Investor Warren Buffet drinks a shocking 5 cans of Coca-Cola a day which accounts for 25% of his daily calorie intake. So how exactly did he go from drinking Pepsi for almost 5 decades…to trading it for Coca-Cola exclusively?
The revelation and how Buffet switched from Pepsi to Coke after almost 50 years of drinking the beverage religiously was uncovered in Glen Arnold’s book, The Deals of Warren Buffett Volume 2: The Making of a Billionaire.
Buffet himself jokes that: “I’m one quarter Coca-Cola.” He said to Fortune in 2015. And Buffett’s favorite Coke flavor? Cherry Coke.
All across the internet, a surprising amount of pictures can be found of Buffett with a Coke in hand or downing it out of a can or bottle. He also owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola worth over a staggering $20 billion.
How did Buffett get turned from being a diehard Pepsi drinker to a Coke connoisseur? It began when his neighbor, Don Keough became Coca-Cola’s president and CFO in 1981, and when he read that Buffett was a huge Pepsi fan…he ended up writing to Buffett about Coca-Cola and sending him samples of Cherry Coke which was still in the beginning stages of testing.
Buffett tried the Cherry Coke, and became an instant convert:
“After 48 years of allegiance to another soft drink, your Chairman, in an unprecedented display of behavioral flexibility, has converted to the new Cherry Coke. Henceforth, it will be the Official Drink of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.”
Presumably he cashed out his Pepsi cache, and created a stockpile of Cherry Coke. And the rest is history.
Another legendary entrepreneur Bill Gates, found himself buying the stock of a different beverage…Bud Light. The maligned beer brand found itself in hot water and a boycott for hiring a transgendered person to do an ad. Gates thought he found a moneymaking opportunity, and bought $96 million worth of Bud Light stock. So far, it hasn’t paid off. At all.
