When was the ten billionth gallon of Coke syrup made?

Answer 1

Hard to say, as consumption has increased steadily over the last decade. But, here is what we DO know: In 1944, the billionth gallon of Coke syrup was made. In 1953, the second billionth, in 1959 the third billionth, in 1963, the fourth billionth, in 1966, the fifth billionth, in 1969, the sixth billionth, in 1971, the seventh billionth. Coke is now bottled in about one hundred and fifty countries in addition to the United States. If all the Coca-Cola ever produced were in 6.5-ounce bottles and placed end to end, they would wrap around the Earth more than 11,863 times. In 1985, Coke was the first soft drink known to be drunk in outer space. If all the regular-size bottles of Coca-Cola ever produced were placed end to end, they would stretch all the way from Mercury, past Venus, Earth, and Mars, to Jupiter. The Multinational Monitor has named Coca-Cola - "the Atlanta-based junk drink pusher, with its world-wide domination of the industry and relentless marketing" - as among the ten worst corporations of 1998. It quotes then-president, Couglas Ivester: "This year, even as we sell one billion servings of our products daily, the world still consumes forty seven billion servings of other bererages every day . We're just getting started." Alas for Mr. Ivester and the shareholders of Coca-Cola! With over four hundred billion cups consumed every year, coffee is still the world's most popular beverage. (Interestingly, Japan's best-selling noncarbonated beverage is a coffee-flavored drink called Georgia, a Coca-Cola product.) Coke buys its ways into school and universities, giving money for favorite programs - generally high profile sports like football - in return for a guaranteed sales monopoly. Mike West, in The Progressive , reports that most such exclusivity deals, such as those signed with large state universities like the University of Minnesota, are brokered by a company called CUM Laude. Its vice president commented: "We don't in fact approach a univeristy with any charitable intent. We're a for-profit corporation." Coke describes "our mission" on its Website: "We exist to create value for our share owners on a long-term basis by building a business that enhances the Coca-Cola company's trademarks. This is also our ultimate commitment." (Hey! What about taste, quality, value??? What about us????) [...] Experiment : raise a few generations on Coke and see if they develop osteoporosis, especially since women, spared the likelihood of early death during childbirth or from illness, are living much longer. It is a question whether Diet Coke (and Pepsi), with the substitution of non-nutritive sugar replacements, is an advance over the sugar-laden version; the artificial sweeteners have themselves been accused of negative health effects. The Coca-Cola hotline informs you "If all the Coca-Cola ever produed were to erupt from the geyser Old Faithful at its normal rate of 15,000 gallons per hour, there would be enough Coca-Cola to flow continuously for 1577 years, from AD 423 to the year 2000." [...] Caffeine is that most unromantic alkaloid distillate from the coffee. Coca-Cola may now be the very symbol of American hegemony in the global market-place, but coffee, as we have seen, is closely associated with the history of European intellectual ferment and indeed with the history of the Europeanization of Europe. Coffee is the engine which powers the populace, gooses the brain, makes intellectuals thin like angels or demons - perhaps the shadow double to cocaine, after all. Coffee, drink of civilization, has powered offices and factories of the West since the labor force was persuaded to substitute a stimulant for a depressanet - alcohol - on the job. Coffee, sugar, and milk, the staples of a plebeian life. Cows, the hallmark of settled life since the Neolithic revolution, are naturalized everywhere. But coffee and sugar, and a few other crops, represent the tranformation of the world. Coffee, like sugar, is the transplantation of Arabia to the new colonies. their histories are linked irrevocably, as mentioned above, to the bloody traffic of bodies, to the importation and exploitation of slaves in the "New World," which thenceforth became the primary locale of world coffee production.