Friday, 27 May 2005 CDT
Glass bottles for Coca-Cola went from the stylish, ergonomic long neck one-pint bottles to the generic, squat bottles wrapped in a styrofoam or plastic sheath. The glass was very thin, not at all like the thick glass of the long necks. These newer bottles were inelegant and the soda lost its chill quickly. After that came the 20 fl oz. plastic bottles. Plastic corrupts the taste of soda and they don't stay cool, but there was no going back. The bottlers love them.
Then along came the half liter plastic. This really is a good size, close to the original one-pint glass bottle. But then some marketing genius thought a giant 24 fl oz. plastic bottle was a good idea. In fact, it's a wretched idea. The bottles are unstable and the soda loses its chill too quickly. I never buy the 24 fl oz. bottles.
Newly introduced by Coca-Cola is the 12 fl oz. plastic bottle. This is a size that improves on the half liter. Since plastic doesn't hold a chill like the thick glass bottles did, even the half liter tends to get warm before finishing. The 12 fl oz. bottle is a good size. It's not glass, but it is a move in the right direction. Now if we could just eliminate the horror of high fructose corn sweetener and go back to real sugar…
