Chapter 5

Is Pepsi okay?

For years, the University of Kansas was a school that was partnered with Coca-Cola. You would see signs of the drink corporation everywhere. From sports events to social ones, from stores to vending machines, and from trash you found on the sidewalk to the vehicles that supply them. This summer that all changed, and KU is now a school that only offers drinks that are supplied by Pepsi. What exactly does this mean for us as a group? Probably nothing, but I went out and did some research in order to know how this switch from Coke to Pepsi would affect all of us, and what we can do in order to ease these stressful times of change.

When I was younger, I took a trip to the Coca-Cola Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, so I’d like to think I am pretty knowledgeable in the Coke drinks and trivia. I have never been to a Pepsi Museum. I don’t even think that one exists for me to go to. In order for me to fully understand Pepsi, I had to immerse myself in the Pepsi lifestyle, and that meant buying a Pepsi at any of the many Pepsi vending machines across campus. The only problem I was having was finding one.

The first thing I noticed while trying to find a vending machine was that there were no Pepsi machines located in the Kansas Union. This was incredibly surprising to me, because I thought that KU was fully invested in Pepsi. The only machine I could find was a Starbucks one. I don’t know whether or not it was there before the Great Soda Switch of 2017™, so I do not have any comment related to it at the moment. I could have gone to the store located at the Union to buy some Pepsi products, but that wouldn’t have been the same experience. I needed to find and buy some soda from those classic machines. My team of Soda Hunters® and I could find no machines except for the Starbucks one, so we headed out across campus to search for the right machine.

We went to three buildings after we left the Union. Incredibly enough, we could not find any machines before the final building. One building was locked. I guess people don’t want students to be walking into buildings on the weekend. After that failed attempt, we went to a nearby library.

The library was also a failed attempt.

We could not find any Pepsi machines there. There was a freezer that allowed us to purchase bottles of soda, but it was the late afternoon on a Saturday, so the store was actually closed. I could not buy any Pepsi related products here, but I could buy some Starbucks coffee, because there was a vending machine right next to the fridge in the library. Unfortunately, we were not interested in any coffee, so we left the library and headed to the next place we thought would have a Pepsi machine: Wescoe.

This was it: we found the perfect machine. Well, it was actually a Mountain Dew Kickstart vending machine, but it sold Pepsi products in it. It was the next best thing to test out, and test it out we did. You can view my many attempts of understanding how this new machine works by watching the following video, and you can read my thoughts about it by continuing to read below:

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It was an interesting experience to be sure. I didn’t know what to expect when I put in my quarters, and I certainly didn’t know that the machine only accepted up to $2.50. The machine itself was pretty cool too. The soda didn’t just fall straight down after I had purchased it. The machine very quickly, very aggressively, grabbed the soda and moved it closer towards me so I would never have to reach down to the floor in order to get my drink. That was a nice feature that may or may have not been added during the Soda Switch™. While I was purchasing my three sodas, I also noticed that there was another vending machine for Starbucks. I still have not used any of those machines.

The soda itself was also not bad. Drinking it was less bubbly than Coke. I point that out, but that’s more of a personal preference. Doing my research, I discovered that Pepsi actually has more sugar, while Coke as more sodium, hence the bubbles.

Personally, I am okay with this switch. I am not much of a soda drinker, so it really does not matter to me that much. There are mixed reactions all around campus, and it makes sense. People need to be passionate about something, whether it’s KU sports, their studies, or the type of soda that they are able to drink on a regular basis. I can totally understand that. What I don’t understand is Pepsi’s choice to switch the name “Sierra Mist” to “Mist Twist” back in 2016. It’s a weirder sounding name, and I always sound like an idiot when I say that name out loud.

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If you don’t trust my opinion about this subject on soda, I don’t really know why you read this far.

You can tell that there are mixed reactions related to the switch. Overall I think that it doesn’t affect much of the school. Sure, the campus now stops selling Powerade, and is now selling Gatorade, and we also get Dr. Pepper in this deal. But, having Coke here on campus really isn’t that much different from having Pepsi in my opinion. The official school colors are Crimson and Blue, and we switched over to Blue. Many places just outside of campus sell Coke products, and you can buy them in bulk at a cheaper price. We may not be a Coke school anymore, but we are still a Koch school.

Did this switch make KU better? Did it make it worse? Or are you like me and think it didn’t change anything at all? This is all up to you. You can continue to buy Coke, or make the switch to Pepsi. Or, you can pay attention to who actually took over the campus and buy some Starbucks coffee.