Patriotic fizz around return of China's favourite '80s cola

China's favourite cola of the 1980s is to be relaunched, 20 years after an ill-fated deal with Pepsi consigned Tianfu Cola to the sidelines of the country's soft-drink market.

The sweet, supposedly medicinal drink will be returning to the country's shelves for the Lunar New Year holiday in early February, the official news agency Xinhua reported Thursday.

Once commanding a 70 percent market share in the country, Tianfu -- which means "heavenly palace" -- fell to a 1 percent stake after forming a joint venture with Pepsi in 1994, before production was finally stopped.

At the time of the Pepsi deal, Tianfu Cola was making inroads into Russia and the United States, but the combined unit slashed output in favour of the American product.

Many other Chinese soft drink brands suffered a similar fate as the country opened up economically in the 1980s and 90s.

After 12 years of losses, debt-ridden Tianfu sold its remaining shares in the joint venture to Pepsi, then successfully sued the US giant in a Chinese court for the right to its own recipe.

Tianfu Cola includes herbs drawn from traditional Chinese medicine and a 1995 Chinese study claimed to show it had anti-carcinogenic effects.

"Our joint venture with Pepsi put the brand on ice, so we lost 20 years," Qian Huang, general manager of Chongqing-based Tianfu, told a press conference on Wednesday, according to the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper.

On China's Twitter-like social media service Weibo, many users hailed the return of Tianfu Cola as a patriotic victory for the Asian giant, which has risen to become the world's second-largest economy and carries increasing diplomatic heft.

"Protect the nation's brands!" wrote one user.

Another declared: "You know Tianfu cola is pure China, much better to drink than Pepsi or Coke."