On the road to Panama City Day 1
- Jul 22
- 4 min read
My sisters and my nieces came to pick me up in Atlanta after my conference. In the photo from left to right: Helena Grace, Monica, Jennifer and Isabella. I insisted that we all take a photo in front of the FIFA World Cup Trophy, even though I was not able to see one of the games in Atlanta. I am lucky to have such great sisters because I would never have thought to go to the Coka-Cola museum. Of course I'll never say no to an adventure, so after our photo we walked on over.
It is hard to tell what the museum is going to be like from the outside so I'll give you a rundown before I show you all the fun things we did inside. The Atlanta museum was relocated, in 2007, to 121 Baker Street in Atlanta. Why is this cool??? Because it is just blocks away from where John Pemberton created the original Coca-Cola formula. This is something that a lot of the museum is dedicated to.
In the first picture, my sisters and Helena Grace are trying to pop bubbles. It was the first room that we went into, and a super cute game. Of course, I immediately wanted to design my own beverage. You can see what ingredients I chose, and then what they said was the closest thing they had on tap to what I made. You all know that I eat everything literally, not metaphorically, but I have to say that the coke creations in this room were really disgusting. They were either wildly sweetly or incredibly bland. You can also see me in front of a timeline of the history of the Coca-Cola beverages. Of course, I made Jennifer take a picture of me with the New Coke from 1985. You know, I had to photograph this because who in god's name, is standing at the top of the mountain and re-does their formula. A lot of kids today have no idea that the reason that Pepsi actually made inroads is because of this psychotic mistake. The even more magical thing is that around the corner there was a soda machine that actually serves the New Coke recipe. Just to let you know it tastes a heck of a lot like Pepsi, which means I hate it. Yucky sweet.
One of the first interactive things we got to do was design our own coke bottle. I guess I was channeling my sister-in-law Liz, because I chose the penguin. Then, as you can see in the video, they put it up on a large screen for everyone to see. You can also notice that the background is what I lovingly call nuclear silo, green and is one of my favorite colors.
After making our personalized Coke bottles, we stood in line to be part of the World Cup. Of course, it's all AI, but I had an incredibly fun time pretending to be part of the crowd. Again, Atlanta really embraced being part of this world event. Look at the 6th Corgi posing like a rock star!
If you go back to the beginning of the Coca-Cola post you'll notice that I told you there was an entire section on where Coca-Cola was originally created. These cute old time photos are from the original drugstore, where it was created, and sold. In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist Dr. John Pemberton first developed Coca-Cola syrup as a medicinal "brain tonic". It was originally marketed and treated for ailments like headaches, fatigue, nausea, and nerve disorders. It was also promoted as a treatment for morphine addiction, acting as a non-narcotic painkiller substitute. My gosh, should we bring it back into rotation? I mean, we are still looking for great ways to get people off morphine and other amphetamines 😀 The museum did not cover this information but I figured my readers might be interested: The original Coca-Cola recipe contained roughly 9 milligrams of cocaine per glass. Cocaine was completely removed from the formula by 1929, and the drink moved from pharmacies to the mass market through aggressive marketing, coupon sampling, and a nationwide bottling system. Many people tried to copy, steal or forge the recipe, but there is only one Coca-Cola!
Bella made one request on the whole visit. She said, “Please make sure we see the Coke Polar Bear!” So I had to do some research to learn about the iconic Coca-Cola Polar Bear. It made its debut in a 1922 French print ad, let me tell you I would NEVER have guessed that it was part of the Coke brand so early in its history. Then it made more sense because, it wasn't until the 1993 "Always Coca-Cola" television campaign that the animated bear you’ll see in our photos became a global phenomenon. It was created by Ken Stewart, who was inspired by his Labrador Retriever. He then penned the famous "Northern Lights" ad which featured the now infamous bears silently sipping Coke while watching the aurora borealis. The lovable bears quickly became a massive hit, and Coca-Cola leaned heavily into this success and secured their position as an iconic holiday staple on every table. I say they learned from their 1985 mistake…. When you have a winner, stick with it.
On our way out there was the global market of Coke products. I tried ALL of them, and this was a feat because there are more than 100 on rotation at any time. When we visited there were two in particular that were seasonal. In China they have a line called Nongfu Spring sparkling water aka fruit-flavored sodas, often called the "Coca-Cola of China". I found it WAY to sweet and skipped on to the Cucumber flavored Sprite. This one, unfortunately was boring but I did find 3 varietals that I loved!!! My favorite was the one from Italy. It tasted like an Apéritif. I could imagine sitting at an Italian cafe sipping this and watching the world go by. My second favorite is The Indonesian Honey Tea. It was not very sweet but full of tea flavor. Lastly I enjoyed the Tanzanian Ginger Beer. Mike and I are working to get Sassafras on property so that we can make soda from scratch. After stuffing ourselves with soda we left for our National Park adventure.
-- We stopped for the night out-side Macan Georgia. --
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