Coke vs PepsiCoke vs Pepsi – a Battle as old as Soda itself!

Coke or Pepsi? How many times have you heard this question. It’s a rivalry as old as the hills and it still hasn’t been resolved – and it probably never will be! If you’re as old as I am, you probably remember the taste test commercials of the 1970s and 1980, where consumer took the Coke vs Pepsi challenge. Oddly enough, it was Pepsi who started the whole thing in 1975 with their Pepsi Challenge ad campaign.

The purpose of the challenge was not to try to figure out which one was which, but to taste them without knowing and then pick the one you like best. I remember in college at one of our football games they have a Coke vs Pepsi challenge set up. I took it and picked Coke!

Did you know Coke was invented in 1886 by a pharmacist named John Pemberton? He invented the surgery concoction in Atlanta, Georgia. The first glass of Coke was sold on May 8, 1886 at the soda fountain of a place called Jacob’s Pharmacy. And here’s something I bet you didn’t know: the first recipe for Coke actually contained extracts from real cocaine! Today more than one billion drinks made by the Coca-Cola company are consumed every day.

Most people thin of Pepsi as being a relative newcomer to the soda scene, but Pepsi came along on a dozen years after the invention of Coke. Like Coke, Pepsi was invented by a pharmacist named Caleb Bradham, who lived in New Bern, North Carolina. He was experimenting with different mixtures of spices, extracts and syrups to invent a new drink. His customers liked his results, so he started the Pepsi-Cola company in 1902 and the rest is history.

It’s interesting to note that during World War I and in the 1920s, Pepsi ran into hard times and went bankrupt. The savior of the company was a guy named Charles Guth, who owned a successful candy manufacturing company. Guth was looking for a way to get into soft drinks and happened to be irritated with Coke, so he invested in Pepsi and saved the company. So almost right from the start, is was a Coke vs Pepsi situation.

Maybe you need to experiment for yourself to wee which soft drink you like better. Have you ever taken the Coke vs Pepsi taste test? Just for fun, but one bottle of each and do your challenge. No matter what your favorite is, you’ll be enjoying a soft drink that is firmly rooted in the entrepreneurial spirit of our country.

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