Traveling in the former Czech and Slovak Socialist Republic I have again had many opportunities to enjoy Kofola, the CSSR's answer to the Captialist West's Coke and Pepsi. Dark, carbonated, and slightly bitter, Kofola was created by a state-owned pharmaceutical company in an effort to find a use for surplus caffeine produced by coffee roasting facilties. Now it's the most popular soft drink in Slovakia -- ahead of both its American rivals -- and #2 in the Czech Republic.I wrote a piece on the revival of Communist era products -- including Kofola -- in The Christian Science Monitor on my last trip to the former CSSR. Since then I developed a fantasy that, at the height of the Cold War, Czechoslovak agents stole the secrets to Maine's indigenous-ish soft drink, Moxie, one that I shared with Jim Baumer while he was writing Moxietown. After all, they seem to taste the same, and both are best served ice cold.
Photo (c) 2008-9 Colin Woodard.
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Hi Colin,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure whether you posted a comment to our article
http://czechfolks.com/2009/07/11/curiosities-kofola-an-informative-refreshment/
however, it was nice to discover your blog. I can't wait to read more about your experiences from the former CSSR.
Daniela
Thanks, Daniela. Plenty of material coming up from East-Central Europe....
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