Back

The Coca-Cola Paradox | Day 327 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Nov 23, 2023· 3 minutes

The move from the Yucatan peninsula to Querétaro was also a move from a tropical climate, heavy rainfall, humid heat, and air condition to cold nights, bright sun, dry air, and lower temperatures. So we had to head out to buy some blankets to keep us warm at night. One more walk through Querétaro on a nice and cloudy day mostly spent with friends, having conversations, cooking meals, studying, and working. Really, there is not much to say about it.

So, allow me to reflect on something else.

Coca-Cola.

It is an icon. We don’t agree, maybe with the sugar content or the policies (that I honestly know nothing about), yet I must say, I am secretly a fan.

When I was a teenager, my best friend created a Coca-Cola dress punk style, and we talked about the brand's aesthetics. How it decorates, how well created it is, and how the decades of high-end ads have added to the brand, so it is now associated with happiness, beauty, and youth.

When I had cancer, Coca-Cola was my best friend: I downed four anti-nausea pills with half a liter of Coca-Cola every morning. Since then, I can only drink Coca-Cola for medical reasons. It makes me sick, the taste, unless I already feel sick, then it still works its magic.

I am somewhat sorry to admit this.

But why, really? What is it?

Something in the groups I move is pointing the finger at Coca-Cola as if it were the devil, and it is “the right thing” to be “against Coca-Cola.”

Now, I have done my katharsis of Christmas - saying out loud I hate the whole fuss - I will do the opposite with Coca-Cola and say I find it fascinating and that it has saved me several times.

Here in Mexico, I observe two things.

One is it seems to me they drink A LOT of it. It is everywhere. Whereas the food is traditional and sold on all corners, the drink appears to be mostly soft drink, and I wonder if that is the reason for the obesity I also observe on a large scale. I have no statistics, but it does SEEM to me as if there is more Coca-Cola here than in Europe.

The second thing is the retro. Coca-Cola is still sold in glass bottles, moved in old boxes on old trucks, as it was done when I was a child. I love the sight of it, and to be honest, it is the right way to do it. Why is single-use plastic still the main way of selling beverages everywhere? It seems insane.

On top of it all, it seems at least in Querétaro, they embrace the love for CocaCola, cherishing retro CocaCola items, and I loved to see this, take pictures of it, and think about it.

Maybe I should even take it so far as to have a cold Coca-Cola from a good old glass bottle on a sunny afternoon.

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

See more images on Facebook

What does it mean to be happy? Often, we don’t stop to understand it while it is ongoing; we trot along and live, only to realize how much we had the…Read more
Two hours of planning and negotiations of who was coming and who was not finally got us out walking. Not far, and not all of us, as some are down wit…Read more
Life is this. The moving around. The people we move for. Reaching out to the opportunities, taking what is, and appreciating all the big and little g…Read more
I scored eight out of ten on the travel score sheet of my son-in-law, as I had brought a knife in the packed lunch - the knife took my two last point…Read more
Goodbye, Mexico City. That was fun! And exhausting. We want to come back, but we are also eager to leave. It is intense to visit the huge cities. Read more
The central story of this day is the earthquake. Thank God we have no pictures. Because there was nothing to take photos of. Except for a lot of peop…Read more
It is nice to sometimes just have a practical day. We needed papers to travel with the dogs, so Silke and I walked to the local vet; smiling, profess…Read more
The classic pilgrimage to the main art museum, the cathedral, the central square, and the Aztec ruins took us through a rich array of experiences. Th…Read more
I just wanted to include more images from the same day. The streets with their shiny buildings contrasting the little cargo-bike-food stalls, the arc…Read more