I love my coke here in Australia, and a few years ago Coke Zero came out promising 'Tastes just like regular coke!'. Tasted nothing at all like it.
Similarly, the cola wars never made sense here - Coke tasted far superior to Pepsi, how could there even be a competition?
Then I visited the US and only had access to the corn-syrup coke, which I'd never had before, as we have our own sugar industry. Tasted much more like Coke Zero - it seems we'd just imported the US advertising slogan there. And the cola wars made much more sense... well... not in themselves, just that they could have happened.
> "Coke tasted far superior to Pepsi, how could there even be a competition?"
Actually, double-blind taste tests was reputedly in favor of Pepsi. Pepsi, for a long time, used this in their marketing, and Coke confirmed the results for themselves, which was the main driving force behind the creation of the disastrously failed New Coke.
It would seem that the tasted of Coke is affected as much by its branding as by its recipe!
> It would seem that the tasted of Coke is affected as much by its branding as by its recipe!
There was an interesting experiment where some researchers put subjects inside an MRI machine, and then fed them two samples of cola. Sometimes both drinks were anonymous, and sometimes the drink was labelled as Pepsi or Coca-Cola, while the other was anonymous but actually the same drink. When the drinks were anonymous, people seemed to like both equally, but when told what the drinks were, people tended to prefer Coca-Cola over the anonymous drunk. Even more interestingly, when people were told they were drinking Coca-Cola, extra bits of their brain lit up, specifically memory and cognitive control, which suggests that when you think you're drinking Coca-Cola, it's not just the immediate sensation of drinking the coke that affects how much you enjoy it, but also the effect of all of that marketing that makes your brain think "Mmmm, Coca-Cola is delicious!"
From what I recall of the presentations at the Coke HQ/Museum in Atlanta, there's more to the memories than marketing. It also has to do with the association of the beverage to the pleasurable experiences where you've drank it. This explains why e.g. Pepsi fought hard to be the official beverage of the NFL, so that people can associate being at a football game with drinking Pepsi.
Pepsi tastes better than Coke on a single sip because it's sweeter, but the preference among consumers gets murkier if you have to drink a whole can of the stuff. And even moreso if you want to have two cans.
Sweeter == better to have a taste. Not necessarily to have larger quantities though.
The Pepsi corporation ownes some fast food chains in the US, so you're not going to find Coca-Cola at a Taco Bell for example. Aside from that, I've never really had trouble finding Coca-Cola in any kind of restaurant. Then again, I don't usually look.
I think coke and pepsi try for exclusive arrangements at every dispensary. That means most restaurants prefer a discount from say pepsi for exclusivity, than to offer both with reduced profits.
Interestingly my personal taste-testing anecdote in this thread started because I stated that I could distinguish between American Coke and Mexican Coke (given that one is corn syrup and one is cane sugar) which led to the challenge to even be able to identify Coke over Pepsi.
Might still be, that one wouldn't be able to distinguish corn syrup Coke from corn syrup Pepsi. And similar for a comparison between the sugared versions.
Similarly, the cola wars never made sense here - Coke tasted far superior to Pepsi, how could there even be a competition?
Then I visited the US and only had access to the corn-syrup coke, which I'd never had before, as we have our own sugar industry. Tasted much more like Coke Zero - it seems we'd just imported the US advertising slogan there. And the cola wars made much more sense... well... not in themselves, just that they could have happened.