Last year June (2021), the 36 year old wealthy footballer, Christiano Ronaldo was in the news for rejecting the coca cola during a press conference, he was to speak to the media before Portugal’s victory over Hungary

He dramatically shoved aside the pair of coke bottles in front of him to the side and lifted up a bottle of water saying Agua, this simple act made coca cola’s market share to fall by 1.6%, a whopping 4 billion dollars decrease in value.

We would get back to this scenario later, but why would anyone not love coca-cola, if someone as influential as Christiano Ronaldo isn’t fond of this drink then one might need to learn more about the product, since 2000 the coca cola company has always been advertising happiness instead of its product, in 1997 it was estimated that Coca cola made 1 billions sales a day, a billion people consumed this product every day how did they get to this point.

A pharmacist by name John Smith Pemberton developed an addiction for morphine but it wasn’t up until may 1886 when he developed a medicinal beverage when he sustained a wound to his chest and used morphine to ease his pain, so he created a recipe that contained extracts of kolanut and Damiana

Frank Mason Robinson came up with the name for the drink, “Coca-cola” an alliterative sound which referred to the main ingredients used in making the drink but the company said that the name was just “meaningless but fanciful”
Pemberton sold his right to his formula to Ass Griggs Candler for $1,750 other sources would say $2300, shortly after he sold it, he died.

The formula has been rumored to be a secret even though the ingredients are written on the body but the problem seems to be the proportion used and the flavor added as well.

Asa Candler founded the coca-cola company in 1892, the company was distributing coca cola nationwide in the United States in 1892, started exporting to Cuba in 1899, and to Europe in 1901.

Soon after Benjamin and Joseph met Asa for rights to bottle the drink, the idea seemed funny at the time but it was signed and agreed at a $1 contract which most bottling companies would soon adopt.

This idea was very profitable and brought more money to the company, but up to that moment, the coca cola was still being sold as a medicine that cured fatigue,pain and headache, a free coupon was placed in all pharmacy then so that when people got a taste of the drink, they would become customers, but Asa decided to take it a step further, sell to every one, why sell to a niche when you can sell to everyone.

In 1916, Asa Candler was elected mayor of Atlanta, so he ended his day to day management of coca cola company and in 1917 the amount of caffeine in the drink was reduced by 50%

During the second war, coca cola met the government with an offer to send the drink to the american soldiers who were fighting from other countries, the drink was meant to give them a taste of home and help their moral while at war, knowing that the country had them at heart, the drink was offered to be sold to uniformed men at 5 cents but there was a problem, they needed a bottling company built in those countries to reduce the cost, the government listened and funded the project, so a technician building the bottling company was as useful as a soldier fighting the war to bring peace, but the bigger picture was that it made the Americans love the Coca cola for their patriotic spirit but what they never knew was that Coca cola used this to expand their bottling companies at little expense, so the soldier unknowingly advertised the product to citizens of those countries, right now there are only two countries that don’t sell coca cola, North Korea and Cuba.

Also during the war, Max Keith who was in charge of the bottling company in Germany during the nazi couldn’t obtain the coca cola’s syrup during the war and in order to keep the plant in operation, developed a fruit flavoured drink made from apple fiber and whey which was a by product from a cheese manufacturing company hence creating the name Fanta, the drink sold wildly and the profit was sent to the head quarters and he was promoted.

Fast forward to recent times, the coca cola drink was rumored to increase obesity and affect the teeth enamel, in order to reduce the complaints, they came up with Dasani water, but it was found to contain micro plastics and it was gotten from tap water supplies and filtered in bottled water plants before being bottled, this idea didn’t go well with the consumers

In 1933, Pepsi was offered to Coca cola for $50,000 but coca cola turned down the offer, a mistake that would haunt them in the coming years, Pepsi became rivals with coca cola in terms of flavor, the two would battle for pricing strategies and name as well as taste.

The quest to beat each other led to a blind taste contest and more people preferred pepsi taste over Coca cola’s

So in 1985, coca cola decided to improve their taste with a new drink called “Classic coke”

The audience, the world and consumers criticize this aggressively, they felt it was a betrayal to all that they had known the brand to stand for, patriotism, their memories, their childhood and after 74 days, coca cola gave in and brought back the old coke, this was seen as the best marketing blunder of the century because immediately they returned to the former coca cola drink, their sales multiplied, it was as if their consumers and the world was reminded of why they loved Coca cola in the first place, it was definitely more than the taste, it was truly a feeling.

Warren Buffett, the oracle of Omaha, who is inarguably one of the richest men on earth bought shares of coca cola after the 1987 stock market crash, about 400 million shares, and has told everyone that he doesn’t plan on selling them anytime soon, this would also make people wonder why? Well for starters, the coca cola drink is his favourite drink especially the cherry coke and again because they make around 1 billion sales every day of course, but the real question is why do people love coke that much.

Well because it’s an addiction, there are two main ingredients of Coca cola that are addictive, ‘sugar and caffeine’

So this is a really matter of concern because if more 1 billion are becoming addicted to something that isn’t healthy

Infact the coca cola had mentioned that their competition isn’t pepsi but water, it sounds funny but true because on a cold day, millions would prefer a chilled cold coca cola bottle over water

There are other discoveries that coca cola can be used to clean the toilet and it has been effective in removing rust and tough stains

It was agreed that it was because of the acidity level of the drink, it contains citric acid, phosphoric acid and carbonic acid as well, but does this affect the human body, something as acidic as this?

Well there is a research ongoing to verify this but coca cola decided to bring in ‘Diet Coke and Coke Zero’ a breath of fresh air as you would imagine but

It has no sugar, no calories so it definitely has no nutritional value, but the world embraced it especially those who were fans of the coca cola brand and were abstaining from sugar but if there isn’t sugar, how come?

Artificial sweeteners were used instead, but this also came with its price as well, artificial sweeteners contain aspartame, which are known to alter the gut microbiome which affects glucose tolerance and insulin levels, those who have Schizophrenia, a chronic psychiatric disorder that leads to form of delusions and hallucinations.

Coca cola has definitely stolen our hearts and minds but do they really have our health in mind? This is a question that we have been asking especially when a drink that started with saving lives now decides to start taking them, we hope and pray

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