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Pepsi plans to make saying goodbye to 2020 "even sweeter" by releasing a hot cocoa-flavored soda. Yes, you read that correctly. "> Pepsi posted a tweet on Dec. 17 announcing its newest product: Pepsi "Cocoa" Cola, which seemed to be a slight jab at its major beverage competitor, Coca Cola.

Concern about the political effects of a deeply unpopular county pop tax — on top of recent state and city tax increases — on Thursday hung over the first day of Cook County Democrats' endorsement session for next year's primary election. Northwest Side Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th, said he expects some backlash against the pop tax "down the road in the election next year." People complaining to him about the tax "are blaming the Democrats," he said, adding that the income tax increase would compound the problem. Democrats last month overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a state income tax...

Full Title: A new tax on sugary drinks designed to generate revenue for cash-strapped Cook County will be the third burdensome tax applied to soda prices in Chicago, making a $4 12-pack of soda in the city cost $5.97. Beginning July 1, residents of Cook County may notice their grocery bills growing as a penny-per-ounce tax on artificially sweetened beverages takes effect.The new tax will be added on top of Chicago’s highest in the nation sales tax of 10.25 percent and the city’s 3 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages. With the new sugary beverage tax, soda in Chicago will be...

If you like your Coke Zero exactly the way it is now, it might be time to start stockpiling it. On Wednesday, Coca-Cola announced plans to stop selling Coke Zero in the US in August, replacing it with a beverage with a different recipe, design, and name: Coke Zero Sugar. "It is a reinvention of Coke Zero," CEO James Quincey said in a call with investors.

Diet soda is getting more bad publicity. PepsiCo said this week that its latest quarter was boosted by “guilt-free” products such as diet soda and bottled water, as consumers move away from sugary drinks, but more research is casting a pall over artificially-sweetened beverages too. Artificially sweetened beverages may be linked to an increased risk of stroke and dementia, according to a recent study by the American Heart Association’s peer-reviewed journal Stroke. The researchers looked at 2,888 people over the age of 45 (with a median age of 62) for stroke risks and 1,484 people over the age of 60...

Soda giants Coca Cola Co., PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group are getting together to urge Americans to stop drinking so many sugary drinks.. The beverage companies announced a new initiative Tuesday to reduce by 20% the number of beverage calories consumed per person in the U.S. by 2025.

Coca-Cola is launching its first new drink in eight years: Coca-Cola Life. Sporting a green label, the new drink is said to contain a third less calories and sugar, according to the Daily Mail. It will be sweetened with sugar and stevia leaf extract and will only have 89 calories. Despite the reduction of sugar and the green label (because adding a green label means it’s natural), Coca-Cola Life will still contain 25 percent of the amount of sugar a person should consume in one day in just one can. Coca-Cola said this new drink is part of an initiative...

NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola is taking on obesity, this time with an online video showing how fun it could be to burn off the 140 calories in a can of its soda. In the ad, the world's biggest beverage maker asks what would happen if people paid for a can of Coke by first working off the calories it contained. The ad, which notes that it typically takes 23 minutes of cycling to achieve that, shows a montage of people on a giant stationary bicycle happily trying to earn a can of its cola, with carnival music playing in...

We know Coca-Cola and Pepsi are profitable soft-drink giants, but one of these two companies is significantly better than the other at keeping customers loyal and engaged with the brand. Although the soda industry is made up of dozens upon dozens of beverages choices, chances are good that the soda you last consumed was made by either Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) or PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which absolutely dominate the industry.

Yes, I realize that the ultimate goal is for the Coca-Cola Company to sell as many cans of dark, fizzy, flavored water as it can (I get that), but I found this ad for Coke quite touching and inspiring nevertheless. Bringing India & Pakistan Together With a Coke

‘Million Big Gulp March’ Takes Aim At Bloomberg’s Proposed Big Drink Ban July 9, 2012 11:14 AM NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A rally will be held Monday against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on super-sized sugary drinks. About 1,000 protesters chanting “Drink Free Or Die” are expected to take part in the “Million Big Gulp March” in City Hall Park at 4:30 p.m. Monday. Business owners, local politicians and others against the proposed ban are all expected to take part, according to NYC Liberty HQ spokesman Zach Huff. “The ‘Million Big Gulp March’ is about more than just the size...

Score one for the Coca-Cola Company. Diet Coke unseated Pepsi as the second most popular carbonated soft drink in 2010, according to data from Beverage Digest. -snip- The switch marks a sea change in the industry. According to John Sicher, the editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, Pepsi has held the second position "for decades." Sicher attributed the decline in Pepsi's market share to its Pepsi Refresh Project marketing campaign, which is focused on community service.

U.S. sales of Diet Coke overtook those of Pepsi-Cola for the first time in 2010, making the diet soda the No. 2 carbonated soft drink in the country behind Coca-Cola, industry data are expected to confirm Thursday. Occupying the top two rankings would mark a historic win for Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO - News) in its decades-old rivalry with PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP - News), which has seen its market share slip in recent years and is trying to retool its marketing.

A local church switched from Pepsi products to Coca-Cola, but it's not because they don't like the taste of the product. The Bell Shoals Baptist church in Brandon got rid of the products as part of the American Family Association's boycott.

(IsraelNN.com) Extremist Moslems have not dropped their allegations that Pepsi Cola is essentially the code name for a Zionist plot. MEMRI has released an English transcript of an address given by a Muslim religious leader in Egypt this past February, in which he explains that PEPSI is actually an acronym for "Pay Every Penny to Save Israel."

............This year also brings some new introductions, graphics and packaging innovations from PepsiCo, for which the company has high expectations. In CSD flavors, PBV will add Mountain Dew Voltage, which was the winning flavor in the brand’s Dewmocracy campaign. In the middle of April, PBV also will begin distributing Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, which features those brands formulated with sugar. For the flagship PepsiCo brands, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist, PBV also is beginning to distribute the brands featuring their new redesigned graphics and packaging, which is part of a holistic campaign aimed at drawing...

Latest ad from Pesico: "Dear Mr. President." Dare I say, click on this link & hit "Play." http://www.refresheverything.com/?or=yahooomg

NEW YORK (AP) -- Neither "New" nor "Classic," Coke is simply itself again. Two decades after adding the designation, the Coca-Cola Co. is removing the word "Classic" from its prominent location on the flagship cola sold in the U.S., a company spokesman said Friday. "The reason for being, for classic as a descriptor, has all but disappeared," spokesman Scott Williamson said. The "Classic" tagline -- right under the script Coca-Cola logo -- was added in 1985, when the company introduced a formula that consumers called "New Coke." New Coke never caught on and was sold sparingly until it was dropped...

Iranian authorities demand local soft drink firm to provide explanation for connection with global Coca Cola Company on background of Tehran's boycott of all companies with 'Zionist' ties Following the announcement of a boycott of all companies with "Zionist" connections, Iranian authorities are asking for some answers from a local soft drink company. According to Iranian reports, Minister of Industry and Mines Ali Akbar Mehragian summoned the directors of Iranian company Khoshgovar for a hearing in order to get a better grasp on the nature of their relationship with the American Coca Cola Company. Beirut's Ministry for Energy and Water...

Pepsi, Coke rivalry becomes physical Fri Oct 12, 9:46 PM ET The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said. The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the...