
White Coke - annapowellsmith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Coke
======
pud
Pepsi made a clear cola in the early 90's called Crystal Pepsi:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Pepsi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Pepsi)

Here's an old pic of me drinking it. (and eating a turkey leg).

[http://i.imgur.com/T1rZc39.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/T1rZc39.jpg)

~~~
unimpressive
What camera was that photo taken with? The quality is really good. (For the
early nineties) Is it a scan of a film camera?

~~~
ygra
The dust and other spots imply a scan of a developed photo (not the negative,
as the dust would be dark there, not bright).

And I'm amazed that people are amazed by photo quality from two decades ago.
The resolution of standard 35-mm film was fairly hard to achieve in consumer
digital cameras until recently (or maybe it still is, but I guess DSLRs have
gone consumer enough by now).

~~~
logicallee
Yep. Historians are gonna find low-res digial camera pics extremely puzzling,
as the quality of photography in their archives goes up and up and up from the
invention of photography - then completely plummets when people start using
digital comaeras - then plummets to even worse than black and white
photography from a hundred years ago, when it comes to shitty phone or web
cams that happen to capture something interesting, then slowly climbs up
again.

~~~
sneak
Historians likely won't, as the fragility of our media and our near-
ubiquituous use of disk encryption will likely result in almost all of our
modern data being either unreadable or unusable.

~~~
6d0debc071
Encryption, maybe. But I wouldn't count on fragile media remaining beyond the
next 20 years. Some crystal based storage mediums have silly things done to
them, like being heated to 1,000 degrees for two hours, to demonstrate their
durability.

~~~
selter01
What is fragile media?

~~~
6d0debc071
Well, by reasonable context anything you can't leave lying around for a couple
of decades and expect to work, or stick in a reasonably constant environment
and expect to be around in a hundred years. HDDs, optical discs - that sort of
thing, I'd consider to tend to be fairly fragile.

Anything that wouldn't be accessible to historians in the same sense that
photographic stuff is basically.

~~~
wmil
Color film degrades fairly quickly. It won't last 100 years unless it's
constantly climate controlled.

------
chewxy
You can make your own white/clear Coca Cola too! I play with my food a lot and
have experimented with this.

All you need is an old/used Brita filter and a beverage carbonator (or if
you're like me, you have some sort of multigas siphon).

1\. Pour Coke into Brita jug (with filter in place) 2\. Retrieve colourless
solution, and then recarbonate.

It tastes like Coke but is colourless. I had also messed with other variants
that require fancier filtration (special carbon filters for example) and
centrifuging, but the Brita filter has pretty good results.

~~~
quackerhacker
Makes me wonder what Brita is actually filtering out.

~~~
tehwalrus
OK, I learned this in A level (high school) chemistry, but I can't seem to
find a wikipedia article about it.

They use clay beads, which are an aluminium mesh with H and OH groups weakly
bonded to it (a weak ionic bond like this is called a "Ligand bond"[1]).

Firstly, it filters out bacteria and "bits" because of the porosity of the
mesh (works like pushing current through a complicated network).

However, additionally it filters out non-H-or-OH ions from the water, which
have a stronger Ligand bond with the Al mesh. (Obviously you eventually run
out of H and OH ions in the network, as they're all replaced, which is when
you need to change your filter.)

As such, we used clay-filtered tap water as 'distilled' water in all our
experiments, because the worst it contains is bacteria and dissolved salts. I
can't speak for the Coca Cola though, that's weird. I'm sure organic molecules
would be small enough to get between the beads but too heavy/not ionic enough
to bond to the mesh, or something.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligand)

~~~
brittohalloran
The standard Brita pitcher filter is a mix of granular activated carbon (from
coconuts), and the ion exchange resin you talk about.

~~~
tehwalrus
Thanks, I didn't know that! What does the activated carbon do?

~~~
nine_k
It's chemically inert, but has a very fine porous structure (thus
'activated'), so it works as a mechanical filter that adsorbs anything large
enough, like bacteria and even very large molecules.

~~~
oasisbob
_It 's chemically inert [...] so it works as a mechanical filter that adsorbs
[...]_

Because adsorption is a consequence of surface energy and weak bonding, I
believe it's considered to be a chemical process, not a mechanical one.

~~~
nine_k
Right, the distinction is fine here.

Adsorption is due to weak bonds that form between molecules of a surface and a
fluid. AFAIK this bond is not a 'new' chemical bond since it does not break /
replace existing chemical bonds in both the adsorbed molecule and surface
molecules.

Rather, in the case of carbon at least, the 'bonds' are the van der Waals
forces.

------
davidw
This anecdote is mentioned in this book: (
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002STNBRK/?tag=dedasys-20](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002STNBRK/?tag=dedasys-20)
) which is an interesting look at world history via popular drinks: beer,
wine, distilled alcohol, tea, coffee and coca cola. None of it is probably all
that new in terms of the history portions, but it's an interesting and novel
way of looking at things and makes for pleasant reading.

~~~
TezzellEnt
And without the referral link:
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002STNBRK](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002STNBRK)

~~~
davidw
God forbid I should get a few cents for recommending a good book to a
community I participate in.

~~~
TezzellEnt
While ycombinator does not have a policy of posting affiliate/referral links
(that I know of), usually forums explicitly forbid this practice.

On the forums that do allow it, typical etiquette is to notify the reader of a
posted referral link, and also give them the choice of a non-affiliate link -
and then let them decide.

~~~
davidw
Here, we're capitalists - we believe in startups, and are not philosophically
opposed to making money.

If someone is spamming this site with referral links, they should be dealt
with harshly and kicked out. Otherwise, if you don't like a book
recommendation you can downvote. I don't post books I don't think are
interesting, and only where appropriate - a few cents are not worth it to me
to appear coming across as a shill. But I do enjoy receiving a bit of money to
reinvest in more books.

~~~
saraid216
> Here, we're capitalists - we believe in startups, and are not
> philosophically opposed to making money.

You're conflating a bunch of disparate ideas with this sentence. HN is not a
forum for making you money. That is not its purpose. You are being asked to
not use it for that purpose. Taking offense at such a request is, in my
opinion, a fairly black mark against your sincerity.

~~~
n09n
>HN is not a forum for making you money. That is not its purpose.

So? People advertise their startups and even hire employees here all the time.

~~~
DanBC
Those are transparent. People are expected to declare their interests.

HN hides long urls, thus it's possible for the referral part to be hidden,
meaning people might not be aware of the referral link.

Asking people to declare a referral link doesn't seem to be that onerous.

~~~
davidw
Sometimes I mention that they are referral links. Today I was in a hurry, and
it's pretty evident that it is a referral link, as it does not appear
shortened. Basically, why should anyone care what it is unless the person
posting them is overdoing it?

~~~
DanBC
I don't get the impression that anyone is accusing you of something as bad as
kicking puppies or punching nuns. It's just a bit nicer if you explicitly
declare referral links every time you use them.

I'm surprised that someone who has been online for as long as you have is not
aware of the antipathy there is towards referral links. Some people really
don't like them.

~~~
davidw
> I'm surprised that someone who has been online for as long as you have is
> not aware of the antipathy there is towards referral links. Some people
> really don't like them.

Online, some people really don't like a lot of things! Pretty much anything
out there has its detractors. I know they don't like referral links, but I
think in the context of a community like this one where it's easy to check on
the activity of others, it's a silly attitude, and I won't hesitate to say so.

------
snowwrestler
"One, Two, Three" is an hilarious comedy about the establishment of Coca Cola
bottling plants in Europe--specifically in Western Germany, where of course
hijinks ensue with East Germans.

The daughter of the Coke CEO visits, falls in love with, and marries a young
"true believer" East German communist. When the CEO comes for a visit, they
have to turn the communist into a proper American capitalist in 2 days.

~~~
notahacker
"Good By Lenin" is another fine comedy in which a son trying to maintain the
illusion the Berlin Wall hasn't fallen for the sake of his dying mother
creates fake TV broadcasts announcing the Coca Cola billboards appearing
everywhere are a celebration of Coca Cola's socialist, East German origins.

~~~
colkassad
This is one of my favorite foreign films.

------
jhull
I bet it's these types of missions that Presidents really love. It's not the
obvious stuff that is asked of (one of) the most powerful people in the world,
like declaring war or making executive orders or living in the White house.
It's the slightly quirkier stuff, like brokering a clear version of Coke. I
bet Truman loved this. It's like working at a company doing the same thing
everyday, but being most excited for this little side project you have going
on.

~~~
sailfast
In addition, you have to think that by even receiving this request we had an
inkling early on that we were winning many more cultural battles in the cold
war than the USSR. Pretty great article.

------
lifeisstillgood
Near perfect HN fodder - intellectual curiosity satisfied, just enough food-
tech for a perfect top comment and a little bit of politics to garnish

My hat is tipped to annapowellsmith and of course all Wikipedians.

------
hkmurakami
Totally expected to see an article about a white form of carbon (which would
have been fascinating!) but this is a decent second option!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_%28fuel%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_%28fuel%29)

~~~
VLM
I was expecting an article for the youth pretending they don't know about the
"new coke" debacle and/or possibly a new product "white coke" being released
as a repeat of "new coke".

Personally I'd rather have the choice to buy HFCS free soft drinks rather than
carmel-4 free soft drinks. Completely sweetener free, both natural and
artificial, would be a unique experience, probably taste much like tea.

~~~
fusiongyro
Both Mexican Coke and kosher-for-passover Coke are made with sugar instead of
HFCS. If you're in America, one of the two is probably available near you.

~~~
vxNsr
The kosher-for-passover stuff is only available in the weeks leading up to
passover, and I've only really seen it in areas where there are large Orthodox
communities.

I do have some friends who will stockpile it for a year so that they don't
have o drink the 'swill' that the rest of us enjoy.

~~~
fusiongyro
I live in NM and it's one of the few KfP products I can get fairly easily. The
folks around here are so incompetent at Jewish matters they tend to either
have nothing or stock KfP stuff year round. No significant Orthodox community
in the state.

------
weavie
Only in Russia do you disguise your coke as vodka to look respectable.

------
roel_v
Is this just an interesting tidbit about the history of a popular drink, or a
subtle anecdote about how under socialism all animals are equal, some just
more than others?

~~~
hackerboos
Don't make the mistake of many on Hacker News thinking that the Soviet Union
was a socialist society.

~~~
mseebach
Yes, of course, if an experiment gets the wrong result, you declare the
experiment faulty and try again. You should never let your ideas become
polluted by empirical evidence.

~~~
steveklabnik
Especially given that Marxism is a science, and has undergone major changes as
things are learned. Hence "Marxism" vs. "Marxism-Leninism" vs. "Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism."

Edison: "I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000
ways to NOT make a light bulb."

~~~
mseebach
If Edison had killed even a millionth as many people failing to invent the
light bulb as socialists did failing to invent socialism, I suspect he would
have stopped trying.

~~~
steveklabnik
Capitalism has also killed millions of people. Feudalism has killed millions
of people. Mercantilism has killed millions of people.

~~~
moheeb
Did someone just finish a game of Civ?

------
kayoone
Ignoring the special circumstances its funny how drinking vodka in public was
more acceptable than coke. Gotta love the russians...

~~~
rfctr
This is the typical BS.

[Edit] Are you expecting Zhukov, the top Russian commander, to drink vodka
where it is not appropriate?

I couldn't stop be amused at how much Westerners' image of the world is
distorted.

~~~
dfc
It is always interesting to see how people from other cultures view my
culture. I am afraid that your english grammar is getting in the way of your
comment.

Did you mean to point out that "drinking vodka in public is always
appropriate" or that "anytime the top soviet commander drank vodka it was a
public event"? Or something else entirely?

~~~
rfctr
[Edit] Updated it for better clarity. Sorry for imperfect English.

~~~
dfc
No need to be a dick, I was genuinely interested in your opinion and trying to
be helpful. But if you want to go down that road it is worth pointing out that
you did not update it just for me; you updated it for anyone accustomed to
well formed english sentences.

~~~
rfctr
Sorry, got upset as I usually get when I hear "Russians did something we do
not fully understand. Simple: vodka must be involved!".

Zhukov couldn't drink Coke when others drink vodka. For one thing, vodka is
not consumed from individual bottles; the same bottle is shared. Second, it is
considered impolite to drink and do not offer it to the guest.

Zhukov may have had an idea of introducing Coke as a popular drink, but Stalin
wouldn't allow it. Stalin knew that colour is not important; essence (and
origin) is.

~~~
kayoone
It seems you havent really read the wikipedia article which clearly states
"Zhukov liked it and asked for its color to resemble vodka so that he would
not be seen drinking Coca-Cola in public"

Thats the only reason why i brought ip up..okay the Wikipedia entry might be
inaccurate, but am i to judge that ?

------
jlgreco
The article doesn't seem quite clear on this: did they simply remove the
coloring, or did they add something to the drink that would break down/bind to
the coloring molecules and render them colorless? I'm not really sure why you
would need a chemist to do the first.

~~~
nodata
> The article doesn't seem quite clear on this: did they simply remove the
> coloring..

"Zarubica found a chemist who could remove the coloring from the beverage,
thereby granting Marshal Zhukov's wish."

~~~
jlgreco
But why would they need a chemist to tell them how to simply not add color?

~~~
edias
I think you're answering your own question here. Coke without coloring isn't
completely clear, so they hired a chemist to mask whatever natural color coke
has. At least that's the impression I got from that sentence.

------
philwelch
Zhukov wasn't the only communist with a taste for Coca-Cola:
[http://m.taringa.net/post/info/El_Che_y_la_Coca_cola-4575995...](http://m.taringa.net/post/info/El_Che_y_la_Coca_cola-4575995.htm)

(Disclaimer: I speak zero Spanish so I have no idea what that article says. I
just like the photo.)

~~~
mseebach
I Google-translated the article, and it seems to talk about the many Coke
bottles in Cuba post-revolution being re-cycled to contain a local drink, the
name of which I wasn't quite able to pick out of the translation, but which
wasn't "Coke".

~~~
mdpye
_El nuevo producto, que se llama refresco de cola_

It was just called "cola drink", you could translate it as "cola tonic". I
guess it makes sense that it wasn't particularly branded.

------
scotty79
Funny how the wiki mentions all the names of stupid politicians/soldiers,
Managers down to a "technical supervisor" but it credits the guy that actually
made white coke as "a chemist".

F##k historians.

------
zalew
related:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta#History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta#History)

~~~
RRRA
I was to post the same thing! So yeah, unethical business as usual, way to go
(not) :/

------
t0
Is there any actual evidence this actually existed, such as a picture?

~~~
richforrester
I could be way off here, but I could've sworn I've worked for a supermarket
that, apart from blue Pepsi, at some point sold white Coca Cola. This was in
either the 90's or early 2000 though.

And again, perhaps it's my memory playing tricks on me.

~~~
mlebel
Crystal Pepsi?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Pepsi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Pepsi)

~~~
richforrester
That might've been it :] Cheers!

------
Trufa
While this is pretty interesting/amusing I don't see how it has anything to do
with HN, maybe
[http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/](http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/)

~~~
finnw
It passes the "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" test for me.

------
squozzer
Hey, what can one say? Amerika uber alles in the consumer product department.

In other news, McDonald's is setting up shop in Vietnam. Now we can REALLY
declare victory and go home.

------
lucastheisen
I love how it was more acceptable for your general to be drinking vodka by the
glass full than it would have been to drink the "American Imperialist" drink.

------
moomin
White Coke: Made for Reds.

------
justincormack
Mark Pendergast's book For God, Country, and Coca-Cola linked in the
references covers this and more and is a good read. It also has the recipe for
Coke in the back and the story of how he found it.

------
swamp40
I've never seen a Hacker News thread get so off track...

------
sp332
Old joke: During the Cold War, the Russians paint the moon red. An American
general immediately sends up a team with white paint... to add a Coca-Cola
logo.

------
grumpusbumpus
I am baffled and amused that this is a top story on HN.

------
billpg
Vodka is white? I thought it was transparent.

(I've only ever seen the drink on TV, so I really don't know.)

~~~
panacea
'White coke' was transparent coke. 'Black' coke is transparent too (hold it up
to the light).

You've never seen vodka in person?

~~~
billpg
Its a cultural thing I guess. I don't drink alcohol, but I hang about with
people who do. I don't recall my friends ever drinking vodka.

I'm a little bothered by this use of the word "white" for something colour-
less. If you tell me that a liquid is "white", I'm going to think it would
look like a glass of milk before I think of a glass of water.

I read "White coke" and I thought of a carbonated milky looking drink.

~~~
dfc
In that case "white people" and/or "black people" must drive you nuts.

~~~
billpg
What would drive me nuts was if 'The Invisible Man' was instead called 'The
White Man'.

------
sodafountan
God if you had an original unopened bottle of that it would be worth a
fortune.

------
cehlen
This is why I love Hacker News!

------
ck2
Because mixing in a little milk to make it look like coffee would have been
too efficient and inexpensive.

~~~
dreen
Lol. Have you ever tried mixing coke and milk?

I saw it happen once. My friend ordered a white russian (vodka and milk) for
our other friend and a black russian (vodka with coke) for himself - the
bartender was pretty drunk and he mixed the two together, forming a greyish
foaming abomination of a drink. My mate left it in the middle of the pub and
noone even touched it.

~~~
yardie
> a black russian (vodka with coke)

The barman doesn't know what the fuck they are doing and I used to work
amongst functionally drunk barmen. A black russian is vodka, coffee liquor
(like Kahlua) and milk (optional). Even if he wasn't drunk what he gave your
friend was shit.

~~~
adlpz
To be specific: a black russian is a white russian without the milk.

