Everything You Need to Know about the Beverly
Recently, I mentioned a prank that you can pull on your friends. You can take them to Epcot and get them to drink one of the nastiest concoctions on Earth. A few of you had questions, and I’m going to answer them today. Here’s everything that you need to know about the Beverly, a liquid brew clearly created in The Bad Place.
What Is the Beverly?
The Coca-Cola Company is in the business of flavored liquids. While you might associate them the most with Coke or – Heaven forfend – Diet Coke, the reality is that many different products fall under the Coke umbrella.
Ranker lists 26 different flavors as part of the main Coke product line. Some of them are delicious; Mexican Coke aka Mexi-Coke is my personal favorite. Some of them taste worse than Pepsi. Honest to God. PEPSI! I’m looking in the general direction of Diet Coke Zesty Blood Orange, which sounds like a method of death in the board game, Clue.
The truth is that The Coca-Cola Company has to switch up its ingredients from time to time to appeal to consumers around the world. Something popular in America like Cherry Coke might seem worse than New Coke in Asia or Europe.
To win over more international customers, Coke the brand has invented many variations of Coke products. One of them is the Beverly, a drink that’s most readily available at Epcot today.
You see, Coke developed the Beverly all the way back in 1969. They wanted to gain inroads in the European market, specifically in Italy, a place where bitter aperitifs are popular. For a long time, people believed that such drinks aided digestion, and so everyone swallowed foul-flavored beverages for this reason.
Photo: HillFamily.net
Where You Can You Try the Beverly?
The Beverly proved successful for many years before waning in popularity at the start of the 21st century. In 2009, Coke stopped mass producing the beverage. Currently, the only other place where you’ll find it is World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
As a Disney fan, you’d rather go to Epcot, though, right? Your destination is Club Cool in Future World, just before the World Showcase. This location gives away free samples of many international Coke flavors.
One of the available Coke products is the Beverly. The company once advertised the beverage as “Cold as Helsinki, sparkling as Rio, dry as El Paso.” What does that mean? Nothing. It’s jargon to hide the fact that everyone who has ever tried the product knows that the Beverly tastes like fat evil.
Believe it or not, Italy loved the Beverly so much that used to manufacture two different versions of it! There were the original Beverly and the Beverly White, the latter of which the country once chose to represent it in a global Coke flavors competition. Yes, some people in history have believed that the Beverly was tasty enough to deserve major awards. People make me sad.
Photo: coca-colacompany.com
Should You Try the Beverly?
I don’t want to turn this conversation into a debate about self-loathing. I like you and sincerely hope that you love yourself. Since I view a sip of the Beverly as cruel and unusual punishment, I certainly wouldn’t recommend that you chug it.
Having said that, the answer is yes. You should try the Beverly once…and only once. You’ll discover a bold flavor, which is to say that you’ll get a single drop on your tongue and suddenly feel like you’ve poured a gallon of acid into your mouth.
Photo: TodaysOrlando.com
According to an old Italian article about the Beverly that I translated into English, the ingredients of this beverage are water, sugar, flavorings, carbon dioxide, citric acid, preservatives, dyes, and sodium benzoate. All I can taste is the citric acid and what seems like 10 times as much sodium benzoate as the drink needed.
Fans of the Beverly suggest that the key is to prepare your mind for the bitterness. Once you get past that, you may appreciate the citrus notes more. Also, even by Coke standards, it has a high sugar ratio, which means that it’s a great drink when you’re feeling low in energy…as long as you can handle the taste.
Photo: Instagram: disneyfoodiesfb
Will Your Friends Forgive You for Tricking Them into Drinking the Beverly?
No. Never. You’ll be dead to them.
Author’s note: I would like to apologize to anyone who actually likes the Beverly. I’d also sincerely suggest to these people that you see a doctor about the dangerous state of your taste buds. Clearly, there’s something wrong with them.
All kidding aside, like what you like, my friends. For me, the Beverly is the only drink that I’d get served in The Bad Place. To those of you who love it, I admire and am a bit jealous of the strength of your palate.
