Pepsi
It's from 1893, before you were born.
- Maker
- PepsiCo
- Type
- Cola soft drink
- Debuted
- 1893
- Origin
- New Bern, North Carolina
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About
As of 2026, it's 133 years old.
Pepsi has spent over a century as the eternal challenger, the cola that's a little sweeter and a lot more willing to start something. Its entire personality is being the one that's NOT Coke, a rivalry so committed it earned its own nickname — the Cola Wars — and once involved an actual taste-test campaign daring you to admit you preferred it.
Born in 1893 as 'Brad's Drink' (a name only a pharmacist could love), it leaned hard into pop stars, youth, and Super Bowl spectacle to carve out its half of the fridge.
Picking Coke or Pepsi remains one of the few low-stakes loyalties people will genuinely defend at a dinner table.
Pepsi through the years
Created as "Brad's Drink"
Pharmacist Caleb Bradham mixes the first batch in New Bern, North Carolina.
Renamed Pepsi-Cola
The Pepsi Challenge begins
Blind taste-test ads take direct aim at Coca-Cola.
Crystal Pepsi introduced
A clear cola rides the early-'90s 'clear product' craze.
