World of Coca Cola

After attending a wedding in Birmingham, Alabama we planned to go visit the “capital of the South” - Atlanta, Georgia.  It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive from Birmingham and pretty much a straight shot across one freeway.  We planned to stay for 3 days in “Hotlanta” but we could only do sightseeing for two of those days.  You see when we were there, Atlanta was anything but “Hotlanta”.  In fact, it was “Damn Cold Lanta”.  We spent our third day there cooped up in a hotel room due to the heavy snow and an ice storm.  The whole city shut down for the storm and there was nowhere to go and nothing to do.

 

But I digress…

When we first arrived in Atlanta we visited the World of Coca Cola.

 

Atlanta is the headquarters for Coca Cola and of course they have a Coke Museum.  We visited the museum and enjoyed the mostly self-guided tour very much.  It’s a pretty neat place that’s fun and informational about everything related to Coke (not the illegal white powder, I mean the soft drink).

 

Dr. John Pemberton invented Coke in 1886.  In 1891, Asa Candler bought this Company for $2,300.  In 1919, he sold Coca Cola for $25 million.  Today, Coca Cola is worth $164 billion.

 

                                                              Dr. John Pemberton

 

The Coca Cola Company keeps their secret recipe for Coke in a heavily guarded vault at this location.  This is the magical recipe that combines the Coca Cola syrup with carbonated water and makes this delicious soft drink (which of course is bad for your health but so addicting because it tastes so good).

 

                                                                   Vault Entrance

 

                                                                Actual Vault

 

Sidenote. 

A few years ago, a disgruntled secretary in the Coca Cola Company stole a copy of the secret recipe and offered to sell it to a senior executive at a rival company (Pepsi).  You know what the senior executive did?  He called the police and also informed the Coca Cola Chairman.  That is what I call honesty and integrity in business.

 

So at this museum, they have a fully functional but miniature bottling plant.  It produces 8 oz. glass bottles of Coca-Cola.  We were able to witness a behind the scenes view of the actual bottling process. At the end of the tour, every visitor gets a complimentary 8 oz. bottle of Coke.

 

 

 

 

Of course, the highlight of the tour is the immensely popular tasting room.  It was pure fun and we couldn’t get enough. They have 5 stations to taste local soft drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola around the world.  Each station represents a different continent and each “continent tasting station” has countries listed and the Coca Cola products offered in that country.

 

 

You can sample any country’s drink that is made by Coca Cola.  Add to that, you can drink as much as you want without any time limits or quantity limits!

 

For example, the Asia tasting station had soft drinks made by Coca Cola representing Japan (2), Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India, and Thailand.  Altogether, the tasting area must have had over 100 different soft drinks to taste from…from around the world. If you drink a full cup from each country, you cannot taste more than 10 samples.  So we just took a few sips from each country and we tasted more than 50 drinks from around the world. 

 

Now which country’s Coca Cola product tastes the best? The best in my opinion is “Bibo” made in South Africa.  It is a combination of kiwi and mango. It’s the best in my humble opinion and the people that I was with also liked it very much.

 

 

The guaranteed worst is “Beverly” made in Italy.  This is not just my opinion but everyone’s opinion. It’s clearly the worst drink in the tasting room and 100 out of 100 people will agree on that.  If you are ever in Italy, don’t buy this drink (even though they don’t make it anymore).  I would rather drink animal vomit than drink “Beverly” again.  YUCK! (no, I won’t REALLY drink animal vomit but you get my point).

 

 

Was there a Coca Cola drink representing India in the tasting station room?  Of course!

We tasted Thums Up…in Atlanta of all places!  The reviews for Thums Up were actually pretty good from the fellow drinkers standing around me.  Even I enjoyed it when compared to the other drinks from around the world.

 

Towards the end of the tour, I was talking to the Floor Supervisor in the Tasting Room.  I told him that I didn’t know that Thums Up was manufactured by Coca Cola.  He said that Coke bought Thums Up in order to become Number One in India.  He said that Coke was originally Number Three in India behind Pepsi and Thums Up.  He also said, “We want to be Number One in every country in the world.”  I was amazed at his knowledge of the company’s products and also impressed with his company loyalty.

 

Thums Up to him!

(or should I say Thumbs Up?  Never understood why the b was omitted in the name of the drink)