Lesson # 50 : The battle of the Cokes

So the story goes thus sitting in a group of about 10 people my mind wandered off to the age old question of why the fountain coke tasted much better than a bottled or a canned coke? Then I started to think of another question at the same time. In a country like India compared to the time of local restaurants serving fountain coke or pepsi today a majority of the food and retail chains offer bottled coke. And that brought me to think of another pertinent question as to whether McDonald's which happens to not only have the largest fast food retail chain network in the country has perfected a recipe for global world dominance. A few seconds later I realized I may have gone too far. But as I walked past Domino's, Pizza hut and other chains I realized it just may be too crazy to be right.

So I thought of writing this article more out of amusement and because well honestly I haven't posted on The Blog in a long time. 

Let's start out with a history of the soda fountain.The term soda water was first coined in the year 1798 while the first Soda fountain was invented by Simon and Rundell of Charleston in South Carolina in the year 1810. The revolution and evolution of the soda fountain came in the year 1903 when Doctor Heisinger patented the front service fountain.

Having touched on the history aspect there's an old quote

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

The whole concept of the soda fountain arrived from tradition this can be verified from the fact that the soda fountain was actually an attempt to replicate the mineral waters that bubbled from the earth. So the question is firstly is there a difference in taste?

Yes there is and while there isn't any research that I could find to back this there were however evidences for the same. 

The reason for a difference in taste of a fountain soda and a bottled coke is something like this. In a bottled or a canned coke the syrup and Carbon-dioxide are mixed in a fixed proportion. Whereas for fountain soda each establishment that has a fountain soda can alter the amount of syrup and carbon-dioxide that enters the coke hence not all fountain cokes will taste the same. 

Moreover, ice mixed with fountain coke creates a separate taste as it dilutes the syrup in most cases. 

So that being done let's look at it from an economic perspective. Is the hight cost of a fountain coke justified? 

Put simply it's difficult to judge so let's do a relative comparison.

Criteria	Fountain	Bottle	Can
Volume	249 ml	600 ml	330 ml
Price	55	30	25
Price per ml	0.22	0.05	0.07
Premium Paid	340%	-	40%

Once I completed the table I stood up walked to my kitchen drank a glass of coke. It tasted better now. 

So to conclude

Taste will be relative and you cannot say whether fountain is better or bottled coke or canned coke. It's a matter of perspective and each individuals perspective shall vary.

Also, it is without doubt that I can say that out of the three assuming you are receiving a common product it is highly stupid to consume fountain coke.

Happy Drinking

On behalf of Doodle inc

(Udit Raj Sabharwal)