Sorry, no pictures.

Spent a week in the American "commonwealth" (the Spanish it literally translated "freely associated state", which is a better description of the political situation) of Puerto Rico.

Some soda related observations:

- The "legal" part of the packages is in English, while the advertising part is in Spanish. Sizes are even in metric, translated in to obtuse US fractions.

- All brands are bottled in PR. Coke is listed as bottled by the "Coca-Cola Puerto Rico Limited Partnership" while Pepsi is the "Puerto Rico Pepsi-Cola Company". I have previously been elsewhere in the Caribbean, and PR bottled products show up all over, with Spanish labeling and offers good only in PR, even in British, Dutch, and French posessions/former posessions.

- Pepsi still bottles 7-UP and Sierra Mist is absent. However both 7UP and Dr Pepper are listed as under the authority of the US rights holder (Dr Pepper-Seven Up of Plano, TX) and not the international rights holders.

- Coke Zero seems to have the same role there relative to Diet Coke as in the mainland.

- All brand of water are local and bear a label that recites its "water bottling permit" (again in English) and local source. Including Dasani and Aquafina. Import waters, such as Fiji, have an extra sticker that reads "Product of (wherever) ".

- The local beer is "Medalla Light" (again a version of mixed English and Spanish, which is very common there) which is far cheeper than mainland brands due to an import tax the local government imposes. Very good product. The apparent deal is the the US big time companies put up with this price discrimination in return for Medalla not trying to come to the 50 states to market to the large Puerto Rican markets on the mainland. It is a very good robust beer, much different from Red Stripe or Carib.

- I took the Bacardi tour. Nice mix of industial tour, anti-communist political commentary, history, and advertizing. At the end we were taken to a bar that was a replica of the one at the original in Santiago de Cuba (with the invitation to visit it on "some wonderful day"). There we were given a short bartending lesson, including a strict lesson that a "rum and cola" was just an imitation and that a "Cuba Libre" was Bacardi and Coke with fresh lime, not Pepsi, not RC, not Wal-Mart, but Coke. Free samples, too.

- Large Coke products were in standard plain 2 litre bottles, but Pepsi had a taller, thinner, bottle I have seen elsewhere in Latin America.

- There were several locally made "malt" non-alcohol beverages, all sold in small brown bottles with traditional crown caps.

Sweet..nice info.

and meh Roman Cokes are easily interchangeable with any cola..they all taste the same going down.

Coca-Cola Puerto Rico Bottlers

PepsiAmericas: Locations: Caribbean

DSCF5467 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Ok, so is it still Coca Cola Classic there, or did they drop that name like they did in Canada?