Rex Trulove
Many, if not most people know that Coca-Cola or Coke is easily the best-selling non-alcohol carbonated beverage in the world. However, there are a few things you might not know about Coke.
Coke was invented in 1886 by a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia. For a time, Coke contained coca leaf extract, which was a mild version of cocaine, which comes from the same source. Of course, Coke no longer uses coca leaves in its formula. Still, coke syrup still has a medical use. The syrup is a powerful stomach pain reliever.
I’ve personally used the syrup when I’ve had a severely upset stomach due to the flu. It tastes horrid because it is so concentrated, but it sure knocked out the upset stomach.
Here is the astonishing thing, though. Coke was created in the United States. It currently outsells all other soda pops, both in the US and in the world. However, the US isn’t the country with the biggest Coke audience, per capita. Who would you guess would be the country that drinks the most Coca-Cola per person?
Here is a hint: This country consumes about 30 gallons of Coke per year. That doesn’t sound like much, and it is certainly less than many countries drink, but the total population of this country is only about 320,000 people, so per-person, more Coke is consumed in this country than any other.
Does that help in guessing which country it is?
No? More Coke is drunk in Iceland per person than in any other country on Earth.
This might be somewhat surprising to many people in that it is not a nation with warm temperatures. However, believe it or not, more Coke is sold even in the US during the winter than in the summer. The same is true of ice cream and I don’t have any idea how much ice cream is consumed in Iceland.
I do not drink carbonated drinks. My favorite drink is water with lemon
I don’t drink pop often, either. I drink mostly coffee. My daughter and wife drink a lot of flavored water.
Never been a big soft drink fan but Dr. Pepper is what I liked and Root Beer.
Most often, when I drink root beer, it in a float. I do love ice cream. lol
Yes those are good too, it has been years.
The original coke was a goto for me for many years. I don’t drink soda pop (regular or diet) anymore. Nice to know Coke is consumed in Iceland though!
I seldom drink pop, either. I drink maybe 3-4 cans per year. I don’t even use the syrup for upset stomach very often, mostly because it isn’t easy to come by unless you work in a restaurant or movie theater.
When I lived in Thailand coca cola was well, coca colar. Everything else was sold by Coke, under the Fanta brand.
I loved Fanta Red!
I think that Coke still sells Fanta Red here. I’ll have to remember to look when I’m at the store next time because I could be mistaken.
They still do. Funny it was sold in Asia but in the US it had a different name for a long time (Cream Soda). They decided to only use the Fanta name in the 80’s.
I have to admit, Fanta Red still tastes better than Cream Soda, even though they taste the same 🙂
I have been a coke drinker for a long time
The only pop that comes anywhere close to the amount of Coke that is sold and consumed, is Pepsi, and that is a distant second place.
We don’t like the taste of Pepsi it doesn’t have the tanginess iof coke.
My wife loves Coke but I’m a Dr Pepper man.
Dr Pepper is way down on the list of most popular pops, but that is also what my daughter drinks, almost exclusively (except for coffee and flavored water).
That is really interesting I don’t drink a lot of soda drinks but I have some ginger beer when I get an upset stomach.
Its also excellent for cleaning chalk blackboards.
We do tend to drink a lot of pop but we also keep ginger ale around for mild upset stomachs. It has to be made with real ginger to work, however.
One other thing that works exceptionally well for upset stomachs is peppermint schnapps. I’ve never been fond of it, but it has ended upset bellies when nothing else did.
The acids in Coke are also strong. I’ve used it to clean the hard water stains out of a toilet and for taking oil off of the pavement in parking lots.
Coke is my fav drink
You definitely aren’t alone. A huge number of people drink Coke.