My wife and I got away late last month for a vacation to Southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast. I was taking some time off but couldn’t help making a few casual beverage observations.
First, when it comes to carbonated soft drinks, Coca-Cola appears to dominate the region. From the small local market near our Airbnb rental in tiny Conca dei Marini, to the trendy restaurants in mid-size Sorrento, there was always a Coke for sale. We didn’t stumble on a Pepsi until we hit a market in the much larger city of Naples.
While this was no formal survey, the disparity actually makes sense to me, knowing something about Coca-Cola’s and PepsiCo’s global strategies. PepsiCo’s global beverage expansion strategy has historically focused...
I finally tried A.G. Barr’s Irn-Bru during a trip this month to Scotland. The carbonated soft drink is said to outsell even Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in the country. Irn-Bru is dubbed “Scotland’s other national drink,” coming after, of course, Scotch whisky. The soda has its own closely guarded “secret recipe.” At Edinburgh airport, an Irn-Bru branded orange and blue vending machine awaited my arrival — it also contained Coke, Diet Coke, and 7Up.
Irn-Bru’s flavor is hard to describe. I’ll try. While the drink has a medicinal orange color, it doesn’t taste anything like the orangy flavor of a Fanta or a Crush. There are bitter tonic notes owing to the quinine in the formula. Perhaps Irn-Bru would work well as a mixer for gin? I’m not sure of that. Apparently, young Scots...
