About a decade ago, most of the winter fruit available in Kyiv consisted of oranges. When bananas became available, competition for the market warmed up considerably. Faced with an escalating demand for bananas and declining demand for Mandarins, the rumor began circulating the bananas arrived in Ukraine unripened, and that the green bananas needed to be placed in cold storage to ripen.
The story circulated that scientists had discovered that they could ripen bananas for market in just a week by storing them in morgues (presumably after evacuating their intended occupants) and piping a special gas into the cold rooms.
The orange merchants latched on to this rumor, spreading the word that bananas were somehow unwholesome, since they were ripened with gas and stored with the dead.
The story, however sensational, didn't take root. Like most legends, there is a scintilla of truth to this story: Some fruit does ripen when kept in cold storage or treatment with ethylene gas. Yet today, oranges and bananas coexist peacefully on Kyiv's snow-laden streets in winter.
Coke as acid
Coca-Cola has, over the years, suffered mightily from detractors who, in an effort to damage the popular brand, have spread all nature of stories. Who hasn't personally known someone whose cousin's best friend knew a fellow who found a rat at the bottom of a can of the fizzy brown drink? And remember the old story that an aspirin, taken with Coke: a) is an aphrodisiac; b) is a great way to get high; c) causes instant death; and d) cures hangovers?
None, of course, are valid.
When Coke made its entrance into Ukraine some years ago, it did so at the expense of existing locally produced nonalcoholic beverages. The loss of market share to the invader born in the American south was no doubt galling, so supporters of Ukraine's native soft drinks responded with a story they felt was certain to steer customers clear of cola.
One popular tale held that if a small piece of raw meat was placed in a glass of Coke overnight, it would be dissolved by morning. If Coca-Cola could dissolve a small quantity of fresh meat overnight, the public was meant to fret, just imagine what the soft drink could do to a person's stomach!
Despite persistent rumors, the soft drink remains one of the world's leading brands - and grows in popularity daily.
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