Battle of the Soda Pops: Pepsi Versus Coca-Cola Classic

It's been 107 years since Pepsi was launched in North Caroline, USA. The brand has modest beginnings just like most other big successes. A pharmacist named Caleb Bradham was experimenting with soft drinks and came upon a delicious combination of carbonated water, vanilla, sugar, rare oils and cola nuts. This was initially named "Brad's drink". In 1898 this new beverage came to be known as Pepsi-Cola. The name is drived from the two main ingredients, namely pepsin and cola. By 1902 the drink became so popular that Bradham had to devote all his energy to starting his Pepsi-Cola company.

But even before this, in 1886, a drink by the name Coca Cola or Coke was invented by John Pemberton. Pemberton invented this new concoction in order to bring out a carbonated and non-alcoholic version of the French Wine Cola. Ironically, this drink was used originally as a medicine! Back in the 19^th century people believed that carbonated water had curative properties that healed diseases such as dyspepsia and even headaches. In the early part of the 20^th century Coca Cola also used cocaine as one of its ingredients. Coca Cola, in the year 1935 even got the licence as being 'kosher' by Rabbi Tobias Geffen.

Pepsi-Cola's ingredients include carbonated water, caramel colour, natural and artificial flovours, phosphoric acid, aspartame, citric acid, sodium benzoate, caffeine and acesulfame potassium. The main function of the sodium benzoate is to keep the drink fresh. These ingredients are additions to what the original Pepsi-Cola Bradham had introduced. An 8 fl.oz bottle of Pepsi-Cola also has 30mg of sodium.

Coca Cola uses similar ingredients with an addition of high fructose corn syrup. Kola nuts were the nuts that were originally used when Coca Cola was invented to add flavour to it.

Coca Cola boasts of an impressive range of products that include soft drinks, energy drinks, juices, sports drinks, and bottled water. They also have tea, coffee and milk products. They are said to have more than 400 brands in over 200 countries. Pepsi-Cola is not far behind and they have an almost identical range of products. The only difference is that Coca Cola has a soup product as well.

Both Coca Cola and Pepsi-Cola have tie ups with other well known brands. Pepsi-Cola has tied up with Starbucks for their iced coffee range. They are also 'friends' with Ben and Jerry's Icecreams for their milkshakes and the Lipton connection is for the iced tea. Coca Cola on the other hand has collaborations which includes Godiva, makers of luxury Belgian chocolates. This connection resulted in the premium range of Godiva Belgian Blends. They also have joint ventured with Nestle for their range of Nestea.

The question has always been which brand is better? For a few people on this planet the answer would be that they can barely tell the differences in the products of the two companies, if there are any! For others it's in the different range of products that the two offer. Pepsi and Coca Cola have managed to reach every nook and cranny of the earth with almost every country having a production plant. Their successes have been mainly due to the competition provided by the other and. This is despite the controversies plaguing both Pepsi-Cola and Coca Cola regarding the safety of the ingredients used in making their soft drinks. Whatever are the preferences of people these Pepsi-Cola and Coca Cola are definitely two brands that really know what it means to be global. With net profits of Coca Cola and Pepsi continuing to rise every year the sky is the limit for the two mega brands.