Raised in Illinois, adult life in Texas, I drink Coke with pizza and with chile; also with popcorn at a movie. I think that is because Coke was served with those foods in my childhood.

I don't drink Coke and other carbonated drinks. But some of you are way off base if you think all those people drinking cokes with meals in Europe are Americans.
I've seen tons of business people out for lunch drinking cokes with their meals in London, Paris, Madrid, Rome -- well, just about everywhere. Cokes with meals are very popular with many, many Europeans.

I recently sort of laughed when I saw a group of five French women probably in their thirties at a nice brasserie in Paris, all drinking coke with their lunch, while celebrating a birthday. In fact most or all of them had at least 3 cokes. We laughed at the time because we guessed their coke bill may have been as high as their food bill. These were locals, no question about it. Two of them kept looking at their watches and were clearly headed back to work, leaving money for the others to pay as they were obviously late.

>>I drink Coke with pizza....<

Whoa there, missypie, that's a pretty brave confession from someone who just got raked over the coals for eating in one of those ghastly chain places.

I admire your spunk!

>>>>
I recently sort of laughed when I saw a group of five French women probably in their thirties at a nice brasserie in Paris, all drinking coke with their lunch, while celebrating a birthday.
>>>>>

why would this cause laughter? the french aren't that exotic.

also, the higher people are on the ladder the more "international" their habits (and dress) often become...especially young people who often have spent time making money and building careers in america, asia or other parts of europe.

Audere:

"Nil satis nisi optimum": Typical Southerner stereotyping. Scouse left-footers support LFC and Tranmere, too, you know.

I bet you're the sort who sings "You'll never work again" every time our lads brave the wilds of N19 to try and teach you how to play.

walkinaround, you should have finished reading my post. It was the idea that they each drank at least 3 of them that made me "sort of laugh" as I said, we thought their coke bill may have equalled their food bill. That's all.
Gee, I've seen so many French drinking cokes with meals, I didn't mean to imply just seeing one drinking a coke would cause laughter.

yes neo...i misunderstood. perhaps i was thrown off by the importance that you placed on the women being locals. but now i realise what you meant.

Who knows, maybe it was lunch time and she didn't want to drink wine until the evening. If it was me, I'd take the wine instead of coke. ha ha. Hubby though would definitely have a diet coke - he's a cokeaholic.

Hi, I didn't read the entire thread, but another idea occurred to me. When I first started to travel, I didn't "get" that items from home were imports there. I'd just look for familiar brands out of habit. Maybe something like Crest toothpaste really is that expensive??? Just a thought--which can be dangerous, I know :)

walkinaround, LOL. I understand how my post may have confused you.

I must admit that these days with so many posters constantly challenging what anyone says, it's getting harder and harder to post without going into too much detail. I was already aware that if I simply said five women. . . that someone would immediately want to know how I knew they weren't American, hence the drawn out details to explain how I knew that. And after a couple of scathing attacks on another thread today, we must seemingly be hesitant to speak about any unusual behavior we see when we travel as that means we are "enjoying" and "humiliating" other people. In fact if I had said these five girls were Chinese or something else, then my post would have been immediately labeled racist. But I guess talking about 5 French girls drinking coke is OK?

I drink Coke with meals...I don't drink wine (just a handful of times in my whole life !) and in very few occasions beer. But I think Coke is not as sweet here as in the States, not sure about that though.

kenderina, don't know where you're from, but you're probably right. In Italy, I actually drank Fanta Orange and found it refreshing...I wouldn't touch the syrupy stuff here in the US.

I'm from Spain, missypie :)

I returned last week from a trip to France and Italy. My son was with me, and even in the nicer restaurants, we never paid more than 4 Euros for a Coke, and even bought Cokes for 2 Euros in the grocery stores. You can find decent meals in most restaurants at a reasonable price, but expect to pay more if you eat or drink in the touristy areas.

>drank Fanta Orange
Don't worry, Fanta is a genuine german soft drink, nothing american in it, European by nature ;-). It was invented during the Nazi aera, when they wouldn't supply any more coke syrup from Atlanta. The inventor said on TV "It's called Fanta, because you need a lot of phantasy to believe it's made with real oranges ..." True story!

>>>>
Fanta is a genuine german soft drink, nothing american in it, European by nature
>>>>

not sure if your statement is supposed to be irony but fanta is a coca-cola product, no?

I love Fanta limon -- as good as a high quality limonata as far as I'm concerned and so cheap. If they sold this in the U.S. I'd definitely buy it but like others have said, I generally avoid Fanta in the states...

That's the point, it was "invented" by coca cola Germany (by german employees) when all the american companies where socialized and state property in Nazi Germany. Because of the lack of coke syrup they had to sell something else, so Fanta was invented. After the war the coca cola company got the the rights back and sold it all over the world.

True story! it's a genuine European soft drink.

Yes, Fanta is right now a brand name of the Coca Cola company, but it's not their invention, they bought it :)

CocaCola in Italy (bottled still in Germany I believe) is made with with sugar rather than the high fructose corn syrup that is used for the CocaCola that is made in the US. That is the difference in taste. I am terribly allergic to corn so only have CocaCola in Italy. I hope they haven't changed the receipe.

I don't drink coffee with a meal. I even have my coffee before breakfast.
And when I have a coke it is not with a meal, just by itself. All what one is use to I would imagine. But I don't see why everyone can't order drinks when the want it..what difference does it make to anyone else?

Love Italy-Did you know that before Passover Coca Cola makes a sugar-sweetened Coke (rather than corn syrup sweetened)that is Kosher?

Interesting about the Coke. Where do you buy it?

I have to admit that on my first trip to Italy, my dad talked me into eating lunch in the square right by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The lunch was a set price (in lire, then). There were no menus, it was just posted at the door. When we got the bill, my Sprite was the same price as the meal. I believe it came to about $6 for each. Dad's drink (wine, I think) was slightly less. We learned never to eat on the main drag next to a major tourist destination. For about $12 we learned a valuable lesson.

Hello massagediva, yes I do know that CocaCola produces CocaCola with sugar versus corn before Passover. I spent so much time trying to see if I could find this CocaCola in my area (the Sacramento Valley) to no avail. Our Nuggets store (which has a lot of unusual products) tried to get this Coke for me but they called me and said it was not possible to.

I would so love to know where I could buy the "made for Passover" CocaCola, I would buy so much of it and store it. Although I am not one to drink soda's every day having one a couple of times a week would be so wonderful. Do you have any idea where I could order the sugar "Passover CocaCola". Thank you.

5Alive, I do not know if your questions was directed to massagediva or me. When I am in Italy my friends buy the bottles of CocaCola and they all have them in their homes as they know what a treat they are for me.

When I am at cafes/restaurants etc. I have espresso, Campari, wine, limoncello, grappa etc

Could someone supply some of us Philistines with a little religious information about the reason for this product?

During Passover, Jews are not allowed to eat or benefit from wheat, oats, rye, spelt and barley. However, many Jews (especially those with eastern European background) extend this prohibitions to other grains/legumes such as corn, rice, beans etc. Hence the reason we have special Kosher for Passover Coke.

It also depends on whether one is Northern European (Ashkenazic) or Southern (Sepharidic).

In general, the Ashkenazi are not allowed corn, but the Sephardim are. It depends on what was available at the time the rules were developed.

Then, of course, there are rules for Jewish people from Asia....

((I))

Re the cost of things,

Some while back, my Lady Wife and I met for a short weekend at a hotel in Philadelphia, where I was giving a paper.

They had a pleasant lounge with a piano player.

We had 3 small sandwiches, 1 glass of beer, 1 glass of wine.

The tab was about $80 at today's prices.

((I))

Some FANTA urban myths destroyed:

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/fanta.asp

Loveitaly-hmmm,sounds like a mission.I know the grocery stores here in the Jewish communities of Baltimore stock it.Maybe you could call your regional bottler?Buona fortuna!

>Some FANTA urban myths destroyed
Well explained. The guy was on TV a few years ago and told his story. Was quite impressive!

Well, as it says in that article the idea of running out of Coke syrup and having to improvise is sort of close. But the idea that the name Fanta had to do with "fantasizing it was made with real oranges" doesn't hold water since orange wasn't even an original flavor! And it wasn't really an existing company that Coke bought. It had been a coke company before and basically was handed back to them after the war.

>"fantasizing it was made with real oranges" doesn't hold water
It actually does, because I heared the guy who invented it, saying these words! No doubt about it, prime source ;-)

OK, but if I invented a drink that tasted like mild ginger ale and someone said "Let's call it Fanta because you have to fantasize about it tasting like oranges", I'd have that person locked up. Why on earth would anyone say that? Fanta orange was developed long after the name Fanta was started for the coke replacement!

It was war, there were no oranges, and people wanted them... This is german sarcasm/"humor"...

I don't know if logos is saying she is trying to be funny by making that story up or the inventor was just trying to be funny or sarcastic by making the story up about oranges, if that is really what he said.

There is a logical story about the name on the CocaCola website or somewhere like that, and it just says it was short for the word fantasy or fantasie because the owner told his employees to let their fantasy run wild in thinking up a name. It doesn't say anything about oranges and I don't believe that story because it doesn't make sense. The official German Coca Cola company's website discusses Fanta and Max Keith and doesn't say that either, although I don't read German as well. But it doesn't say that about oranges.

It would make more sense if the idea was to fantasize that you were really drinking Coke, not Fanta, as that is what it was supposed to be a substitute for.

on Coca Cola GmbH: <<Durch Rohstoff-Verknappung ist die kontinuierliche Produktion von Coca-Cola in Deutschland nicht mehr langfristig gewährleistet. Als "Ersatzprodukt" entwickelt man ein neues Getränk auf Molkebasis. Als Namen wählt Max Keith, Geschäftsführer der Coca-Cola GmbH in Essen, einen "fantastischen" aus: FANTA. >>

> it doesn't make sense.
You can deny the facts, or make up any stories. What I wrote is a fact. Period. thanks for listening ;-)

From Wikipedia:
The name 'Fanta' came during an employee contest to christen the new beverage. Keith told them to let their Fantasie [Geman for fantasy] run wild. On hearing that, salesman Joe Knipp came up with "Fanta."

After World War II, Fanta was introduced to the United States by Coca-Cola, and in 1960 they bought the trademark. Fanta Orange is the most popular Fanta flavor, available in 180 countries. In terms of volume, Brazil is the largest consumer of Fanta in the world. Fanta remains more popular in Europe than in the United States.

Meanwhile: how many of you know that Orangina is of Algerian origin?

I LOVE Orangina! One local store used to stock it, but I guess I didn't buy enough, because they don't carry it any more. You'd think that World Market would sell it!

Just that at the time the only! correct german spelling for fantasy was "Phantasie".

This thread reminds me of the old game, Telephone, where everyone sits in a circle and the first person whispers a word to the second. It proceeds around the room until the last person says the word outloud. Of course, it is an entirely different word from the one they started with!!