Free museum and tours of the Coca-Cola plant.

I'll start with history.
The world's most popular soft drink appeared on May 8, 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Dr. John Pemberton, a local pharmacist, created a unique formula for making syrup. As a result of the subsequent mixing of syrup with carbonated water, the invigorating and refreshing Coca-Cola appeared.
Today this drink is sold in more than 200 countries around the world. This is the most interesting thing.

Now the most valuable thing.
The Coca-Cola plant in Moscow is located at Novoorlovskaya street, building 7. (Well, for me, it’s still not exactly Moscow, it’s Novoperedelkino, and the plant is located in an industrial zone, and few public transport can get there. So this excursion is better plan by car or bus). I won’t torment you with expectations anymore, so the phone number to sign up for a tour is: 8-495-660-99-78.
Wait to run to sign up.

The most important thing is that adults and children FROM 12 YEARS OLD are invited to the excursion. (The option that we will be twelve very soon in a month and we really love soda - DOES NOT PASS. Then it is better to go on an excursion to Ochakovo (kvass)).
Excursions to the production facility are held on weekdays; you also need to call on weekdays. Try NOT to sign up for the end of the month - it’s better to wait a little longer. Be sure to bring a change with you. No documents needed. The tour lasts two hours. Try not to sign up for the maximum (35 people), try to get by with small companies.

So, our group of like-minded people from the site visited this, one might say, legendary plant.
I'll tell you everything in order.
We got there from the metro on a pre-booked bus. It is very important to calculate the road here. On weekdays there are traffic jams, and there is NO turn from Borovskoye Highway to Novoorlovskaya Street! There the sign is only straight. We had to drive 20 minutes to neighboring village, turn around there, go back, and, oh horror - in reverse side the sign is also only straight. So arm yourself with a map and choose detour routes. We were indecently late.

There are several entrances and entrances to the plant. You need to find a pass.

There was also a small Coca-Cola museum there - but they didn’t tell us anything about the museum - we took photographs ourselves and that’s it... By the way, photography in production and other premises is prohibited.

The names of adults, their date of birth and place of work are entered in the log (I wonder why), and it is once again specified so that children are over 12 years old.

A short introductory lecture, and we changed into white coats for the most important thing - we were to be taken through the workshops of the plant and shown the mystery of preparing our favorite drink, which very soon will hit the shelves of shops and kiosks.

The most interesting thing, which the kids were undoubtedly delighted with, was that the excursion was conducted with the help of a radio guide. That is, everyone - both children and adults - was given a box and headphones (with
alcohol wipe). You need to treat the equipment very carefully - under no circumstances drop it on the floor, otherwise...
YOUR headphones are also welcome - they are connected to the device. The idea, by the way, is very good. The guide, especially in production, does not have to shout - everyone can hear him perfectly well.

You need to listen to the tour and the guide's explanations very carefully - at the end we were promised a quiz with prizes.
Then we went to the production facility, where I (me personally, the others seemed to like everything) were disappointed. We saw production through the windows. I'll try to explain. When we were at the Ochakovo plant (and I have to compare, since both there and there are soda production and it seemed to me that the excursions should be somewhat similar) - so at the Ochakovo plant we were taken through the production workshops, shown and given in our hands to hold for the children, and gave them as souvenirs, and not just one, but several pieces of plastic, from which they are then made into bottles. Then they showed how the bottle inflates,
Then the label is stuck on it and it is closed with a lid. Each child screwed the cap onto his own piece...
Here we didn’t see any of this - we walked along a perfectly freshly washed corridor and looked through the windows at the same washed units, which by chance had just finished working. The window is not very large - for a group of 35 people - nothing at all. The only thing that was clearly audible in the ears of the radio guide was that the lecture was equipped a huge amount numbers that were impossible to remember the first time - how many liters of what, how much soda they produce per minute, second, per year, how many thousands of dollars they earned. It seemed to me that it would be more interesting for children to see how the bottles travel along the conveyor and how labels are stuck on them. Maybe I am wrong.

We also learned that in addition to Coca-Cola, the plant also produces Sprite, Fanta, Nesti tea, Bon Aqua, kvass, Fruittime soda, etc.

Interestingly, the syrup that Dr. Pemberton came up with was a thick balm - a remedy for headaches and initially had a bitter taste, and the poor patients came up with the idea of ​​adding sugar to it. They talked about how the company came into being. About how they soon stopped selling soda by the glass and the first bottle appeared. I really remember the story about the Sprite Bottle. Wondered why she Green colour?
It turns out that "sprite" means "elf" in English. Elves wear green clothes, so a green bottle appeared. I used to like the sprite anyway - now, after this fairy tale, I love it even more.

Then we visited the blending department (also through the window), heard entertaining story about pasteurization of syrup, about its secret formula. Previously, only 3 people knew the Coca-Cola Formula - now, in the world computer technology, there is special equipment that can analyze the composition of everyone’s favorite soda down to the molecules.

Then the quality control department (also a lecture near the window) - it turns out that the soda is placed in a very warm and dark place for 14 days - and then a bacteriological analysis is carried out, low-quality products are destroyed.

On excursions, everyone goes in pairs (remember your childhood?), no one runs, no one gets close to the equipment, no one puts their hands anywhere and “moves their legs faster,” as our guide said.
Yes, by the way, our tour guide is strict (she is the only one there, in my opinion), and she was very angry with the girls when they found themselves without a shift. Well, maybe this can be explained by safety precautions? We were told a lot about the factory employees - they work in earplugs, in sterile clothes that are changed every day, in special shoes, and every month in addition to their salaries they receive a package of products (Coca-Cola, Sprite, etc.)

Then we visited the packaging workshop. This is where we finally saw production. That is, we entered the room. True, by chance it didn’t work very well either. It turns out that at the end of the month (and the 23rd is the end), work is completed, accounting is completed, and so on. We didn’t see how the labels are pasted, how the soda is poured, how the caps are slammed, but the stacks of soda in the warehouse as high as the sky (9 meters in height) are impressive. Then we finally saw the only working unit - it was turned on especially for us - the package of soda was wrapped in special cellophane and then heated in the oven, sintered, and left ready for sale.

Oh, I’m lying, there was another working machine - it checked how much soda was poured into the bottle. It turns out that there are bottles where half of them were poured. Underfilling or overfilling - and the bottle is destroyed and broken.
Then we were taken around the offices to show how the employees work. Why - I didn’t really understand - I wasn’t interested. I remembered the word “career guidance” - maybe the excursion was of this nature - recruiting new employees?

Then we returned to the hall, where we watched a film on TV about the history of the creation of Coca-Cola soda.

One interesting thing is that the patent for selling bottled soda was sold for just $1. Yes, and there was also a tasting. They poured Coca-Cola into our glass. Again I remember Ochakovo, where there were several different bottles on the table and everyone was allowed to try and taste. Yes, and snack on Snickers-Mars). By the way, throughout the excursion the children are asked questions that repeat, if you listen carefully to the lecture, you can answer. For correct answers, you are given books about Coca-Cola - small ones, about ten centimeters.

Then there was a quiz. The presenter shows the cards. They have numbers, dates, liters, etc. written on them. You raise your hand and answer what they mean. This moment didn’t seem very fair to me - 14 people raised their hands, and she asked the same people. The questions are complex.
The one who answers correctly also receives a booklet. In the end, whoever has the most books is the winner.
I would warn the child in advance so that he would not be too upset - the prizes were the same brochures about Coca-Cola, only a little larger.

At the end of the excursion we all received gifts from the plant - big paper bag, where there was again the same leaflet book and one 200 gram jar of Coca-Cola.

I would also like to add on my own behalf - do not rush to take this excursion with small children - they will simply not be interested. Better get your shit together in adult company, and take the child on an excursion according to his age. But this, again, is my personal opinion. I hope someone will write a more positive review next.

The museum is located on the territory of the largest Coca-Cola plant in Europe, located in Novoperedelkino. Currently, it is a modernly equipped space with four thematic zones. Visitors' acquaintance with the history of Coca-Cola begins at the entrance - its walls are painted with vintage graffiti and drawings on current topics - they illustrate the development of the brand (in 2005-2011, according to research conducted by the Interbrand agency, it was recognized as the most expensive in the world).

One of the museum areas is dedicated to initial stage company development. It houses a stylized pharmacy of the inventor of the drink's recipe, John Stith Pemberton, a former Confederate army officer. This happened on May 8, 1886 - since then the small production has turned into a giant transnational corporation, and the drink has become known throughout the world. Next to the evidence of antiquity there is a large plasma screen - stories related to the company are broadcast on it. Did you know that the Santa Claus we know in his red and white outfit was commissioned by the Coca-Cola company in the 30s of the last century? Did you know that the curly inscription “Coca-Cola” has remained unchanged since 1859 - that’s when it was invented and written by Frank Robinson, John Stith’s accountant.

The main exhibit of the ecozone is a model of a Moscow plant, made on a scale of 1:220. It is made so realistically that all production lines and workshops are visible. Very few people are directly employed in production; almost all processes are automated. As with all their museums around the world, the organizers strive to draw attention to the environmental friendliness of the Coca-Cola preparation process and the rational use of water resources. After getting acquainted with the production, guests are shown best movies companies. Located on sporty look seats, guests will see a three-dimensional map with Russian factories marked. The museum uses the latest technological innovations - 3D images appear during the tour, the screen plays the role of a huge iPad - the guide controls it using a touchscreen.

Guests enjoy taking pictures in front of a huge bottle of Coca-Cola - it is located in one of the halls. The container for the drink is a special pride of the museum. The exhibition includes painted bottles that Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier worked on, and there are containers made at the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

A place of honor in the museum is given to special prize- the plant in Novoperedelkino received it from the concern as the company's best enterprise in the world in 2011.

Before visiting the Coca-Cola production facilities in Moscow, I had no idea how the production of the famous soda works. I only knew that the recipe for the concentrate, which is part of Coca-Cola, is kept in the strictest confidence. But it turned out that in our factories they only dilute concentrate, syrup and soda, and then bottle the drinks or put them in cans. And manufacturing companies that produce Coca-Cola and several other drinks in 200 countries around the world are called bottlers for this reason. And that same secret concentrate is brought from the factories where it is produced. This principle of Coca-Cola production has been preserved since the very inception of the drink.

The global structure of the company is as follows. There is The Coca-Cola Company, which is the owner of the brands, the keeper of the secret of the concentrate recipe. The Coca-Cola Company has about 5 factories around the world producing syrups and concentrates. In addition, it carries out strategic marketing, controls product quality and maintains standards in all areas of activity. And the bottler partners are directly involved in the production and bottling of drinks into containers for sale. Specifically in Russia, Coca-Cola is bottled at the factories of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Group, which originates from Greece, and is now headquartered in the Swiss city of Zug. It is the third bottler in the world in terms of production volume, and the largest in Europe. The first two, by the way, are located in the USA itself. The geography of beverage production in Coca-Cola Hellenic covers 28 countries. By the way, the most populous country where Coca-Cola is produced and consumed, oddly enough, is Nigeria; 174 million people live there, and this is more than in Russia! There are 16 bottling plants in Nigeria. In Russia, the bottler is legally represented as Coca-Cola HBC Eurasia LLC; we have already built 13 factories, which are located in Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Orel, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladivostok and several other cities. The Russian division of Coca-Cola Hellenic employs about 13,000 employees. The plant where we were located was the first to be built in Russia in 1994. Immediately after opening, the plant produced only three drinks: Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite, today there are many more.

The production site is noisy, so tour guides give visitors special devices that operate via radio signals. The guide speaks into a headset, the voice is transmitted via radio to our receivers, and we hear the voice in the headphones. Only the range of action of these devices was small. As soon as I stepped aside to take a photo without people, I could not hear half of the guide’s words because of the interference.

So, the production and bottling of Coca-Cola begins here. This is a workshop for the intake and purification of water, which comes here from a city source. This room has powerful filters through which the water passes multi-stage cleaning to quality standards The Coca-Cola Company. Local laboratory specialists take water samples for quality analysis every two hours. Some water characteristics are controlled automatically.
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Next door there is an empty plastic bottle bottling line. That day, it was closed for a scheduled wash. Cleanliness is closely monitored here. We were allowed into production only after we put on white coats, light caps on our heads and shoe covers.
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We looked into the section of the warehouse where boxes with bottle caps were stored:
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Nearby there are rows of empty aluminum cans without lids. Soon they will go to the bottling shop. By the way, it was news to me that Burn energy drink is bottled right there:
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The life of plastic drink bottles begins here. The cones in the photo below are called preforms. They Russian production, are purchased by the plant from other suppliers.
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They arrive in a string to several such installations. This is the blow molding machine:
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There are preforms inside that swells several times in size under the influence of high temperature (up to 240 degrees) and pressure (40 atmospheres). Blowing out one bottle takes about 3 seconds:
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The output is these two-liter bottles:
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They pass through a scanner, which detects defects in the form of unevenness and burrs, and then they enter the bottling shop:
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These are Coca-Cola bottle caps. They and aluminum cans, as well as preforms for bottles, are supplied by Russian suppliers.
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One of the closed doors, where we were not allowed, leads to the blending department. There the creation of blended syrup - the basis of Coca-Cola - takes place. This is a mixture of sugar syrup, secret concentrate and purified water, and in the blending department they are mixed according to a certain recipe. From 1 liter of blended syrup, 6.4 liters of drink are made. There the mixture is saturated with carbon dioxide. The gas is delivered to the plant in liquid form and becomes gas as it passes through the evaporator.

And this general form marking shops. The excursion route, it should be noted, was not sequential. The bottling itself took place further along the route, and after pressing the bottles, we got straight to where the finished and packaged products were crawling along the conveyor.
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Therefore, I’ll rewind and show a couple of frames from the bottling workshop, which we observed through a wall with glass. The names of the cars have been blurred out at the request of the plant employees. These are fillers - machines that pour the finished drink into bottles. A two-liter bottle is completely filled in 4 seconds. Then a sealed cap is screwed onto each bottle. Then each bottle undergoes automatic control for the presence of a drink and a cap.
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By the way, many of my Instagram followers were surprised that we were allowed to film the production. In the St. Petersburg plant, for example, they were not allowed to rent half of the production space. We were not prohibited from doing anything. There was only a request for the names of the cars, and then in a recommendatory tone. Well, except for the mandatory procedure of putting on gowns, shoe covers and hats.
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Next, the bottled drinks go to the disposal of the machine, which affixes the labels:
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These are the machines that wrap bottles with enormous speed with a branded strip of film with a logo, information about the drink and the manufacturer. Somewhere nearby, additional information about the released products is laser-applied onto the neck of the bottle:
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Like this, in orderly rows, the pasted bottles move on:
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And they go to the disposal of machines that pack bottles of 9 pieces in shrink film:
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And then another machine sticks a piece of paper onto the bottle packaging, where information is printed for storage and distribution. Next, packages of bottles go to a palletizer, which collects a certain number of packages into pallets and wraps them in film. The pallets are then delivered to the finished goods warehouse, which operates continuously (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
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It is impossible not to note the role of quality control departments in production. At each stage, the components and the product itself undergo strict analysis for possible deviations from accepted standards quality. This happens at least once every half hour. Some things are done automatically using robots and scanners, while others are done by people using a lot of sophisticated equipment:
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Upon exiting the production area, we entered the office area. At these stands you can see an approximate range of products produced by Coca-Cola Hellenic factories. In addition to the main drinks, which are Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite, BonAqua drinking water, Schweppes tonics, Powerrade sports drinks, Nestea iced teas, Burn energy drinks, Valser mineral water, Fruittime drinks, "Mug and Barrel" kvass, and juices Rich and Dobry.
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At the Moscow plant where we were, a Coca-Cola museum opened. This is a fairly spacious room where, for example, you can see a selection of unique bottles and cans different designs for various events and promotions:
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Or this Olympic torch, made to carry the Olympic flame in Sochi:
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The purpose of creating the museum is to familiarize visitors with the history of the company, its brands and products:
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Well, since we’re talking about history, I’ll retell it briefly. The history of the drink is quite simple and interesting. In 1886, in the American city of Atlanta, pharmacist John Pemberton invented a syrup that was intended as a medicinal syrup and, accordingly, was sold in pharmacies as a medicine. But buyers got a taste for it and bought the syrup just like that. After that, he began selling the syrup diluted with water. After some time, the pharmacist, by mistake (or at the request of the buyer, there are several opinions), mixed the syrup with sparkling water. Just like that, very simply, the famous drink was born. It was just as easy to come up with the name and the same spelling of the name Coca-Cola in handwritten font, which has been preserved to this day. But sales, at first, were not very active. At that time, only 9 drinks per day were consumed, but now we're talking about about 2 billion servings in the same time. The thing is that the pharmacist was not an entrepreneur. Therefore, he sold the syrup recipe to businessman Asa Griggs Candler, who founded The Coca-Cola company. And later, two other resourceful entrepreneurs bought the right to bottle the drink, and thanks to this, the drink soon became popular throughout the world.
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By the way, bottles have their own history. At first they were simple, until the founders discovered that Coca-Cola had begun to be massively counterfeited. And then they came up with the idea to develop a unique bottle design that would be recognizable to everyone and would distinguish the original drink from a fake. The bottle that we know now was invented back in 1915, and in 1977 this bottle was registered as a trademark.
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In the “green” corner of the room you can learn about how the company cares about environment. The company adheres to three main areas of environmental protection activities:
- conservation of water resources. Here, per liter of drink, only 1.7 liters of water are consumed, and this is the best figure in Russia.
- energy saving. Installed new line, which consumes 45% less energy than the line launched in 2006.
- reduction in packaging weight. Over the past few years, the weight of the preform has decreased by 17%.
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There is also an interactive stand that shows the layout of workshops, warehouses and other premises of the plant. At the Moscow plant in currently 6 lines were installed for bottling drinks into plastic bottles of various capacities, aluminum cans and glass bottles, they are located on 2 floors.
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This is how the world's most famous sweet carbonated drink is made.
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By the way, anyone can go to the museum and take a tour of the plant, and it’s completely free. To do this you need to pre-register on the website.

While in Atlanta, be sure to visit the museum dedicated to the most popular soft drink in the world - Coca-Cola. The museum is called "The World of Coca-Cola". It is located on Baker Street in Centannial Olympic Park.

More than 125 years ago, Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta. The company's headquarters are still located in this city.

The museum itself is located just a few blocks from the place where Pemberton once invented the drink formula.

Initially, the drink was sold as a patented medicine. It was available from soda fountains for 5 cents.

At that time in the United States there was an opinion that carbonated drinks were good for health. According to Pemberton, Coca-Cola cured many people from various diseases, for example, morphine cravings, indigestion, neurasthenia, loss of energy and headaches.

Pemberton personally developed the first advertising campaign. It was published in the Atlanta Gazette. A year later, a company of the same name was founded.

By the time of the fiftieth anniversary celebration, Coca-Cola received the title national symbol USA.

The museum opened in Atlanta in 1991. After 16 years, he moved to a new location. The previous three-story building could not cope with the huge flow of visitors.

Since its founding, the museum has been visited by over 9 million people.

Today, the World of Coca-Cola is Atlanta's most visited attraction.

In May 2007, a new museum complex was opened. More modern and spacious.

The World of Coca-Cola can hardly be called just a museum. This is a whole interactive complex containing exhibits, artwork, video and sound.

The museum tour lasts 90 minutes, after which you can walk around the museum on your own.

More than a thousand exhibits are presented in this unique museum. Here you can see a working soda machine from 1930.

The museum is literally stuffed with memorabilia for the company: advertisements, labels.

Visitors can watch a film about the history of the company and the drink, as well as visit a mini-factory for the production and bottling of Coca-Cola.

Works at the museum permanent exhibition“Try This”, where guests can taste more than 60 types of drink from different countries peace.

Also included is The Secret Formula Vault, an interactive exhibition where you can learn about the intrigue, secrets and myths that surrounded the Coca-Cola formula.