Coca-Cola celebrates its 125th anniversary this month. Priscilla Pollara tracks the history of the world's most famous beverage and looks at the other options out there for cola fans nowadays.
Coca Cola is the world's most famous beverage.
This prestigious title, however, has little to do with its inimitable flavour, unique near-black hue, or its ability to quench almost any thirst, come rain or shine.
Its undying popularity stems, instead, from its enduring global omnipresence. From humble origins, this inimitable liquid rose to become one of the most ubiquitous and successful brands of the last century.
Happy Birthday
This month,however, Coca Cola turned 125. Astonishingly, its years of age place its birth before both the World Wars and even before the turn of the 20th Century. To be precise, it originated in 1886.
Medicinal?
Few may be aware, but the carbonated soft drink in fact started life as a medicine. In the late 19th Century, an American druggist - and wounded war veteran - John Pemberton, went about developing his very own version of pain-relieving 'coca wine'.
This punch-packing drink contained cocaine, caffeine and alcohol. The concoction was marketed as medicinal, with touts claiming it was a cure for just about every ailment, eg impotence, depression, headaches - even, ironically, drug addictions.
With all the health benefits it was said to offer and containing highly addictive ingredients, it’s not surprising the five-cent-a-glassCoca Cola became an overnight sensation.
Over time, Pemberton's original recipe dropped its alcoholic content and exchanged many hands until in 1892, The Coca Cola Company was well and truly on its way to success.
Beginnings of fame
In 1894, the concentrated formula was still being sold in pharmacies as a remedy, but Americans had also begun enjoying their new favourite drink - in its more diluted version - as an everyday beverage.
It wasn’t until 1903, 15 years after it was first sold, that cocaine was removed as an ingredient. In 1911, the US Government also tried to force Coca-Cola to remove caffeine, but failed to do so, although the drug was added to the list of ‘habit-forming’ and ‘deleterious’ substances which had to be listed on the product’s label.
By 1915, soda fountains were quickly ousted when Coca Cola’s iconiccontour bottle was born, and by1920,its name was on the tip of every American tongue. Global expansion beckoned and by the start of World WarII, Coca-Cola was being bottled in 44 countries.
International Icon
Today, consumption is at an all-time high. If we're not enjoying it on a balmy day, with an ice-topped glass and sliced lemons, our Coke is sitting in and amongst a shot of Jack Daniel's to make up the perfect after-dinner tipple. It is as much a summer's refreshing beverage, as it is a winter mainstay. And who in the world has not, at some point, elected a favourite Coca Cola television advert?
To honour Coca Cola's birthday, lovefood.com decided to test its superpower status. Rivals have long attempted replicas ofthe 'special recipe’, so after all these years, is there a new leader of the pack?
We selected a few brands available to us on the market – poured them all into an iced-glass - and measured them against Coke’s mettle.
Here are the results.
Pepsi
What is it?
Pepsi is Coca Cola’s most famed rival. Brought to life in 1883, ‘Pepsi-Cola’, as it later became known, has always provided the alternative option to the ubiquitous ‘Coke’. Typically, a modern restaurant – or fast-food chain – will only either sell a ‘Coke’ or a ‘Pepsi’, a limitation indicative of Pepsi’s similarly vast empire.
Where is it sold?
It has a wide-reaching global market. Available everywhere: shops, supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food chains, and many more.
How does it fare?
A sweeter, more saccharine flavour to that of the CC, but proves just as refreshing, and so very comparable.
Rating: 9/10
Tesco Value Cola
What is it?
This is Tesco’s own brand. Costing £2.75 for 12 cans of 330ml, it is almost £2.14 cheaper than the branded alternative.
Where is it sold?
Nationwide Tesco shops stock this Cola, which is also found on Tesco Direct.
How does it fare?
A surprisingly good match for the real thing. An ideal substitute when in need of party-size quantities of the beverage. I’d have it again.
Rating: 6/10
Asda Smart Price Cola
What is it?
Asda’s supermarket brand of Cola.
Where is it sold?
All Asda stores – large and small, available also through their online shop.
How does it fare?
It’s not a memorable drink, especially since its after-taste leaves one’s teeth feeling covered in a gritty sugared sensation. Possibly best used as a mixer.
Rating: 4/10
Ubuntu Cola
What is it?
This is the first ‘Cola’ in the UK to be blessed with a Fairtrade badge. Made with cane sugar direct from Kasinthula Cooperative in Malawi, 15% annual profits of this drink are donated to The Ubuntu Africa Program, an organisation which assures the long-term development of remote African communities.
Where is it sold?
Waitrose stocks Ubuntu, as do Goodness Direct, TheDrinkShop.com, Ethical Superstore and Fairer Planet. Impressively, it is also available in Ireland, Sweden and Norway.
How does it fare?
It’s tricky not being influenced by the jacket on the can, but this drink is clearly made up of a diverse set of ingredients. Sweet-tasting, it has a radically different flavour to what Coca Cola customers are accustomed to tasting. In fact, this drink, good in its own right, would prompt me not to use the world ‘Cola’ at all.
Rating: 8/10
Would I switch from Coca-Cola?
Despite all my testing of other brands, Coca Cola remains, for me, extremely hard to beat. I recall, on that note, something that Andy Warhol once said about the brand.
“A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.”
But what are your experiences? Have your say here!