Did People Actually Like New Coke Better?

New Coke can and advertisements

The question posed in the title of this article is easy to answer if you’ve already read about the Pepsi taste tests of the 1980s. You see, as part of it’s “Project Kansas” the Coca-Cola company did their own taste tests, comparing its sweeter New Coke formula to the classic Coca-Cola formula. They found, much … Read more

Is It Safe to Drink Expired Soda?

sell-by date stamped on the bottom of Coca-Cola can

Carbonated sodas or “soft drinks” are not perishable, despite the fact that they have dates printed on their labels. These dates are not expiration dates, but are instead either manufacturing dates or sell-by dates. While a soda will not maintain it’s best taste and quality indefinitely, it will still be safe to drink, even after … Read more

Drugs in Other Early Soft-Drinks Besides Coca-Cola

early 7up lithiated lemon soda ad

This is part three of a three-part deep dive series into the early history of soft drinks in the United States. In part one, I  covered Coca-Cola and its namesake ingredient, the Coca Leaf, or cocaine. In part two, I discussed the many early Coca-Cola imitators and Coke’s battle to destroy them. In this part … Read more

The Early Coca-Cola Imitators and Coke’s Efforts to Destroy Them

Early vintage coca-cola bottles with diamond shaped labels

This is part two of a 3 part series into the early history of Coca-Cola and the soda pop industry. In the first part of this series, I talked about the fact that Coca-Cola not only contained cocaine but that it was indeed invented as a way to deliver cocaine to customers in a palatable, … Read more

Did Coca-Cola Really Contain Cocaine When It Was First Invented?

Many people say it’s a myth that Coca-Cola once contained cocaine, or that the cocaine was only there by accident. In this 3 part article, I’m going to take a deep dive into not only Coca-Cola history, but the early history of the U.S. soda pop industry in general. In this article, I will cover … Read more

Why is the Period Missing In Dr Pepper?

If you read the article about who invented Dr. Pepper, you may notice that I neglected to put a period in Dr. throughout the article. I wrote, Dr Pepper, not Dr. Pepper. I did so while realizing that some people may think I was making a grammatical error. But as you may have noticed, and wondered … Read more