125 - Years of Coca Cola

 

Q - What's the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero ? Read on ...

Have you seen the Coke 125 ad on TV? Hard to miss really.

• Yes, Coca Cola is celebrating it's 125th anniversary having its first sales on May 8th 1886, in Jacobs Pharmacy, Atlanta, Georgia - costing 5c a glass.
• It was developed by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist, who actually died 2 years after his Coca Cola drink went on sale.
• Pre 1886 the drink was developed as a 'wine' with alcohol but with the enforcement of prohibition in the USA Pemberton looked at the possibilities for a non-alcoholic version of the drink
• In its early days it sold about 9 drinks per day but 125 years later it sells 1.7 billion drinks each day
• The drink, also in the early days, contained cocaine (from the coca leaf) and had claims of medicinal properties and cures for certain ailments (with cocaine, maybe it did !!!). Today the concentrate does not have any cocaine but does have extract from cocaine-free coca leaf.
• The flavouring and 'caffeine' source for Coca-Cola is Kola nuts
• Coca-Cola claim to have introduced the modern day image of Santa Claus, in a1931 campaign. It's a debatable claim !

• Coca Cola was the first soft drink consumed in space
• The Coca Cola company itself actually only makes the secret 'concentrate'. This is what it sells to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers all over the world who add the various sweeteners and water and distribute it to the retail market.
• 1 can of Coca-Cola has 39g of carbs (from about 10 spoons of sugar aaaaggghhh !), 50g of sodium and about 140 calories
• Diet Coke (Coke Light) was launched on the market in 1982 and Coke Zero is more recently in 2006.
• Was Coke ever green? Some stories around that say it was but not true. It did come in a green bottle once upon a time which may have given rise to the story buy Coca-Cola has always been brown.

So Diet Coke v Coke Zero ? Both are low calorie with Diet Coke having just 1 calorie and Coke Zero is less with a mere half a calorie. The difference in the two is really just in the proportion of ingredients used which give different flavour and taste. Coke Zero is closer to original Coca-Cola and has no flavour variations while Diet Coke comes in a range of flavours such as cherry, lemon, lime etc in addition to the standard flavour. So not a lot of difference really - down to taste preference and a bit of spin from Coca-Cola branding !