Thums Up

Let's begin with this post with a short history lesson, because the history of Thums Up is about more than just soda. But everyone I meet from India seems to light up when I ask them about Thums Up. I learned about the history of Thums Up several years ago, but wasn't able to get my hands on any until more recently.

India gained independence in 1947, which looked like a big opportunity to Coca-Cola for post-WWII global expansion. Coca-Cola India began in 1950 as a subsidiary of parent company of Coca-Cola. While Coca-Cola was digging in, India was still building its government and recovering from the divide from the British, led by their first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The Indian government was focused on developing it's own industries and promoting business from within. Coca-Cola wanted to blitz the country so heavily that the government would feel powerless in the face of their market dominance and financial importance. Pepsi could not achieve the same since they arrived late to the game, just two years after Coca-Cola, in 1952, the Indian government by then was successful in preventing Pepsi from ever gaining much traction to establish a "beach head" within the country. Pepsi would end up leaving India just 10 years later. 

Indira Gandhi would serve as Prime Minister of India twice, the first time coming in 1971. In 1973, the Indian government passed the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. Under this act, subsidiaries of foreign companies were required to limit foreign equity share to 40% or less and convert themselves to Indian companies with at least 60% ownership by Indian interests. While this was going on, a national emergency took place over accusations of corrupt election practices, against Indira Gandhi, which the courts upheld. Morarji Desai would emerge as the new Prime Minister of India. George Mathew Fernandes served as the Union Minister for Industries under Desai and claimed companies such as Coca-Cola were violating the laws imposed by the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. Fernandes demanded that Coca-Cola India give 60% of its share to Indian interests, but that they also divulge their secret recipe to its Indian shareholders. Recall from my post on the World of Coca-Cola about the vault where the recipe is stored. Coca-Cola considers the recipe a trade secret and they along with several other companies decided to simply leave India altogether in 1977.

After Coca-Cola's departure, the government took control of more than twenty of Coca-Cola's bottling facilities. Coca-Cola left a huge gap in the market and government controlled companies produced Double Seven cola to fill this gap. Double Seven was also known as Sarkari Cola and Sattatar, which was a play on the year 1977, which they removed Coca-Cola from India. Double Seven would be a failed product and Indira Gandhi returned to power in 1979. While other startup cola brands were launched, such as Campa Cola, the most popular of these was Thums Up. After previously finding success with Limca and Gold Spot sodas, brothers Prakash Chauhan and Ramesh Chauhan, from Mumbai and owners of the Parle company, launched Thums Up in 1977. Thums Up proved popular and they snapped up most of the cola market in India through the 1980's. 

By the end of the 1980's India's economy was stagnant. Pepsi was permitted to return if they "Indianized" their name. They became Lehar Pepsi in a joint venture with a government owned company until 1994 when they simply became Pepsi again. Pepsi was then battling cola-wars on two fronts, against Coca-Cola in North America and against Thums Up in India. In 1993, Coca-Cola was able to return to India without having to reveal their secret recipe. The franchise bottling system used by Thums Up meant that their bottlers chose to sell out to Coca-Cola. This meant Coca-Cola now owned the Thums Up, Limca, and Gold Spot brands. Coca-Cola ceased production of Gold Spot despite a loyal fan base, opting to replace the orange soda with their Fanta brand. Siddhartha Khosla would name his L.A. based band, Goldspot, after the drink. Coca-Cola attempted to shift Thums Up drinkers to the Coca-Cola brand, in an effort that failed because the branding and tastes were not alike. So today, Thums Up is still a market leader for cola in India, even though it is now owned by Coca-Cola. 

With that little history lesson provided, I can get on with the drinking. I've managed to get my hands on a glass bottle of Thums Up from a local Indian market. This bottle has seen better days and that's because it is a deposit bottle, with thicker glass, they are designed to be returned to be washed and reused again and again. I've also found a canned sample from a nearby middle-eastern market. 

I'm starting with the glass bottle and it provides a smell like that of Pepsi. Oh, I can definitely taste the difference and understand why there would be market differentiation among drinkers in India. The cola flavor is like that of Pepsi, but with a big difference... it's got a herbal quality to it, a bit leafy like tea and maybe cumin and cardamom. I find often that those sodas with herbal notes are a little off putting to me, but this one isn't. I quite like it. Opening the can, the herbal aroma is stronger than I found from the bottle. I also find that herbal flavoring is stronger from the can and I don't care for it as much as from the bottle. I'm not sure if this is due to inconsistent bottling, age of the drink when bottled/canned, or from light affecting the bottle through the clear glass, but I know I prefer the bottled version. I'd certainly recommend giving it a try if you come across it.