Over in Epcot, right by the Fountain of Nations in Future World, there’s an attraction called
Club Cool.
That’s a very loose application of the word attraction by the way, because Club Cool is
essentially a little Coca-Cola sponsored Coca-Cola store.
However beyond just buying drinks and merch, Club Cool also offers free testing stations
where guests can sample select Coca-Cola products from around the world.
Like most soda, the bulk of the offerings have various sweet tastes, ranging from pineapple
to mango to melon.
Then there’s Beverly.
It's not as bad as I- oh my gosh!
Why does the Beverly soda taste so bad?
Is it an Italian thing?
Do they just like awful soda over there?
Where did it come from?
Where is it now?
Why do die-hard Disney World fans love, or love to hate, Beverly?
Part of the answer is actually spelled out for us right at Club Cool.
It’s not a matter of Americans just having a different palette, it’s admittedly a bitter
drink on purpose.
The description posted above the Beverly soda fountain reads “Beverly, with its bitter
flavor, is a popular non-alcoholic aperitif that is a traditional part of Italian refreshment culture."
The key word there is aperitif, because that alone changes the way a drink like Beverly
is meant to be consumed.
Many cultures around the world have a lengthy history of treating digestive ailments with
bitter herbs.
It dates back as far as the middle ages, potentially ever further.
To make them easier to consume, a lot of those bitter herbs would be mixed with alcohol,
and the the resulting concoction eventually went by the name of… well… bitters.
Over the years these bitters eventually evolved from a medicinal treatment to a preventative measure.
That is where the aperitif comes in.
Most popular in France and Italy, the aperitif is a bitter cocktail that’s consumed shortly
before a meal as a way of aiding the digestive process and preventing future issues such
as indigestion.
On top that the bitter taste supposedly helps in preparing your palette for the food you’re about to enjoy
So with that in mind, the aperitif was not consumed in large quantities nor was it quickly consumed.
It was a modest cocktail you’d casually have before dinner, and it was most of time,
an alcoholic beverage.
However in 1969 at the Fiera di Milano, or Milan Fair, Coca-Cola would introduce a non-alcoholic
aperitif to the Italian market, and it was called Beverly.
Bottled in Monza, Italy, Beverly was advertised to be “cold as Helsinki, sparkling as Rio”
and “dry as El Paso”
It was originally sold in small 3 and 6 ounce bottles, which was fitting considering it
was intended to be enjoyed as an aperitif.
And while it was originally a darker drink, very visually similar to Coca-Cola, the company
would eventually introduce a clear version in 1978.
Considering its purpose and taste, and considering we don’t typically partake in aperitifs
here, the drink was never brought over to the United States beyond the fun marketing gimmick.
It was introduced to the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, and in 1998 a Coca-Cola sponsored
attraction called Ice Station Cool, later Club Cool, would open in Future World.
It would offer Americans a free taste of various sodas from around the world, including Beverly.
And while it didn’t happen right away, the popularization of vlogging combined with Beverly
being this unexpected and unpleasant experience for many, lead to a cult following around
the practice of getting your unaware friends and family to try the drinks so that you could
capture their reaction on camera.
It would eventually become popular enough that the Coca-Cola Rooftop Bar in Disney Springs
would offer a mixed drink called Beverly’s Revenge, which features the soda along with
gin and blood orange liqueur.
Today there are even fan made t-shirts for the soda.
As for Beverly, the drink was eventually discontinued in 2009 and the only real explanation offered
by Coca-Cola was that it was a part of “ongoing product consolidation”.
Personally that sounds like PR speak for “it stopped selling well enough”.
I couldn’t find any Beverly or even Italian specific figures, but I did find that Coca-Cola’s
European market as a whole experienced a nearly half billion dollar drop in revenue that year,
so perhaps that played a part in the decision to end the production.
Or perhaps the competition was too much for a market too small.
By that point both Campari and San Pellegrino, two major Italian aperitif brands, had their
own non-alcoholic offerings as well, and while here in the United States Coca-Cola is one
of the most popular brands ever, soda consumption is much lower over in Italy, meaning it wouldn’t
be as easy of a market for Coca-Cola to dominate.
So today our, uh, enjoyment of Beverly is limited to these taste test stations at various
spots across the country.
If you find yourself in Epcot, and you wander into Club Cool and you decide to give Beverly
a shot, remember, it wasn’t the kind of soft drink enjoyed like this.
It was enjoyed like this.
I still think it tastes nasty like this, but at least now we know that people in Italy
weren’t downing the stuff 20 ounces at a time.