BACK during the darkest days of the Cold War, we decedent Capitalist running dogs in the West were chugging down bottles of Coke like it was the fabled elixir of youth.
But behind the Iron Curtain the good Communists were enjoying another fizzy drink, the folks in the Soviet states were drinking a politically-correct beverage known as Vita Cola.
When I was in Dresden today, one of the unfortunate settlements that found itself deep in the heart of East Germany when that nation was split in two back in 1949, I got to sample what the Commies were drinking when we were rotting our teeth guzzling Coke.
We had lunch at a little cafe near the Green Vault, occupying an outdoor table to make the most of the perfect blue-sky day, and as I perused the drinks menu I saw the listing for Vita Cola.
"East German cola with a dash of lemon juice," was the way the beverage was described.
When it arrived it tasted more like a flat version of the no-name cola your grandmother used to keep in the outside fridge, with a couple of lemon wedges submerged in the bottom of the glass.
The liquid version of functional Stalinist architecture, not bad just not particularly good.
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