Coca-Cola and global economics

[pne]

Just read this in the Wikipiedia article on Coca-Cola:

Coca-Cola Corporation is the world's largest customer of natural vanilla extract. When new Coke was introduced, in 1985, the economy of Madagascar crashed, and only recovered after New Coke flopped. The reason is because New Coke uses vanillin, a less-expensive synthetic substitute, and purchases of vanilla more than halved during this period.

Interesting factoid. Whodathunkit?

Comments

[asciident]

I would've guessed. :) Molly told me that the reason (regular) Coke works so well with vanilla, cherry, and chocolate flavorings is that its flavor profile is based on vanilla. :)

[thedward.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia is wicked cool. I just have to say.

[pne.livejournal.com]

And a serious time sucker.

At least, if you're as fascinated by tidbits of information as I am.

I just wasted pretty much an entire day reading Wikipedia, following links from one place to another.