Once a year, Coca-Cola releases bottles with yellow caps, and there’s an important reason behind the move.
Coca-Cola bottles with a yellow cap are set to return to shelves across stores everywhere. Act fast though, as this will only be for a limited time.
But why were the iconic soft drink’s bottles sporting a different colored cap than usual?
Well, a year on from yellow Coke caps making headlines and setting off a flurry of excitement, it’s time for a look back a bit further to find out why.
Coca-Cola’s history helps explain the yellow caps
Founded in May 1886, Coca-Cola has long been one of the most instantly recognizable brands in consumer history. Like the golden arches of McDonald’s, Coke is everywhere and has been everywhere for decades.
But despite the product’s jaw dropping popularity for the last 120 years or so, the world’s favorite soda has undergone some notable changes in its time.
In fact, one such seismic change occurred in the 1980s. Roughly 100 years after Coke had debuted on the shelves of grocery stores.
Originally marketed as a ‘temperance drink’ by John Pemberton after prohibition legislation had been passed in United States in 1886, Coca-Cola was developed as a non-alcoholic version of Pemberton’s French Wine Coca.
The first Coca-Colas were sold at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, for five cents per glass.
Due to the belief at the time that carbonated water was good for your health, Pemberton advertised and sold Coke as a patent medicine. It was claimed by its inventor to cure many diseases, such as morphine addiction, indigestion, nerve disorders, and even impotence.
Presumably, it also kept dentists at the time in an absolute fortune.
People had some big reactions after discovering the yellow caps
You would think changing the color of some bottle caps wouldn’t be much of a news story. But, as it turns out, Coca-Cola generated a fair amount of headlines with the switch last year.
Those customers in the know about the cap color change rushed to stores to stock up. Or they told others to do so before it was too late.
But these were not just soda fanatics looking to stockpile collector’s items. There is a serious reason as to why the yellow caps are treated with such reverence.
And it has to do with the ingredients within them.
You see, up until the 1980s, Coca-Cola was made using real cane sugar. But then the company decided to change it out for corn syrup, and it has remained that way ever since.
Now, ordinarily, if you were to want to quench your thirst with a Coca-Cola choc full of real cane sugar, you’d have to either go to Mexico or import some in from south of the border, given that Mexicans still take their Coke with real cane sugar.
However, around this time of year, the real cane sugar Coke becomes more widely available outside of Mexico. For a very good reason.
The yellow tops are only available for a limited time
As it happens, corn syrup is not allowed to be consumed during Passover. That is if you’re Kosher Jewish. So, in other words, if you see a Cola bottle adorned with a yellow cap, that means you’ve got yourself a real cane sugar edition right there, without the need to pay all the extra tax on it like you do importing from Mexico.
Kevin Escalera (@snackeatingsnackss) on Instagram shared a video detailing the Passover phenomenon.
“They do this during a very short time a year around Passover because interestingly, Kosher Jewish people can’t have corn during the Passover time. So Coke makes a special real sugar edition just like the Mexican Coke version that you know and love that you pay extra for,” Escalera explains in his video.
A Reddit thread on the meaning behind the caps also gained a lot of traction, generating tons of replies when the question was posed as to what the differently colored caps represented.
“It’s true. Corn syrup isn’t kosher,” one Redditor commented. “Is in very limited supply and usually targeted to big box stores in areas with larger Jewish populations.”
With Passover lasting eight days, those who partake are restricted to much more limited diets than usual.
With the real cane sugar Coca-Cola being in extremely limited supply and only for a short period of time, Kosher Jewish people have pleaded in the past for those of us who aren’t restricted to what we consume to leave their limited supplies alone.
“It’s super limited—let us Jews have like one good thing for Passover!”
Fine, a quick round trip to Oaxaca and back it is, then.
