Hello, friends and first-time readers!
At the end of July, Daniel and I took yet another trip down to Atlanta, Georgia. You’d think we’d have run out of things to do by now, but it amazes me how we find something new every time we visit! On this last trip, we joined with some friends to explore some of Atlanta’s more well-known attractions. This included the Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, and World of Coca-Cola downtown!
I didn’t really know what to expect from World of Coca-Cola going into it, except Daniel had informed me that I could try a bunch of different sodas at the end. That alone had me sold! But World of Coca-Cola had so much more to see and do besides drink.
If you’re thinking about visiting World of Coca-Cola on your next trip to Atlanta but aren’t sure what to expect (or if it’s worth the money), keep reading to learn all about it!
Come with Us to World of Coca-Cola on YouTube!
What is World of Coca-Cola?
My first reaction is to call it a museum, but it’s really so much more than that. Throughout your tour, you’ll learn about Coca-Cola’s history, yes, but you’ll also get to
- watch how your drinks are bottled
- see 125 years worth of memorabilia
- check out art inspired by the classic beverage
- guess popular drink ingredients by scent
- taste flavors of Coca-Cola brand beverages from around the world
- see the vault where the secret formula is stored
- and more!
The tour has both informative and interactive elements, which makes it fun for kids and adults alike. And since it only takes about 90 minutes, it’s a great value without being an overwhelming excursion.
Your World of Coca-Cola tour will take you through 6 zones, each showing you a different side or aspect of the Coca-Cola brand beyond the classic flavor. So to give you a better idea of just what this place is, I’d like to give you a summary of each zone and what you’ll find there!
A Tour of World of Coca-Cola
The Vault
If you go clockwise around the central hall, your first stop will be The Vault. This medium-sized gallery takes you back to the creation of the original Coca-Cola recipe in 1886. It was actually created in an apothecary and quickly became popular.
The secret formula has passed through only a few hands over the years to minimize leaking the recipe to copycats, which began popping up immediately. You’ll learn about the different places the formula has been kept, leading up to its current residence, the vault at the end of the gallery!
A notice about rewards for reporting copycats 
The iconic contoured bottle help to set the real Coca-Cola apart
You’ll also get to try your own formulas at the Virtual Taste Maker and watch yourself dissolve into fizz at the Bubble-izer!
Milestones of Refreshment
The largest gallery at World of Coca-Cola is Milestones of Refreshment. Here, you’ll learn about the history of the Coca-Cola brand, starting with the very first place it was officially served: a soda fountain in Atlanta!
From there, you’ll journey through the brand’s history via artifacts and memorabilia, such as a 1939 delivery truck (painted in the original bright yellow!) and advertisements offering Coca-Cola for the same price as a gallon of gas: 5 cents!
Another fascinating part of this tour is the history of the Coca-Cola bottle. To ward off copycats selling fake drinks and make the bottle easily recognizable even in the dark, Coca-Cola designed its contoured bottle.
Further in, you’ll get to see old ads from dozens of Coca-Cola endorsers through the years and a wall filled with hundreds of Olympic pins. Ever since Coca-Cola became an Olympic sponsor in 1988, they’ve hosted pin trading centers at the Olympic Games. Some of them are incredibly intricate and fit together like puzzle pieces!
This gallery ends with a big display showing the different beverages Coca-Cola has worldwide, including Powerade, Sprite, Fanta, and more!
Bottle Works
The next section brings the Coca-Cola factory straight to you to demonstrate how their products are prepped and bottled. It’s such a fun stop, and it’s fascinating to watch the bottles on their journey from cleaning to final inspections.
Pop Art
The 4th gallery looks at Coca-Cola from a completely different perspective: art! This is the first of 3 upstairs galleries, and although it’s small, it leaves quite the impression.
In this one-room gallery, you’ll see a variety of artistic Coca-Cola works, from company ads to fun packaging to unique creations made with recycled Coca-Cola cans and bottles! There’s even a model room complete with a Coca-Cola-themed couch and decor!
Coke Creations made with recycled Coca-Cola products 
A Coke-themed game room! 
An eye-catching ad
This room also allows you to create your own art at several digital creation stations.
Scent Discovery
The newest addition to World of Coca-Cola is the Scent Discovery “lab.” This room has such a unique concept to it, not to mention it looks so cool!
In this gallery, you’ll visit several stations organized by scent profiles, such as sweet, fruity, and spicy. Under each category, there are clear canisters with a squeeze pump, which puff a burst of scent into the air. Your goal is to guess the origin of that scent, such as ginger or orange. After you take a guess, you can lift a flap to reveal the answer.
As you may know from science class, your sense of taste is linked to your sense of smell. Each pump has a list of drinks that contain that flavor, so if you like the scent, there’s a good chance you’ll also enjoy the taste of those beverages! Pretty cool, right?
Taste It
No trip to an attraction about a beverage company would be complete without trying some of its most popular drinks, right? Luckily, your final stop at World of Coca-Cola is Taste It, a soda-extravaganza!
Now, sadly, this experience is currently downsized (drastically) due to the pandemic. According to Daniel, every station in this gallery used to feature 8 drinks from a different country. Plus, there’s a large Coca-Cola Freestyle alcove where you could mix and match to your heart’s desire.
The Freestyle station is currently roped off, and every Taste It station features the same 8 drinks. However, it’s still quite a flavorful adventure.
When you enter the gallery, you’ll receive a cup of classic Coca-Cola, made with the original recipe from 1886. Then, your party will be directed to one of the taste stations, where you can try 8 different beverages from around the world!
When we visited, the flavors included Vegitabeta from Japan, Bjare Lingonberry from Sweden, Minute Maid Joy Apple Lechee from Korea, Beverly from Italy, Sparletta Sparberry from Zimbabwe, Inca Kola from Peru, Stoney Ginger Beer from Tanzania, and Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica. Each one was unique, and none of them tasted quite like anything I’d had before.
My favorite was probably the Fanta Kolita, which was fruity and sweet. My least favorite was Beverly, which I should have known would be a mouthful because Daniel wanted to film me trying it for the first time! (Watch the YouTube video to see my reaction.) It had a very bitter aftertaste that I didn’t appreciate, but others in our group did.
The Coca-Cola Store
Leave some time to poke around the Coca-Cola Store before you go! It’s very large and has plenty of unique merchandise to check out. Unfortunately, the line can get tremendously long, so don’t forget to factor checkout into your schedule as well.
What do you think? Does this sound like a place you’d want to visit? I was really surprised by the variety of things to do and see, and it was like nothing I’d ever been to before! Next time you’re in downtown Atlanta, I highly recommend that you carve out some time to visit World of Coca-Cola.
If you have questions or comments, please leave them below–I love to hear from all my readers! And if you haven’t subscribed to the blog yet, be sure to do that so you can find more adventures to add to your bucket list!
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Planning a Trip to Atlanta? You May Also Enjoy…
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- Exciting Things to Do in Atlanta: Explore the Beltline and Ponce City Market!
- More adventures coming soon!
Thanks for joining me on this tour of World of Coca-Cola, and I hope you’ll be back for more adventures soon!
Happy travels!
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