gold for a hundred bottles of maple ''mpe'chgeyne''.
 
Sunukikiya, a Thàpèkunkwèk'ia physician, is credited with inventing the concept of individually bottling servings of ''mpe'chgeyne'' in 1678''.'' Partnering with Tuanadi, a renowned glassblower, Sunukikiya created a bottle feasible for containing enough of a beverage to enjoy with a meal or as a treat. The ease of manufacture of these bottles allowed Thàpèkunkwèké to become extremely wealthy. One urban legend purports an Antoran lord paid almost a metric ton of gold for a hundred bottles of maple ''mpe'chgeyne''. Seeing the success that the bulk sale of soft drinks resulted in, the other League nations worked to create their own bottling systems and unique flavors. Pahsaèkatëmatwa'áku and Kèxaptunwène'ku followed in the manner of creating glass bottles, while Shahëwèkwe created large pottery workshops to mold jarlike vessels called ''paèntink'', meaning "in a cup." ''Paèntink'' are still made today, and the word is used to also refer to the drinks contained within. These soft drinks, typically made with high-altitude roses, blackcurrants, or lavender, are prized for their taste, high price, and fragile containers. Answikànwèkwe and Sànàksëkwe'iéke experimented with whalebone and carved stone bottles, though they switched to the glassblowing system after their efforts were deemed too labor-intensive and unsustainable for mass production.
 
Today, the League's soft drink industry builds on the heritage of these drinks. The mostlargest popularsellers brandsof ''mpe'chgeyne''-type soft drinks are Chgei'nuaka Pop, a birch beer, sasparillasarsaparilla, and tonic water company, Mountain Ice, a mineral water and citrus soda company, and Thitpan, a citrus soda and root beer company. The beverage companies in the League are all owned at least in part by the government, who directly controls access to the springs necessary for bottling. All soft drinks are made with authentic mineral water with natural carbonation, harvested with minimally-invasieinvasive methods from the source. Purification processes allow no harmful minerals to remain but keep the beneficial ones for taste and nutrition. League soft drinks are generally considered more "upscale" than other brands due to the artisan manfacturingmanufacturing process and packaging. With distinct hand-blown glass bottles and cork-and-rubber stoppers, contemporary ''mpe-chgeyne'' are marketed as "eco-sensitive," "hand-made" and "authentic heritage" drinks from the nation that invented the soft drink as it is known today. Birch beer, mirroring the Northern Novaran Birch from which its ingredients derived, is the official national drink of the League.
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