15 Amazing Facts About Coca-Cola

One of the most iconic brands in the world coca-cola. The coca-cola company was established in Atlanta Georgia 130 years ago in 1886 it was originally patented as a medicinal tonic but it was later marketed as a soft drink in order to reach more people. It's now the biggest selling soft drink in the world dominating the beverage market in nearly every country and all with its top secret formula kept firmly under wraps. 

NUMBER 1.

Coca-cola was originally developed as an alternative 

to morphine the creator of coca-cola John Pemberton was a former colonel in the American Civil War and had been left injured and addicted to morphine she created coca-cola as an alternative medicine and so registered French wine coca nerve tonic in 1885 beginning to sell the product at pharmacies Pemberton claimed that the tonic would cure headaches impotence and indigestion as well as morphine addiction.

NUMBER 2.

The only two countries where coca-cola 

isn't sold are Cuba and North Korea Cuba has been under a trade embargo from the US since 1962 and despite negotiations becoming more fluid under President Obama the embargo remains as a result coca-cola can't be brought into Cuba officially so some claim that they still see it sold on the black market North Korea is slightly different than that and it lives in its own anti-american bubble so the ultimate All American beverage is unlikely to go down very well their super market shelves.

NUMBER 3.

It would take nine years for someone to 

try every drink under the coca-cola names coca-cola has developed many different versions of their famous drink vanilla Diet 0 etc they also own various other drink brands that retail throughout the world including Fanta Minute Maid juices and sprite if you drank one a day it would take you an incredible nine years to try everything on Coca Cola's portfolio of over 3500 beverages.      

NUMBER 4. 

A 30% stake in coca-cola was brought for five hundered dollars in 1888 it was clear within two 

years of coca-cola coming onto the market that it was a potentially very lucrative product so Pemberton entered into a partnership with three different businesses one deal was between Pemberton son Charlie and the company called Walker Chandler & Co the company paid five hundred dollars for their 30% stake which equates to twelve thousand five hundred dollars in today's money the stake however didn't mean that Walker Chandler and Co were allowed to retail their commercial versions of the drink under the name coca-cola they could only use the names yom-yom or Coke.

NUMER 5.

Mexicans drink more coca-cola than any other 

nation in the world the average Mexican drinks 745 bottles of coke a year whereas the average American drinks 405 these two nations are the most significant consumers by quite a long way with the next nation Canada consuming just 259 bottles per person coca-cola is the least popular drink in India and China where people drink on average 12 and 38 bottles a year respectively.

NUMBER 6.

 

We have coca-cola to thank for our bearded 

red-suited image of Santa coca-cola began to advertise at Christmas in the 1920s a time that was previously very slow for sales they used various images of Santa but the favorite was Hadden some Blom's image of a fat jolly Santa that we all recognize too though it seems natural now this was the first time that Santa was represented in this particularly friendly way.

NUMBER 7.

Coca-cola is worth more than 

Budweiser subway Pepsi and KFC combined some brands that we see as huge and globally dominant are dwarfed when compared to coca-cola ninety-six percent of the world recognized the coca-cola logo the brand has more monetary value than Costa Rica as an entire nation and\ the brand as a whole is worth seventy\ four billion dollars in some regions of the world the drink has become a substitute for water.

NUMBER 8.

Coca-Cola had a complicated relationship with 

the Nazi Party Coca Cola didn't suspend its German operations when the Nazi Party were at large and many of their top executives were members of Hitler's party Santo was created particularly for the German market during the Second World War because the German coca-cola plans couldn't get their hands on the right ingredients during war time.

NUMBER 9.

Lawsuits have been brought against 

coca-cola for corrupting water supplies coca-cola has been accused of degrading water supplies in three regions of India Colombia turkey and Guatemala to name a few various action groups have accused coca-cola of dehydrating the areas that they move their manufacturing to making it impossible for local people to farm or find safe drinking water in response to this coca-cola have established a water efficiency program claiming that they will reduce the water they need to make their product by 27 percent.

NUMBER 10.

Three people have tried to sell Coca 

Cola's secret formula to Pepsi three people in the United States wrote to PepsiCo claiming that they have very detailed and confidential information about Coca Cola's secret formula rather than try to get the information from them PepsiCo reported it to both\ coca-cola themselves and the FBI the FBI\ started to pursue the case posing as Pepsi and offering the three scammers manila envelopes for their secrets.

NUMBER 11.

Coca-cola has to have a special deal 

with the drug enforcement agency or DEA the manufacturing of coca-cola does require dried cocoa leaves to be imported from Peru which they extract the cocaine from and sell it to a pharmaceutical manufacturer they are the only company in the USA who are legally allowed to purify cocaine for medicinal\ use so they have a very special arrangement with the DEA many have heard that coca-cola used to contain a percentage of cocaine in its recipe but the company still has a need for the cocoa leaves.

NUMBER 12.

Every American world war ii soldier 

received discounted bottles of coca-cola the president of coca-cola in 1941 whenAmerica joined the Second World War said that every man in uniform gets a bottle of coca-cola for five cents wherever he is and whatever it costs the company this was his way to try and support the war effort but it wasn't as altruistic as it appears by making sure coca-cola would be given to troops overseas coca-cola had already cemented its place in the foreign market so they could continue to do business in new territories.

NUMBER 13.

There's only one country in the world where coca-cola can 

be rivaled by any other soft drink in Scotland another drink can compete with coca-cola iron Bru an orange flavoured drink that's often described as Scotland's second national drink the first being whiskey is immensely popular throughout the UK but particularly in Scotland it's been manufactured since 1901 and sells in equal numbers to coca-cola in Scotland.

NUMBER 14.

Coca-cola developed a vending machine that would raise prices on hot 

days coca-cola sure does love a marketing opportunity and they're certainly not afraid to be a bit sneaky about pushing their product in 1999 it was reported by the New York Times that the coca-cola company had spent more than a year developing vending machines that would automatically raise the prices of their drinks on warmer days when the desire for a cold drink is much higher Pepsi responded with a serious burn claiming that they would never dare to introduce anything similar because machines that raise prices in hot weather exploit consumers who live in warm climates.

NUMBER 15.

The Pepsi challenge which claims to beat coca-cola 

is technically very flawed Pepsi created the sip test campaign in 1975 running it for many years in an attempt to prove that Pepsi tastes better than coca-cola however a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell delved further into the campaign and discovered that tasters will always prefer the sweeter drink on a first sip regardless of whether they would actually prefer it over the course of an\ entire can if you want to find out what else Pepsi have done to try and overtake Coke in the soft drink market. Pepsi coca-cola is such a ubiquitous part of our daily lives that it almost blends into the background we're surrounded by vending machines branded cups and bright red cans everywhere we go but coca-cola clearly haven't always played by the rules to achieve this level of success arguably one of the most controversial companies in the world coca-cola is no doubt going to continue to dominate the soft drink market and they really don't give a damn what anyone else says about them what do you think of Coca Cola's aggressive marketing tactics do you think that all is fair in commerce or do you think they should play fair.

Oh! you're still here well here's another 

fact about the world's most famous soft drink Coca Cola has been offered the purchase of Pepsi three times but never taken it up the offers were made between 1922 and 1933 and no one really knows why Coca Cola didn't buy their competitor out maybe they'd like to have a horse to race against.