Coca-Cola’s global drinks sales are up by 5% in value, with sparkling driving strong growth with values already up 3% for the year, making the segment the highest-value drinks category.
Inside the company’s KO Lab research facility, senior scientist Aaron Woody and research and development scientist Michael Burdett explain the variations of the brand across the globe, as well as why certain products don’t make the cut in other markets.
New launches
New launches, such as Coca-Cola Plus Coffee, which is being trialled in other markets but could be set for a UK appearance, are developed and tested at the KO Lab before going into the market.
As a business, Coca-Cola owns more than 500 brands, but just 20 of those generate $1bn of sales a year.
Those brands include Coca-Cola Classic, Zero Sugar and Diet Coke, but there are a lot more Coke brands out there many will be unfamiliar with.
These include functional products developed for Asian markets including Sprite with Fibre or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Cinnamon for the US market.
Newer brands seen in the KO Lab include:
- Coca-Cola Lemon and Vitamins
- Coca-Cola Clear with Lemon
- Coca-Cola Georgia Peach
- Coca-Cola California Raspberry
- Coca-Cola Frozen (in a pouch)
- Diet Coke Lime
- Diet Coke Cherry
- Diet Coke Zesty Blood Orange
- Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Plus Fibre
- Zero Sugar Ginger
- Zero Sugar Cinnamon
- Sprite Fibre
- Sprite Cranberry
Many of the flavoured variants will have differing taste profiles in the country they are marketed in, however, the Coca-Cola Classic recipe is the same in every territory, said the research team.
“Some of the more obscure drinks will be ones we have created with Japan, particularly Coca-Cola Clear with Lemon, which was strange,” said Burdett.
“It doesn’t taste exactly like Coca-Cola because when we started removing things they changed [the flavour profile].
“But it wasn’t meant to taste exactly like Coca-Cola anyway, as it was a special production.”
Asia
- Vegita Beta from Japan is a carrot-flavoured ‘functional’ drink
- Fanta Melon Frosty is a melon variant of Fanta produced for Thailand
- Frestea with honey is a cold tea and honey drink made for the Indonesian market
- Minute Maid Joy apple and lychee is a juice drink made for Korea
- Thums Up is an Indian Cola
- Smart Watermelon is a watermelon-flavoured soda in China
- Sprite Ice is a mint variant of the fizzy drink sold in Korea
- Fanta Apple Kiwi is exactly what is says on the label and made for Thailand
Africa
- Bibo is a soda made for the South African market, Candy Pine-Nut is a combination of pineapple and coconut. DJ Kiwi Mango is also a variant in the market
- Sunfill Blackcurrant and Menthe are two variants of soda, respectively for the Mauritius and Djibouti markets
- Sparletta is made for the Zimbabwe market and comes in a range of flavours including Sparberry and Cherry Plum
- Bonbon Anglais, a sweet and syrupy lemon soft drink, is made for the Madagascar market
- Stoney Ginger Beer is a ginger beer for the Tanzania market
- Exotic is a variant of Fanta flavoured with various fruits
North America
- Barrilitos Pear Cucumber
- Minute Maid Fruit Punch
- Minute Maid Light Pomegranate Lemonade
- XXX acai-blueberry-pomegranate Vitamin Water
- Barq’s Root Beer
- Barq’s Cream Soda
- Tab – the first diet cola
- Fanta Blue Raspberry
- Fanta Grape
- Fanta Wild Cherry
- Powerade Mountain Beery blast
- Hi-C Poppin’ Lemonade – a super-tangy lemonade
- Blue Sky Orange Mango – a flavoured soda
- Sprite Zero
- Mello Yello – a citrus sparkling drink
Latin America
- Fuze Tea peach – a peach-flavoured ice tea for the Venezuela market
- Delaware Punch is a grape drink for the Honduras market
- Country Club Merengue soda is a range of flavoured sparkling soft drinks for Dominican Republic
- Kuat Guarana is sparkling guarana-flavoured soda for the Brazilian market
- Seagram’s Ginger Ale is a part of a range of softs and mixers, similar to Schweppes, and available across America
- Fanta Kolita, Costa Rica
- Inca Kola, Peru
- Manana Lift is an apple soda made for the Chilean market
