“White Coke” Specially Produced at the Request of the Soviet General

Coca-Cola about thirty years ago New Coke When he introduced it, he realized a historical event, albeit short-lived, and changed the secret formula he had been using for 99 years.

Forty years before the new Cola got the wrath of customers, Coca-Cola made another major change to its famous product for an important customer. transparent color He produced “White Coke”. This client was an important Soviet general.

Coke was very popular during the Second World War.

According to Mark Pendengrast, author of “For God, Country and Coca-Cola”, the carbonated drink he was the best at raising morale and soldiers on both sides craved for coke. Coke, which was scarce and sold out quickly, had become a luxury drink. So much so that at an auction in Italy $4,000 a bottle had found a buyer. “I saw four high-ranking officers opening a bottle of Coke,” wrote one American soldier, “as if they were opening a 1929 Cordon Rogue bottle.”

Coke is a beverage associated with America. Depending on which side of the war you are on, you can see it as a symbol of sweet democracy or sticky capitalism. Coca-Cola was eager to capture customers from every faction, and when the war was over, it had spread across Europe and the Pacific. There were more than 60 bottling factories. Some of them were behind enemy lines, and it was then that civilians living in these areas were first introduced to this beverage.

One of Coca-Cola’s biggest fans was US General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is responsible not only for the dispatch of American soldiers, but also for introducing Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov to coke. Zhukov was one of the greatest soldiers in Soviet history and he had a great share in the victory over Nazi Germany. According to Pendergrast, this notorious leader “protected Moscow from Hitler’s frenzied soldiers, ended the German resistance at Stalingrad, lifted the siege of Leningrad, and became the leader of the proud Russian advance from Warsaw to Berlin.”

Naturally, it’s quite normal for Zhukov to want something to drink. Eisenhower was the first to give this man a glass of Coke. Zhukov this foreign drink steeped as if drinking vodka, Eisenhower laughed quite a bit as bubbles came out of his nose.

The Russian war hero soon became addicted to Coke, and when the war was over, he wanted more from his American supplier. The drink was banned in the Soviet Union, and Zhukov said that one of his top commanders, whom he had commissioned to rule now Soviet-occupied Germany, symbol of american capitalism He knew he wouldn’t accept it. For this reason, they had some demands from their suppliers. “Don’t make it look like an American product. Don’t put it in that funny bottle.” said Zhukov, and also “Change the color too.” gave his direction.

This request went all the way up to US President Harry Truman. President, Mladin Zarubica, one of the leading names of Coca-Cola Europe, for this job, a cola that looks clear like vodka find a chemist who will do it and remove the artificial coloring of the drink and put it on the bottles. a red star was tasked with putting “The first batch I sent to Zhukov was 50 cases,” Zarubica later said. “White Coke for the Russians. It was our secret, dark secret.”

Zhukov’s white colas were never discovered, but when the general began to be seen as a potential rival to Stalin and fell out of favor, he returned to Zhukov’s home in Moscow. was raided. The raid revealed that Zhukov had collected other war spoils such as gold, jewellery, carpets and paintings that he had looted from Germany.

For its part, Coca-Cola was pleased with its immeasurable growth around the world after the war, but it was only a decade after Zhukov’s death that the iconic American beverage hit Russian shelves. When the calendars show 1985 Americans met white coke, Russians, on the other hand, were able to taste Coke for the first time legally. In 2014, Coca-Cola’s regional distributor shipped more than two billion cases to its 589 million customers living in Russia and surrounding countries, despite being amid restrictions to Russia. Not bad for a market where fifty cases of products were sold to a single customer at one time.