Original photo by eskay lim/ Adobe Stock
For the most part, the world’s largest navies are held by the nations you’d expect, with the United States, China, and Russia all at the top of the list. For a brief time in 1989, however, the sixth-largest naval fleet was controlled not by a country but by a company: Pepsi.
This wasn’t because the soft drink manufacturer was bent on global domination — rather, it had to do with its unique status as the first American product to be manufactured and sold in the Soviet Union, starting in 1972. Because the ruble had no value outside the USSR and couldn’t be exchanged for other currencies, however, a barter system was instituted whereby PepsiCo instead received Stolichnaya vodka, which it then sold in the U.S. and other markets.
This mutually beneficial arrangement came to an end in 1989, when Pepsi received a much different form of payment: millions of dollars’ worth of warships (17 submarines, a frigate, a cruiser, and a destroyer). Though the company quickly sold the vessels — all of which were either decommissioned or in disrepair — to a Norwegian shipbreaker for scrap metal without ever actually taking possession of the ships, Pepsi technically owned a larger naval fleet than the likes of Spain and Australia for a very brief moment in time. Pepsi’s special relationship with the Soviet Union dissolved along with the USSR itself in 1991.
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Pepsi was originally called ______.
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Pepsi was originally called Brad's Drink.
No one knows what the 7 in 7UP means.
7UP got off to a rough start for two reasons: The first is that it was first introduced just two weeks before the 1929 stock market crash, a hurdle it clearly overcame in time. The other is what’s reported to have been its original name: “Seven-Up Lithiated Lemon Soda.” Part of that ungainly — and possibly mythical — moniker was owed to the fact that it contained the mood-stabilizing substance lithium citrate, which allowed it to be marketed as a means of lifting one’s spirits and even curing hangovers. The name is said to have been shortened to “7 Up Lithiated Soda” before becoming simply “7UP” in 1936, and lithium was removed from the recipe in 1948 due to safety concerns. The name’s meaning and origins are still debated nearly a century later, with several theories having been proposed (and usually shot down) in the interim: that it originally contained seven ingredients, that it was sold in 7-ounce cans, and that “Seven Up” has seven letters. As no official explanation has ever been given, the mystery lives on.
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
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