Fluff time; Coke or Pepsi, and was your choice influenced by anyone?

Coke- family choice growing up.
Older- Dr Pepper -still dark drink fav. to swill.
Now- Sierra Mist,7up, Sprite. Root Beer. – no caffeines.

I don’t like either, they taste sickeningly sweet to me.

None of them. I’d much rather have a drink of water.

Anything. They are all soft drinks and taste the same to me.

Definitely Coke, and I was influenced only by my tastebuds. Pepsi always tasted chemical-ly to me. I loved the “bite” and sweetness of Coke. I almost never drink sodas anymore but I when I do, it’s always either Coke or Dr. Pepper.

I must add that Coke tastes different and not as good to me now as it did in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

I think my folks bought both kinds, along with many other brands so that really did not influence my choice which, when younger, was RC Cola.

These days I usually drink Coke Zero if I have one.

My wife is one of those who cannot tell Coke from Diet Coke but to me most diet sodas have either a powdery taste or are sickly sweet.

I sort of fell into Coke because that’s what they sold at the bowling alley and the baseball stadium. Where I grew up in the 60s, Coke was pretty prevalent. Yes, you could get Pepsi and RC Cola, and some smaller competitors, but by and large Coke had my part of Ohio sewn up.

I’m still a Coke drinker today. Pepsi (my opinion) is bitter.

When it came to cola, I didn’t much care what was handed me. I much preferred root beer, ginger ale or one of the fruit flavors (orange, grape, strawberry).

I’ve been a cola drinker all my life. I remember drinking both when I was a kid, back before they substituted HFC for sugar. By the time Coke introduced “New Coke” (about 1985), my preference had been Coke, probably from having lived in the South for some time. I didn’t like the new version at all, so I switched to RC. My wife’s a Coke drinker, so it’s been Coke for about 30 years. We don’t drink it very much any more, and when we do, it’s usually the hecho in Mexico version

I come from a family of Cocaholics. I’ve been told my mom used to put a little in my bottle at times for a treat. I married my husband, because on our first date we both ordered Coke with no ice.

When I was young we weren’t allowed to go to Burger King, because they had a Pepsi contract. We always went to McDonald’s. To this day I don’t know what to order at Burger King; I need to stare at the menu the once in a blue moon I’m there to figure out what I want.

Back in the day the marketing and availability of Pepsi and Coke were more specific, more channeled to certain markets. Pepsi actively went after the African-American market, and is credited with having one of the first black sales teams. At the time they were criticized by the choice by many people, now they are heralded for it. Pepsi also seemed to target a lower socio-economic market than Coke, but I would say now that’s all gone away. They both market to everyone, but the cola you were raised on probably was affected somewhat by this marketing if you are over 40.

My husband actually worked for Pepsi for a while, I wasn’t sure if our household could handle it. Lol. He liked working for them. It was a really good company.

Oh, and remember New Coke? Really really upsetting time in my family.

My husband is Mexican, I’ll have to ask him if they had Pepsi growing up where he lived. He drank Coke and Sidral. Also, in terms of groups, I don’t think I have ever met a Jewish person who grew up drinking Pepsi. They must exist. You would think with Pepsi being in NY that Jewish people would have been drinking it.

Now that I think more about there was a political aspect to this.

My grandparents, who were ardent Zionists, noted that Coke sold to Israel. Pepsi didn’t, because of the Arab countries boycott – the Arabs wouldn’t buy from a company that did business with Israel (back in the late 60s and 70s. Things have changed).

So in addition to taste, my grandparents preferred Coke because of the politics.

@elbanditoroso Oh, right. I don’t know how I forgot about the Israel connection. It’s like why Jews bought Chrysler, they felt Ford was a Nazi sympathizer.

I rotate from Coke and Pepsi and Root Beer and Dr. Pepper.

Coke. Harder bite. Less sweet.