Has your bottle of Coca-Cola got a yellow cap? Here’s why

It’s rare for a brand to become synonymous with a colour, yet alone one of the heavyweights from the primary colour division, but that’s exactly what’s happened with Coca-Cola and red.

There are a few romantic urban legends out there about this colouration, not least that Santa Claus wears red because of the cola titan – he doesn’t, by the way – but there was actually a practical reason behind red becoming Coca-Cola’s go-to colour.

When Coke first hit shelves over 130 years ago, it was sold to American drug stores and pharmacies in barrels. Alcohol was distributed in the same way at the time.

Friends sharing some cola - Catherine Falls Commercial via Getty Images

At the time, alcohol was taxed but soft drinks weren’t, so Coca-Cola painted its barrels red to ensure that tax officials could tell them apart from the booze barrels.

Whether alcohol manufacturers cottoned on to this little trick and starting painting their own barrels red is a story for another time.

Regardless, red and Coca-Cola were soon inseparable. The curiously grey Diet Coke notwithstanding, of course.

But in recent years the original coke has been spotted with yellow caps rather than red ones, and it’s been a head-scratcher for many a cola drinker.

As it turns out, this is just another entry in Coca-Cola’s long history of helpful colour coding.

The yellow caps are there to show that the bottles are kosher, with the yellow caps being more commonly seen in the run-up to the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Pesach – or Passover – commemorates those who were enslaved in Egypt before their liberation by Moses, and the holiday runs for a full seven days.

Various foods and drinks are prohibited through the holiday, including corn, rice, barley, wheat, oats, beer and liquor.

Kosher foodstuffs adhere to Judaism’s dietary rules, and so they’re approved for consumption during Pesach.

Coca-Cola bottles with yellow caps - kosherguru via Instagram

Red-capped Coca-Cola isn’t kosher as it contains corn syrup, with the yellow-capped bottles being made with a non-corn alternative.

“Just learned Coca-Cola does special sodas with yellow caps to indicate they're kosher,” said one user on X.

“I just learned about it this year myself,” said another.

Adhering to kosher food and drink can be tricky, especially in the modern world of ultra-processed food packed with esoterically-named chemicals and ingredients.

That’s where Is It Kosher? UK can be a massive help. Simply search for a foodstuff or brand and you’ll get your answer straight away.

It will no doubt be great cause for consternation at Coca-Cola that Pepsi and all of its variants are kosher as standard.

Topics: Alcohol