Therefore, it makes perfect sense for the soft drink manufacturer to return to its roots in the pharmacy. Coca-Cola is thinking about brewing up some medicinal concoctions that come straight out of a Chinese pharmacopoeia.
From Atlanta to Beijing, the maker of fizzy drinks has traveled in search of the next big thing that will give it a leg up on the competition. Coke is working in tandem with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to incorporate traditional medicines into beverages that the public will clamor for. The Beijing center develops the formula, and the folks at Coke are charged with making the vile brews taste good. No easy task, that.
China has a stake in the program, as they look for ways to regularize the herbal dosages and whip up easy to use powders, thereby saving the consumer hours of time in weighing, mixing and steeping. Coca-Cola would like to increase market share in a country where sugary sweet drinks aren't all that popular, but traditional medicines are all the rage.
Coca-Cola plans to open a research center in Shanghai to develop these new brews that will appeal to the Chinese. Piggybacking on western interest in herbal and holistic cures, they could then introduce some of the drinks to Europe and the US, where a waiting market exists.
There was a time when Coca-Cola was dispensed in small doses at a drug store soda fountain, and advertised as a health drink. With the introduction of new herbal gargles, the firm is returning to its roots in the pharmacy and betting that now, as then, people are keen to swallow anything.
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