Years ago, I was a major Diet Coke addict (pretty much drank it instead of water). It was a bad habit of mine that I worked to break, and while I have not had any type of coke in 8+ years, I couldn’t resist visiting the World of Coca-Cola museum when I had some free time Saturday morning during my visit to Atlanta.
I was there at the opening at 9am and I highly recommend visiting at that hour since there were no lines or crowds anywhere.
Since this was during the holiday season, it is decorated with red and white lighted ornaments and other holiday elements at the front of the museum. It would have been really pretty at nighttime.
The cost for the visit was $17 per adult which gave access to all of the exhibits and the tasting room.
Contents
Coca-Cola Museum Artifact Room
When you first walk into the Coca-Cola Museum, you are lead into the Artifact room for a short presentation by a guide showing you the different items around the room. This was actually pretty fascinating. The artifacts were both used domestically and internationally through the years. The presentation was well done and gave you a brief history of Coca-Cola and the advertising used. There is even a 100 year old mixing vessel that was used to make the drinks in the store.
Coca-Cola Bottle Art
Throughout the museum space, there are numerous large bottles that have been turned into works of art. Some of these were used in the Summer Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996 and some have been added later. They were a beautiful addition to the museum and were amazing to walk around and look at.
Diva Brown
Walking around the exhibit on the lower floor was very interesting to see, but my attention was captured by the story of Diva Brown. She claimed to have the formula due to her ex-husband’s share of the Pemberton Medicine Company (which did not include Coca-Cola). She went around and sold an imitation called My Cola which she said was based on the same formula as Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola company and her ex-husband, J.C. Mayfield disputed her assertions.
Olympic Memorabilia
We are obviously fans of the Olympics, and I was very pleased to see the pins and torches from the relay that Coca-Cola participated. You can see pins from the Atlanta games in 1996, Beijing in 2008, and London 2012.
Tasting Room
My favorite part of the museum was the tasting room. You could have unlimited amounts of the available beverages and the room was divided by continent. They had different beverage favorites from North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa
The Tasting Room was amazing there were so many different beverages available in other countries that tasted really good, and there were some that had to be an acquired taste. I really enjoyed Fanta Exotic from Uganda and Bjare Ligonberry from Sweden, but I did not enjoy Beverly from Italy (tasted to me like black licorice).
This was the highlight of the museum and I went back to this room several times during my visit.
4D Movie
Personally, I would skip this if I ever go back. The storyline was poorly written, acting was really juvenile, and the 4D effect just jostled you around rather unpleasantly. If you go after the tasting room, it does not do wonders for your stomach with all of those carbonated drinks in you. Maybe this would be good for kids, but I would skip this.
Overall, this was a nice way to spend a morning in Atlanta, and I would recommend this museum. For more information, visit The World of Coca-Cola museum website.
