#22 COCA-COLA INTERNATIONAL SALES LIMITED

I probably already know what you're thinking. Coke? Someone gave a Royal Warrant to Coke? Why? I'm reminded of the Britvic controversy over whether something as mundane as a soft drink deserves royal attention. I'm tempted to ignore this one. Still, I don't know much about the British side of this business, and it's possible you don't either. That could be interesting. So let's hear it out. Coca-Cola International Sales Limited holds a Royal Warrant from HM the Queen as Suppliers of Soft Drinks, and it has since 1972.

Coca-Cola has gotten nothing if not negative press in the past few years, due mainly to research linking sugary soda consumption to obesity. This bad press is having more of a profound effect than I realized. In doing some research for this post the other day, I stumbled upon a graph on The Atlantic that illustrated just how sharply sales of soda have fallen in the past decade. In the United States alone, revenue has dropped 40%.

On Coca-Cola UK's website, there seems to be widespread acknowledgement of the health concerns of drinking soda, diet or otherwise. In addition to addressing obesity and diabetes, the website also offers information about bone health, tooth decay, and other potential problems related to drinking soda.

If you're watching your weight and you don't like diet soda, you may be interested to know that I found a nice little loophole on the UK Coke website. Ever calculated your body mass index (BMI) and been less than happy with the results? Maybe you're using the wrong website. I'm a pretty thin 5'10", 130 pounds, which gives me a BMI of 18.7. In the United States, this is an acceptable BMI; you're considered underweight if you dip below 18.5. In the UK? You should be above 20, or at least that's what the BMI calculator on Coke UK's website told me.

"They're letting people be fatter over there!" I told Adam excitedly just now.

"Well..." he replied.

It's a bit cumbersome to use Coke's calculator if you don't know your weight in stone, but you can use an easy Google convertor to figure it out.

If Coca-Cola's looser guidelines for checking your weight haven't convinced you of how thin you are, of how perfectly fine it would be for you to drink their full-calorie soft drinks as part of a healthful diet, you're not alone. Queen Elizabeth's daughter, Princess Anne, apparently gave the stuff up right around the same time the company was granted a Royal Warrant. In a now out-of-print biography of Anne written by Anne Matheson and Reginald Davis and titled Princess Anne: A Royal Girl of Our Time (I know), the authors share that Anne "used to enjoy a refreshing glass of coke but this, along with other foods like sugar and potatoes, she was encouraged to give up."

Before we get any further, I really feel the need to make a confession. To ask out loud a question I've had in my head since I began this blog. Just who is this Princess Anne? Have you ever heard of her before? I didn't even know Queen Elizabeth had a daughter until seven months ago. With all the attention given to the British royal family in this country, that seems so completely impossible that I've been asking around all over the place trying to find someone who knows who she is. The other day one of my co-workers made a reference to the Queen Mother, and I jumped all over it.

"The Queen Mother? That's a pretty specific reference to the royal family. Do you know who Princess Anne is?"

He hesitated. "Princess Anne?"

"Princess Anne."

"She's...the Queen's...sister?"

"No."

"Her aunt?"

"No. Her daughter."

"Wouldn't have thought that."

No one thinks that. In America, people under 40 just simply don't know who this woman is. To get a view of people over 40--people just slightly over 40, of course--I decided to ask my mom about Anne. She had no idea who I was talking about either. Consider also the results of my New York Times query, in which the most recent article about her was from 1992. That’s the year I finished fourth grade.

Anne is actually a pretty big deal in the UK. She makes more visits on behalf of the Crown than any other member of the royal family. She's a great equestrian, as is her daughter Zara Phillips. She’s had her share of media attention too. Her wedding to Mark Phillips in 1973 garnered national and international press, much like Kate and William’s wedding did more recently. (By the way, you have to watch this footage of their wedding. Do it right now). She’s out there in the public eye...but we’re just never hearing about her in the U.S.

I can't argue I have a good explanation for American inattention to Anne, but I think it has a lot to do with the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960. Before his birth and after her mother's coronation, Anne was second in line to the British throne, after her brother Charles. Matheson and Davis refer to Andrew as "the baby who was to change the whole course of her life." At that time, the law dictated the a male heir would trump a female heir, so Anne was off the hook, so to speak. In America it seems we only ever hear news of those directly in line to take over the throne, while the other members of the royal family live way back in the shadows. Maybe that's lucky for them.

Coke's product line strikes me as somewhat similar. When I think about Coca-Cola, I think about Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite, but the global company makes a whole host of healthier drinks, including Dasani bottled water, Honest Tea (that super expensive bottled tea you see at Whole Foods), and Simply Orange (love that stuff!). In the UK specifically they make Powerade and Vitamin Water, in addition to juices like Kia-Ora and 5 Alive. See? Sometimes the good ones are off in the shadows.

Where to Buy: You can find quintessentially British juice brands like 5 Alive on Brit Superstore. Kia-Ora seems much harder to find stateside.