Is the most unshakable belief held by contemporary young people merely 3 yuan?

Wong Kar-wai once said, nothing ever lasts forever.

For example, Jay Chou and Patty Hou's iconic date spot in Daikanyama, Chen Xiao and Michelle Chen's veil-kissing wedding moment, Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy's century wedding.

And also, the long-running partnership between KFC and PepsiCo.

On October 15, KFC US announced that starting from January 2027, it will switch its beverage supplier from Pepsi to Coca-Cola, and the full replacement across all its U.S. stores is expected to be completed in the spring of that year.

Although there has been no further official notice released in mainland China yet, the on-and-off tussle between burger chains and cola brands is hardly a rare occurrence in the industry.

But the point is, Pepsi used to be KFC's parent company!

In 1986, Pepsi acquired KFC. Later when the catering business was spun off independently, the beverage cooperation between the two sides still continued.

Nowadays, the former "own child" is preparing to defect to its century-old arch-rival.

This time, Pepsi has truly become an outsider.

Your "son" ran off with your arch-enemy, Pepsi, are you doing okay?

Behind the cheap beverage that only costs a few yuan lies the longest-running love-hate relationship in the consumer goods industry.

For Pepsi, even more troublesome crises are still waiting ahead.

Choose red or blue? You'd better think twice before you speak

If you want to know how fragile the relationship between people can be.

You can try to raise a question:

Which one tastes better, Coca-Cola or Pepsi?

Then you will see what is called a century of solitude, the sad thick barrier between people.

Because no matter on internet forums or in the office, this question will trigger a full-scale civil war.

Keith from the editorial department, a die-hard Pepsi fan, thinks KFC is making one blunder after another and heading for self-destruction;

Li Zhou, a die-hard Coca-Cola fan, thinks KFC has filled its last short board and can now claim the throne in the fast food industry.

Generally speaking, if you support Coca-Cola, Pepsi fans will look down on you with disdain;

If you support Pepsi, Coca-Cola fans will likewise think there must be something wrong with your taste.

If you claim to be neutral, you will be attacked by both sides at the same time.

It's just like Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi, Jang Won-young vs Karina, standing in the middle is equivalent to offending both sides.

People who quarrel over new energy EVs and foldable phones may just be venting verbally, but everyone has a say on a 3.5-yuan cola.

In the eyes of Coca-Cola fans, only Coca-Cola itself deserves the name of cola.

"Pepsi? It's nothing more than a cola-flavored drink!"

Being overly sweet is Pepsi's first cardinal sin.

Since Coca-Cola's 7X secret formula is deeply rooted in people's minds, Coca-Cola fans believe that since Pepsi cannot master the core secret of cola, it can only make a product of syrup mixed with carbon dioxide, which is cloyingly sweet in one sip and sends your blood sugar soaring in two sips.

Too much carbonation is also a problem:

"Listen up Pepsi, you are a drink, not a car tire!"

As for the nickname "toilet cleaner", it is the nuclear weapon of the Coca-Cola camp, with a long history, great lethality and enduring popularity.

The rhetoric of Coca-Cola fans will be turned around and used against them by the Pepsi camp.

The overly mild taste makes Coca-Cola taste like Pepsi that has gone flat for three days, or tap water mixed with syrup.

It will even turn bitter halfway through drinking, like a Chinese medicine diet cheat meal.

"Why drink it iced? You'd better take it three times a day with hot water, and its best destination is to be made into ginger cola."

In 2017, a university research institute published a paper titled: *Coca-Cola and Pepsi: Brand Compatibility, Relationship Power, and Life Satisfaction*.

One important example in it is that one person only loves Coca-Cola, while their partner only buys Pepsi.

If the shopping decision is always dominated by one person, the other person may get dissatisfied because their personal preference is ignored for a long time.

To put it simply: if a couple loves Coca-Cola and Pepsi respectively, they are likely to get divorced (just kidding).

After all, Elon Musk, who claims to drink 8 cans of Coca-Cola every day, even puts 4 cans of gold-label Diet Coke by his bedside.

Another well-known big fan of Coca-Cola is Donald Trump.

It is said that there are two buttons in his office: one can launch a nuclear bomb, and the other can summon iced cola with one click.

What was Pepsi doing at this time?

It was making an appearance in the live stream of the internet celebrity "Ga Zi".

A well-known chemistry teacher once said:

No one would want to live in a world without Coca-Cola, those no-name colas are not meant for human consumption at all.

Although the product he produces is blue

Preferences are fluid.

Warren Buffett was a die-hard Pepsi fan for the first 40 years of his life, drank it for half his life, but later he was converted by cherry-flavored Coca-Cola, switching sides from blue to red and changing his allegiance completely.

They seem to be fighting to the death, even the choice of sugar type and formula are all different in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong China, Japan, Europe, the United States, Mexico and so on.

Even according to senior cola fans, there are subtle differences between colas produced by different bottling plants even within China.

However, over the past few decades, from research institutions back in the 1950s to content creators in 2026,

Countless blind taste tests of cola have been conducted, and the conclusions are more or less the same:

In blind taste tests, most people actually cannot tell the difference between the two colas.

There is even such a situation:

People who think Pepsi tastes better in blind tests will switch to Coca-Cola when they can see the brand clearly...

The biggest difference in taste perception between Coca-Cola and Pepsi actually lies in their packaging and brand identity.

Then what exactly are people fighting for?

Cola, Fight Again and Again

Many people dare not say that there are very few truly "equally matched" brands in modern society —

Most of the so-called rivals are just clinging to the big name of the leading brand.

Just like the Northern Qiao Feng and Southern Murong in Jin Yong's wuxia novel, they are said to be equally famous, but there is actually a certain gap in real strength.

Although Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been fighting for over a hundred years, Pepsi has been suppressed and beaten 99% of the time.

It is not so much a two-way commercial war between the two sides, but Pepsi has been unilaterally chasing after Coca-Cola all the time.

Back then, Pepsi acquired KFC precisely to overtake on the curve in the catering industry.

Around the world, cola sales mainly rely on two core channels:

One is the catering channel, which refers to the fountain drinks sold in McDonald's and KFC;

The other is the retail channel, which refers to the bottled and canned cola you buy in supermarkets.

The former saves operational effort, while the latter reaches deeper into the mass consumer market.

Back in the 1970s, Coca-Cola occupied 60% of the catering market, while Pepsi only had 17%.

Since no one is willing to sell our cola, I have no choice but to buy you all.