Saxon Soda Icon · East German Cola
Vita Cola
Photo: Karoline Hiller / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Vita Cola all but vanished after the Berlin Wall fell, but a Thuringian mineral-water company relaunched it in 1994, and it went on to outsell Coca-Cola in parts of eastern Germany.
Vita Cola is a lightly spiced, less sweet cola with a distinct herbal and citrus edge that sets it apart from Western colas. It's drunk cold straight from the bottle or can, exactly like any other cola, but carries a flavor profile locals immediately recognize as different.
Why it's made this way: Its recipe was developed in the late 1950s at a state chemical works in Miltitz near Leipzig and the cola was bottled across East Germany; after reunification, eastern Germans rallied behind it as 'their' cola rather than switching wholly to Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
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