Date:  Thu, 7 Dec 1995 00:01:21 -0500

From:  SETH SKLAREY <crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPOF.FLA.NET>

Subject: Re: NEW COKE



> ... both used Coke to mean any soft drink, there was some ...

>

>I use "coke" to mean any cola-based soft drink (coca cola, pepsi cola, RC), but

>I would never use it to refer to *any* soft drink (coke <> 7-up). I'm amazed

>that anyone would say coke, when they mean 7-up.

>

>What gripes me everytime, is to go into a fast food restaurant, order their

>equivalent of a "happy-meal", ask for a coke to go with it, and be asked in

>return, "Is Pepsi OK?" Of course Pepsi's OK, it's the same thing isn't it?

>

>-- Jim



NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO



As a member of the "Pepsi generation" (I grew up in the 50's), where we

heard the

jingle "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot..." (someone pleease finish it), there was a

considerable war between the two. Coke was the original beverage and was

discovered

by a Georgian who sold the formula (which then contained cocaine and

henceforth led

to all the references to "dope" since the original formula was based upon

coca leaves

and cola nuts) to Asa Candler, an Atlanta druggist who refined the formula

and promoted it. It also contained a lot of sugar and caused teeth to rot.

Teachers loved to demonstrate this by taking a kid's baby tooth which had

fallen out and dropping

it into a glass of Coca-Cola and gloat as it slowly dissolved in about a week.



Coke was made to be sold at drugstore soda fountains and was dispensed into

a glass

filled with ice and which to which carbonated water was added. Because of

the ice and

the seltzer, the syrup was especially sweet. The caffeine, sugar (and earlier

presumably the cocaine) all had a highly addictive effect and combined with

Candler's

fantastic promotional abilities made Coca Cola a major world product. As it

became

more popular it was put into a 6 1/2 ounce bottle which was just the right

size to

give a jonesing teenager a jolt as well as a zit.



Pepsi was an also-ran, but in the 50's and 60's decided they would claim the

generation

and somehow made the formula a little sweeter than Coke, found it had a

great promoter

in Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and paid Richard Nixon to get their product

into Russia.



When the Cuban revolution led to the Great Cuban sugar embargo by the United

States,

the soft drink industry began to search for alternatives to sugar, which

eventually

led to corn syrup.



Then in the greatest marketing debacle the world had ever seen (far worse

than second

place, the introduction of the Edsel) Coca Cola introduced "New Coke" which

was full

of corn syrup and which THEY thought tasted sweeter than Pepsi but really

tasted like

bland canvas. They then reverted to "Classic Coke" which is supposed to be the

"original formula," whatever that means. Coke has never tasted the same, I

refuse to

drink it unless desperate, and I think Pepsi (which isn't as good as it used

to be,

either) is still a heck of a lot better.



If you really think they taste the same, you probably can't distinguish between

Oreos and Hydrox cookies and there's no hope for you.



SETH SKLAREY

Wittgenstein School of the Unwritten Word

Coconut Grove, FL

crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ipof.fla.net







PS: Jay Leno has asserted that Egg Nog is the drink of choice at Christmas

because it is

the only drink with sufficient surface tension to force a Claxton fruitcake

through the

colon.