Here’s our guide to the upstart colas made to resist the yoke of Yankee imperialism.
Kofola
Country of Origin Czechoslovakia
Has the drink outlasted the country? Yes (though technically ‘Czechoslovakia’ exists as a holding company to avoid awkwardness over the two countries’ shared embassy in London).
Similarity to Coke 6/10
Tasting notes Herbal, mechanical. Like Jägermeister for cars.
I remember my first sip of Kofola: it’s not, so I learnt later from fellow enthusiasts, something you forget. I was nursing a Gobi Desert of a mouth courtesy of a night’s worth of that other great Czech beverage, Pilsner Urquell, and was desperate for a Coke. However, at the small local bar in Brno where I’d staggered to recover, the cupboard of American global drinks capitalism was bare. Instead, I was offered a thick black concoction poured from draught that smelt like burdock and motor oil. It was sublime.
Kofola was created in 1959, as a subdivision of then-communist Czechoslovakia’s scientific establishment tasked with finding a use for the excess caffeine produced by the coffee-roasting process.
It survived the fall of Communism, the Velvet Divorce that split the Czechs and Slovaks, even a dubious advertising campaign which stated ‘If you love it, you have nothing to question’ – which sounds like a hangover from the era of the Secret Police. Kofola is still available all over the two countries- a taste of nostalgia for many and a hangover cure for all.
Cockta
Country of Origin Yugoslavia
Has the drink outlasted the country? Yes.
Closeness to Coke 3/10
Tasting notes Sweet and summery, fruity and herbal. Like if Coke had been invented by Laurie Lee.
On taste alone, Cockta is probably the strangest Coca Cola replacement you’ll ever taste. Like if gummy bears had been soaked in cough medicine, or a Red Bull produced by a kindly Gloucestershire farmer’s wife rather than an insanely branded multinational. It’s one of those drinks where even after several tastings you’re still not quite sure if you like it.
The soda was created as an explicit ideological rival to Coca Cola by scientists of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia.
