Pepsi Cola

Long overdue, I'd been putting off this post just because I know the drinks that have been around longer have more history to cover, not out of any sort of preference. In fact, I sit firmly on the fence between Coca-Cola and Pepsi. A lot of people have hard stances one way or the other, but I find them equally enjoyable as regular colas. I have stronger opinions though when comparing Diet Coke to Diet Pepsi, or Caffeine Free Diet Coke to Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi. 

I've discussed in the past that the birth place of many sodas were in local drugstores, and Pepsi is right in there too. Caleb Bradham, of New Bern, North Carolina, was creating his own cola concoction at the end of the 1800's. In 1893 it was first known as "Brad's Drink". Did he think "Bradham's Drink" was too much of a mouthful? The name changed five years later, when in 1898 it became known as Pepsi-Cola. The popularity of the drink grew, but Pepsi-Cola fell on hard times after World War I due to the cost of sugar. The brand would trade hands to Charles Guth in 1931. Guth hired someone to improve the recipe, and as it so happened was the president of the Loft, Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of candy in the 1920's. Loft had a chain of Happiness Candy retail stores with soda fountains in them. Guth used his new Pepsi-Cola acquisition to replace Coca-Cola in the candy stores. In 1941, the previously separate Pepsi-Cola Company, merged with Loft under the Pepsi-Cola Company name. The current landscape of food and beverage might look very different had Coca-Cola purchased Pepsi-Cola on one of the many occasions they reportedly had to do so in the 1920's and 30's. 

In 1961, the name of the drink was shortened to simply, Pepsi, and then the Pepsi-Cola Company merged with snack maker Frito-Lay in 1965 to become just PepsiCo. Pepsi would go on to create a number of unique ad campaigns, most-notably they kicked of the Cola Wars of the 1980's with the Pepsi Challenge, a guerilla marketing effort based on blind taste tests showing people preferred Pepsi to Coke and later leading to the debacle of New Coke from Coca-Cola. Today Pepsi's beverages place second in market share to Coca-Cola, combining for 30% of soft drinks globally. 

It's fairly difficult to find Pepsi in a glass bottle. As you should know by know I prefer soda in a bottle if possible. Unfortunately, the particular curves of this bottle needs a cloth to pick up the drips like you'd use on a wine bottle. This particular bottle tastes of a little more cinnamon than you normally expect from a new can of Pepsi. Otherwise, I think everyone knows what Pepsi tastes like so I'll skip over other details.