Among the attractions clustered around Centennial Olympic Park, the World of Coca-Cola has one draw that works on pure reverse psychology. On the top floor, just before the gift shop, the tasting room dispenses Beverly — an Italian soda that most people who try it describe as genuinely unpleasant, and that a steady stream of visitors seek out specifically for that reason.
Coca-Cola launched Beverly in Italy in 1969 as a nonalcoholic aperitif. The company discontinued it in 2009, but it survives at exactly three of the beverage giant's tasting attractions: Las Vegas, Walt Disney World and downtown Atlanta. That scarcity, combined with its reputation, has turned sampling it into a viral social media stunt and, for a certain kind of visitor, a pilgrimage. Museum tour guides make a point of reminding people it is in the building.
The drink itself is clear now, though it launched dark, and the taste lands somewhere between grapefruit and licorice. Axios reporter Thomas Wheatley, who took his brother and nieces to try it on a recent Saturday, could not work out why anyone would drink a full glass rather than the small pour he managed from the fountain. His nieces settled on calling it \"herbaceous.\" His own verdict was more concise: \"I lived to tell the tale.\"
Two practical notes for anyone making the trip, both learned the hard way on a first visit to the Centennial Olympic Park location: the museum gets extremely crowded, particularly on weekends in summer heat, and the tasting room floors are sticky in the way that only a room where thousands of people pour soda every day can be.
It is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing downtown attractions run on — a free sample of a discontinued Italian soda that gives visitors a story to tell and a reason to post about a museum they might otherwise walk past.
Original reporting: Axios Atlanta (2026-08-21)
