Coca-Cola is the world's best-known brand, and perhaps the most quintessentially American one: a beverage with no nutritional value, sold variously as a remedy, a tonic and a refreshment. The story of Coca-Cola is also a tale of carbonisation, soda fountain shops, dynastic bottling businesses, and ultimately, globalisation and billion-dollar promotional campaigns. New York Times reporter Constance L. Hays examines the 119-year history of Coke - a story of opportunity, hope, teamwork and love as well as salesmanship, hubris, ambition and greed. There is an entirely new chapter for this paperback edition, covering the recent Dasani debacle and events since the hardback published in February 2004.
