Coca-Cola to Launch Its First Beverage With Alcohol

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The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) announced that it would be launching its first beverage with alcohol, breaking tradition from its 130-year history of focusing on non-alcoholic drinks.

Coca-ColaThe soft beverage company will soon be testing a popular type of a Japanese alcoholic pop beverage that will only exist overseas at first. The drink is called Chu-Hi and it consists of distilled shochu alcohol mixed with flavored carbonate water.

Shochu is a type of alcohol distilled from rice, barley, sweet potatoes, buckwheat, brown sugar and sometimes it also includes chestnut, sesame seeds, potatoes or even carrots. It has less than 45% alcohol per volume, usually coming in at around 25% alcohol.

The Coca-Cola drink will be a low-alcohol canned product that will exist in Japan, where you can find everything from kiwi- and yuzu-flavored Chu-Hi. Jorge Garduño, Coca-Cola president in Japan, said that the drink includes shochu, sparkling water and some flavoring and the move marks new territory for the company, serving as “an example of how we continue to explore opportunities outside our core areas.”

It is unclear when the company will reveal the beverage as it is still ironing out the details of the drink. Garduño added that the idea of an alcoholic Coca-Cola beverage will likely stay within Japan as it is a “unique and special” concept of the Japanese market.

KO stock fell 0.8% Wednesday.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/03/coca-cola-co-alcohol-ko-chu-hi/.

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