Pepsi versus Coke is their a difference? Is one better than the other? They both say absolutely a difference.
The top soft drink competitors in the world spend millions of dollars yearly to try and convince you that their version of soft drink is better. Both are so well known that you only need to see the can or plastic bottling to know which brand it is. Of course both have the same dark color and any taste test will reveal similar results. So which tastes better and why?
We’ll come back to this question later first a little history on the companies and where they are today.
Coca Cola originated as a soda fountain beverage in 1886 and sold for five cents a glass. It was bottled by one of these fountain owners named Joseph A Biedenharm in 1894 and he sent a bottled case to the owner of the company, but that owner took no action towards bottling the product. This came later when two Chattanooga Tennessee lawyers gained exclusive rights to bottle the beverage in 1899. An instant success more than 400 bottling plants were operating by 1909 and then came the famous contour bottle in 1916. In the 1920’s bottling overtook fountain sales and by the end of the 1930’s Coca Cola was in 44 countries. In the 1950’s is when the company expanded into many different sizes of the soft drink and of course today you can buy Coke in any size from a ten ounce on up.
Pepsi got it’s start in 1898 when a young pharmacist developed a concoction of water, sugar, vanilla, rare oils and cola nuts into what was called Pepsi Cola. Pepsi became available in six ounce bottles in 1904 the company thrived until the 1920’s when after five bad years the company was bankrupt and was sold for 30,000 dollars. The new company made a move when they began selling 12 ounces of soda for five cents which was the price of half that much of their major competitor Coca Cola. The company continued to do well and was the first to introduce a 16 ounce cola in 1963. Today Pepsi can be bought in many different sizes in almost any country in the world. Like Coke they continue to battle for market share and have expanded into many different areas and are now a very diverse company.
The actual market share shows Coke still leads 42 percent to 31 percent for Pepsi. All the other guys generic, etc. equals the other 27 percent of the market. Coke Classic alone controls 17 percent of all soft drink sales followed by Pepsi with 11 percent. Then Diet Coke is third with 9.8 percent with Mountain Dew a Pepsi product 6.6 percent and Diet Pepsi 6 percent of the sales. Outside of Coke classic and Diet Coke the best Coca Cola drink is Sprite with 5.7 percent of all soft drink sales. This gives Coke the clear edge in public preference and Pepsi has had a very tough time generating any additional market share through advertising in many years. They did make some inroads with their taste test commercials, but it swiftly disappeared and they continue to trail in market consumer preference about the same as they did ten years ago. Actually both companies lost ground to Cadbury’s Dr. Pepper, but by only .3 of one percent in both diet and regular from 2005 through 2006.
With neither company showing much growth in their original soft drink markets both this year have developed new strategies with new non carbonated soft drinks which will hopefully catch on to the part of the public that is the new health craze. This is made up of the baby boomers who are getting up in age and looking to live a healthier lifestyle and both companies are starting to explore this market. Their similar soft drink Pepsi versus Coke however will always be the battleground product with one always hoping to gain superiority over the other. So which is better?
Now on to the taste test which is in fact the major factor or supposedly the reason why one would drink one soft drink over another. I know there are millions of people out there that drink a particular brand because their father drank it or it has always been a part of their family. Still all biases aside can we actually determine which one tastes better or is their no difference. Or is the difference so slight that no one can really tell a difference though some will claim that they can.
I took three members of the family and I poured Coke in one glass and Pepsi in the other. I used same colored glasses so no one would know which was which and use their biases to pick out their brand. After drinking from each glass on three separate occasions with me changing the glasses back and forth and logging the result. Here is what I found. The first person a young nephew picked Pepsi twice and Coke once. My wife chose Coke all three times and Pepsi zero times. My daughter chose Pepsi twice and Coke once. So overall in this unscientific test the results were Coke five and Pepsi four which seems to be a win for Pepsi as it is actually, though a small sample was better than their market share percentage. Still Coke wins so is Coke just slightly better than Pepsi? It was time to take the ultimate challenge and taste it myself.
I after several samplings of both came up with the following determination. Coke is much stronger than Pepsi seems to have a lot more acid or carbonation or whatever creates that strong taste. Pepsi tastes good to me it was sweeter than Coke and went down smoother with less burn. Overall I could drink either one and be satisfied and I think this is the consensus of the majority of the public when answering honestly. Of course if your grandfather drank Coke, and your father followed in his footsteps then you probably drink Coke too. If Pepsi was the drink of the generations then I’m sure that is your preference today. Common sense tells me that both are great products and neither has a significant edge in taste or quality over the other. Actually personally I admit to buying mostly Generic Cola which personally tastes just as good and really saves you a great deal of money. I guess there is no clear cut winner?
The Coke versus Pepsi war will certainly rage on until the end of time. I was told by a person working for Pepsi that If you were an employee and got caught drinking a Coke on the company premises you would be fired on the spot. Now that is intense, but that is how heated the war has been and continues to be amongst these two heated rivals. Which is better Coke or Pepsi? My personal opinion, which also seems to be that of a divided public, is that both are top quality products which happily we can choose either and enjoy.
