The Birthplace of Pepsi
Location: New Bern, NC (256 Middle St.)
When to visit: Monday-Saturday 10 am-6 pm
Cost: Free to walk through
Time needed to enjoy: 10-20 minutes
Website: pepsistore.com
On the heels of our Coke Museum profile, we wrap up “Carbonated Beverage Week” on the blog with a look at a small store in North Carolina that lays claim to being the birthplace of Pepsi.
In 1893, Caleb Bradham began producing the creatively-titled “Brad’s Drink” in a pharmacy in New Bern. He renamed it Pepsi and in 1903 began selling the syrup nationwide with the slogan, “Exhilarating, Invigorating, Aids Digestion.” I don’t know about you, but when I want to aid digestion, I reach for a Pepsi.
The pharmacy is now a gift shop that sells souvenirs and of course, Pepsi products. The place is small, so you won’t need to spend hours here, but there are plenty of unusual Pepsi products for sale.
Like Christmas tree ornaments. I always suspected that Santa drinks Pepsi!
You can recognize those cans in any language.
This is officially the “most Pepsi” place I have ever visited. Well done, birthplace of Pepsi.
Dang…how did I miss this on my trips to North Carolina? I have been to Coca-Cola and have also been to the birthplace of KFC (as well as the first real KFC Restaurant in Murray, UT), have been to birthplace of Wendy’s, and quite a few others.
Thanks for the great post Scott!!
Interesting… I’d check out the KFC and Wendy’s birthplaces for sure.
The interesting thing is that at the time this was invented there was no such thing as a global brand and there is no way that anyone could imagine this drink that was invented would be a household name!
Good points… if only those inventors had vision.
I researched this after visiting the coke museum last spring, as I was curious to see if Pepsi had something similar. If there was any question as to who wins the pepsi vs. coke popularity contest, just look at the size of the museums dedicated to them! Great article, as usual.
Definitely the Coke Museum is bigger! But I was happy to see that Pepsi at least has a birthplace at all. Hopefully someday they’ll build it up a bit more.