It’s the real thing

At last I have managed to get my five year old daughter to like Coca Cola. Previously she drank only still water, milk or apple juice. I think she found the fizziness of cola disconcerting – but at last commonsense has prevailed, helped by a little peer pressure from her brothers. Now she loves the drink. Next I shall try her on cream soda, if anyone still makes the stuff. What treats she has in store.

I had a cola the other day, I think a Coca Cola or it may have been Pepsi, either way, the one which comes in that rather cute retro bottle. It struck me again that it is a brilliant product, a work of genius – the flavour. They have tried over the years poncing it up with sutble hints of lemon, lime, or vanilla, or less subtle hints of cherry. And then there is that unspeakably awful diet coke. But by plain bog standard cola by itself – I hate cola as a mixer, although as a kid I drank Malibu and coke – is pretty peerless. So here’s the question: Cola – best artificially created food product of the last 150 years? Heinz Baked Beans would run it close, I suppose – another superb product. I suppose some lumpenprole would say the Big Mac. But over to you – votes for Toast Toppers will be discounted, on grounds of taste.