WEBVTT 00:00:00.714 --> 00:00:04.092 I'm going back in time to investigate the innovations 00:00:04.217 --> 00:00:08.388 that changed our favorite foods in good ways and bad. 00:00:08.513 --> 00:00:11.182 Aw man, there we go. 00:00:11.266 --> 00:00:13.143 We'll visit the spot that reimagined 00:00:13.226 --> 00:00:15.478 what we considered pizza. 00:00:15.562 --> 00:00:18.064 I didn't know pizza looked like this, smelled like this. 00:00:18.189 --> 00:00:20.191 Certainly never tasted like this. 00:00:20.316 --> 00:00:22.152 Plus if you needed to scramble your eggs 00:00:22.235 --> 00:00:26.406 before cracking them open back then, you were in luck. 00:00:26.531 --> 00:00:27.449 Wow! 00:00:28.366 --> 00:00:29.993 And did you know that big soda 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.078 changed their recipes in the '80s? 00:00:32.203 --> 00:00:35.874 We'll see if our fizzy drinks tasted better then or now. 00:00:35.999 --> 00:00:39.461 Wow, it was like an injection of sweetness. 00:00:40.879 --> 00:00:42.338 I'm on the hunt to relive 00:00:42.464 --> 00:00:44.299 an extraordinary decade 00:00:44.382 --> 00:00:46.926 for food, the 1980s! 00:00:48.011 --> 00:00:50.346 It's an era of iconic 00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:52.098 hits and misses. 00:00:52.223 --> 00:00:54.434 Join me, Adam Richman, 00:00:54.559 --> 00:00:57.562 as we get a long lost taste of 00:00:57.645 --> 00:00:59.105 the icons and the forgotten. 00:00:59.189 --> 00:01:01.649 Oh, talk about smell. 00:01:01.775 --> 00:01:04.027 Because food is my time machine 00:01:04.152 --> 00:01:06.196 and I've been waiting my whole life. 00:01:06.321 --> 00:01:07.447 I'm literally drooling. 00:01:07.572 --> 00:01:09.157 For one more bite. 00:01:16.998 --> 00:01:19.292 The times are always a changing, 00:01:19.417 --> 00:01:22.420 but the 1980s ushered in some of the most life-altering 00:01:22.545 --> 00:01:25.006 changes of the past half century. 00:01:25.090 --> 00:01:28.009 I'm not talking about a new iPhone every year. 00:01:28.093 --> 00:01:31.012 I'm talking about radical transformations 00:01:31.137 --> 00:01:34.516 like the very first mobile phone in 1983, 00:01:34.682 --> 00:01:38.269 an around the clock music channel called MTV, 00:01:38.394 --> 00:01:41.981 and a little thing called the artificial heart. 00:01:42.065 --> 00:01:44.609 In a lot of ways, the '80s were a pivot point 00:01:44.692 --> 00:01:47.153 in human history and it seemed like nothing 00:01:47.278 --> 00:01:49.155 was safe from the revolution, 00:01:49.322 --> 00:01:50.865 not even one of the fundamental 00:01:50.865 --> 00:01:53.076 building blocks of life, pizza. 00:01:55.078 --> 00:01:57.080 This was the decade when 00:01:57.205 --> 00:01:58.915 Domino's perfected home delivery 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:03.419 and Pizza Hut reimagined their pie in two new ways, 00:02:03.545 --> 00:02:06.047 a hugely successful pan pizza 00:02:06.214 --> 00:02:08.007 and the long lost Priazzo, 00:02:08.133 --> 00:02:10.009 which was a double decker pizza. 00:02:10.135 --> 00:02:11.553 But no matter how many layers 00:02:11.678 --> 00:02:13.471 or how quickly it was delivered, 00:02:13.555 --> 00:02:15.682 both of these pizza powerhouses 00:02:15.807 --> 00:02:19.561 were still only offering prototypically Italian toppings. 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:22.480 It was a new kid on the block, 00:02:22.605 --> 00:02:24.858 not in Italy, but California, baby, 00:02:24.983 --> 00:02:27.819 that completely changed what a pizza could be. 00:02:30.613 --> 00:02:33.658 I am in sunny Beverly Hills, California 00:02:33.741 --> 00:02:37.829 at the site of the very first California Pizza Kitchen. 00:02:38.705 --> 00:02:41.583 This brand, launched in 1985, 00:02:41.708 --> 00:02:45.962 did nothing less than revolutionize pizza forever, 00:02:46.087 --> 00:02:47.922 in ways that still reverberate 00:02:48.006 --> 00:02:49.215 throughout the country. 00:02:50.758 --> 00:02:53.636 Back then, most Americans expected every pizza 00:02:53.720 --> 00:02:56.431 to have three things, a crust, 00:02:56.514 --> 00:02:58.016 tomato sauce, and mozzarella. 00:02:58.141 --> 00:03:00.685 It was a combination that could be traced all the way back 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:02.979 to 16th century Naples, Italy, 00:03:03.062 --> 00:03:05.565 when the tomato was introduced from America. 00:03:06.983 --> 00:03:09.402 When King Umberto and his wife Queen Margherita visited 00:03:09.527 --> 00:03:12.906 in 1889, the queen fell in love with a simple 00:03:13.031 --> 00:03:15.241 tomato, mozzarella, and basil pie 00:03:15.366 --> 00:03:18.453 that matched the red, white, and green of the Italian flag. 00:03:18.536 --> 00:03:21.831 And it became known as pizza Margherita, 00:03:21.956 --> 00:03:25.877 a humble dish suddenly fit for a king and queen. 00:03:26.044 --> 00:03:29.714 Since then, pizza has obviously spread far and wide, 00:03:29.839 --> 00:03:32.175 with the basic building blocks of tomato sauce 00:03:32.258 --> 00:03:36.095 and mozzarella cheese on bread base as the expected norm. 00:03:36.221 --> 00:03:38.806 That is until the 1980s, 00:03:38.890 --> 00:03:42.393 when California Pizza Kitchen helped start 00:03:42.518 --> 00:03:45.647 a pizza revolution. 00:03:45.730 --> 00:03:47.482 I'm meeting with Brian Sullivan, 00:03:47.649 --> 00:03:50.652 senior vice president of culinary innovation for CPK. 00:03:50.818 --> 00:03:52.987 - Hi, how are you? Welcome to CPK. 00:03:53.154 --> 00:03:55.990 And he's gonna tell us how they changed the game. 00:03:56.157 --> 00:03:59.202 - Two attorneys, Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, 00:03:59.369 --> 00:04:02.997 tapped chef Ed LaDou initially, and they used his expertise 00:04:03.122 --> 00:04:05.583 to kind of help them with the new menu. 00:04:05.708 --> 00:04:07.418 Chef Ed LaDou is considered 00:04:07.543 --> 00:04:08.670 one of the founding fathers 00:04:08.836 --> 00:04:11.339 of gourmet California-style pizza. 00:04:12.799 --> 00:04:15.009 He was hired by legendary chef Wolfgang Puck 00:04:15.176 --> 00:04:16.928 to be his head pizza chef 00:04:17.053 --> 00:04:21.557 at his exclusive high end new restaurant Spago in 1982. 00:04:21.683 --> 00:04:25.895 There he developed over 250 unique pizza concepts, 00:04:26.020 --> 00:04:29.899 using unusual ingredients like pate, smoked salmon, 00:04:30.024 --> 00:04:33.820 and caviar that had not been seen on a pizza before. 00:04:33.987 --> 00:04:36.781 The founders of California Pizza Kitchen 00:04:36.864 --> 00:04:40.493 wanted LaDou to help them reinvent pizza for the masses 00:04:40.618 --> 00:04:43.788 the way he did for the Hollywood elite at Spago. 00:04:44.205 --> 00:04:46.499 - The thought that Rick and Larry had was to make it 00:04:46.624 --> 00:04:49.669 a little bit more accessible to people, 00:04:49.836 --> 00:04:51.713 flavors that they could identify with, that they love, 00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:53.923 but in unexpected combinations. 00:04:54.048 --> 00:04:57.010 CPK proved that a pizza didn't have to 00:04:57.135 --> 00:04:59.846 just be tomato sauce and mozzarella. 00:04:59.971 --> 00:05:02.473 It could be a blank canvas where you could create 00:05:02.598 --> 00:05:04.434 mouthwatering combinations 00:05:04.559 --> 00:05:06.644 with ingredients from any cuisine. 00:05:06.811 --> 00:05:09.564 This delicious revelation, as well as the invention 00:05:09.689 --> 00:05:12.108 of one unique pizza variation, 00:05:12.191 --> 00:05:14.736 which became iconic from coast to coast, 00:05:14.861 --> 00:05:19.324 propelled CPK from their first restaurant that I'm at today, 00:05:19.407 --> 00:05:23.703 to a chain of over 250 locations. 00:05:24.871 --> 00:05:26.664 - So this is the original menu right here. 00:05:26.748 --> 00:05:27.915 There's a lot of fusion on here, 00:05:28.041 --> 00:05:30.126 a lot of exotic ingredients. 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:32.712 - Japanese eggplant, duck, 00:05:32.795 --> 00:05:35.173 goat cheese, and rabbit? 00:05:36.924 --> 00:05:37.967 I'm stuck on rabbit sausage. 00:05:38.092 --> 00:05:39.927 Do you guys still offer that on the menu? 00:05:40.053 --> 00:05:42.889 - No, I think rabbit sausage has been off the menu 00:05:43.014 --> 00:05:44.974 for quite some time now, but-- 00:05:45.099 --> 00:05:46.184 - Yes? 00:05:46.309 --> 00:05:47.852 - If you're interested, you and I make it together? 00:05:48.019 --> 00:05:50.772 - Oh man, I am a hundred percent behind that. 00:05:50.855 --> 00:05:53.983 Rabbit is considered a delicacy in a lot of places. 00:05:54.108 --> 00:05:56.819 But back in the '80s, it was way out of left field. 00:05:56.944 --> 00:05:58.488 A lot of customers couldn't wrap their heads 00:05:58.613 --> 00:05:59.989 around eating a bunny. 00:06:00.073 --> 00:06:02.533 So it was off the menu within a couple of years, 00:06:02.658 --> 00:06:04.911 never to be seen again, 00:06:05.036 --> 00:06:06.954 until now. 00:06:07.080 --> 00:06:08.539 - The first thing we're gonna do is 00:06:08.664 --> 00:06:11.167 add a little bit of fresh mozzarella. 00:06:11.250 --> 00:06:12.627 Sauteed spinach. 00:06:12.752 --> 00:06:13.920 - Now we're ready for the rabbit sausage, 00:06:14.045 --> 00:06:15.838 made with a little bit of pork. 00:06:16.005 --> 00:06:18.091 There's some jalapeno in there as well. 00:06:19.717 --> 00:06:20.676 It's ready, you ready to pull it out? 00:06:20.760 --> 00:06:21.928 Let's do this. 00:06:23.513 --> 00:06:24.680 - Oh my God. 00:06:24.806 --> 00:06:25.765 - Look at that beauty. 00:06:25.890 --> 00:06:27.350 Oh, that's gorgeous. 00:06:27.475 --> 00:06:30.061 - But to have a pizza that itself has not been around 00:06:30.186 --> 00:06:33.106 since the '80s, it's pretty special. 00:06:39.362 --> 00:06:40.613 This is spectacular. 00:06:40.738 --> 00:06:43.783 You know, first thing I get is that spinach. 00:06:43.908 --> 00:06:47.328 It's strange, and then it almost becomes the gateway 00:06:47.412 --> 00:06:49.288 to these other flavors. 00:06:49.414 --> 00:06:50.915 It's just so damn good. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:53.334 Great as it obviously was back in the day, 00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:57.797 CPK's rabbit sausage pie didn't exactly change the world. 00:06:57.922 --> 00:06:59.841 In hindsight, the country likely wasn't ready 00:06:59.924 --> 00:07:01.384 for rabbit sausage. 00:07:01.509 --> 00:07:03.094 After all, rabbits were 00:07:03.177 --> 00:07:04.971 oddly huge in pop culture. 00:07:06.889 --> 00:07:09.934 My most memorable rabbits of the '80s were 00:07:10.059 --> 00:07:12.061 the pet bunny from "Fatal Attraction," 00:07:12.186 --> 00:07:15.356 whose violent demise introduced the term bunny boiler 00:07:15.481 --> 00:07:16.941 into the popular lexicon. 00:07:18.359 --> 00:07:21.362 Roger Rabbit from the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" 00:07:21.487 --> 00:07:25.283 Which hopped away with over 320 million at the box office, 00:07:25.366 --> 00:07:27.118 making it one of the highest 00:07:27.201 --> 00:07:28.828 grossing movies of 1988, 00:07:28.953 --> 00:07:32.623 and the Energizer bunny, who was introduced to the world 00:07:32.748 --> 00:07:34.125 as a parody of battery rival 00:07:34.208 --> 00:07:36.461 Duracell's own band of drumming bunnies. 00:07:37.086 --> 00:07:40.423 The '80s was a transformative decade on so many levels, 00:07:40.548 --> 00:07:42.258 and some of the biggest beneficiaries 00:07:42.425 --> 00:07:44.510 of all this progress were our stomachs. 00:07:45.845 --> 00:07:49.474 I'm at the very first California Pizza Kitchen, 00:07:49.599 --> 00:07:51.642 opened in 1985. 00:07:51.767 --> 00:07:54.061 CPK's head of culinary development made me 00:07:54.145 --> 00:07:56.981 a rabbit sausage pie not seen since the '80s, 00:07:57.106 --> 00:08:00.109 but now it's finally time for the main event, 00:08:00.234 --> 00:08:04.113 a pie that put California Pizza Kitchen on the map 00:08:04.280 --> 00:08:06.824 and spawned countless imitations in pizza shops, 00:08:06.949 --> 00:08:09.911 restaurants and stores all across the country. 00:08:09.994 --> 00:08:15.041 The one, the only barbecue chicken pizza. 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:20.505 This is the dish that made us want to come 00:08:20.630 --> 00:08:22.924 to the very first California Pizza Kitchen. 00:08:23.049 --> 00:08:25.510 - Right where we're standing is where it truly all began, 00:08:25.635 --> 00:08:26.969 right in this spot, 00:08:27.094 --> 00:08:31.015 the first barbecue chicken pizza was made in 1985. 00:08:31.140 --> 00:08:32.892 So we're gonna start with our sweet and sassy 00:08:33.017 --> 00:08:34.810 barbecue sauce, little bit 00:08:34.894 --> 00:08:36.270 of black pepper in here, 00:08:36.437 --> 00:08:39.273 and definitely a nice smoke note. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:40.399 And then the second ingredient, 00:08:40.525 --> 00:08:41.734 which is really important too, 00:08:41.901 --> 00:08:43.986 because of the smokey element that it adds. 00:08:44.111 --> 00:08:46.572 When you think about barbecue chicken, Gouda cheese. 00:08:46.697 --> 00:08:48.241 Well, the next ingredient-- 00:08:48.366 --> 00:08:49.158 - Red onion. 00:08:49.283 --> 00:08:50.576 - Fresh red onion. 00:08:50.660 --> 00:08:54.038 Then the last ingredient is barbecue chicken. 00:08:55.122 --> 00:08:56.123 Now that chicken's been tossed 00:08:56.290 --> 00:08:57.542 in that sauce already? 00:08:57.667 --> 00:09:00.044 - It has, it's been tossed in the same sauce. 00:09:00.127 --> 00:09:04.590 It's been marinated and grilled in house and then cut fresh. 00:09:06.050 --> 00:09:09.053 - While barbecue certainly wasn't invented in the '80s, 00:09:09.136 --> 00:09:13.349 barbecue flavored became hugely popular during that decade. 00:09:13.432 --> 00:09:14.475 Some attribute the rise 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.228 to the proliferation of barbecue competitions. 00:09:17.353 --> 00:09:20.606 The first American Royal Barbecue Competition took place 00:09:20.773 --> 00:09:23.150 in 1980 and it's considered by some 00:09:23.276 --> 00:09:26.153 to be the world's predominant barbecue competition. 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:31.033 The Kansas City Barbecue Society was founded in 1986, 00:09:31.117 --> 00:09:32.994 and with more than 20,000 current members, 00:09:33.119 --> 00:09:35.663 it's now the world's largest organization 00:09:35.788 --> 00:09:37.582 for barbecue enthusiasts. 00:09:37.665 --> 00:09:40.543 Meanwhile, several barbecue sauce brands 00:09:40.626 --> 00:09:43.421 were running competing national ad campaigns, 00:09:43.546 --> 00:09:46.591 including KC Masterpiece, Bullseye, 00:09:46.674 --> 00:09:50.469 Kraft, and Hunt's, which featured *van Dyke. 00:09:50.595 --> 00:09:52.638 It seemed Americans couldn't get enough. 00:09:52.763 --> 00:09:54.056 And the pervasiveness of barbecue 00:09:54.140 --> 00:09:55.808 seemed to open their minds even to something 00:09:55.933 --> 00:09:58.477 as out-of-the-box as 00:09:58.561 --> 00:10:00.980 barbecue chicken on pizza. 00:10:01.689 --> 00:10:03.566 Aw man, there we go. 00:10:03.691 --> 00:10:04.817 - Then we're gonna hit it with a little 00:10:04.942 --> 00:10:07.153 additional barbecue sauce, just a touch on top. 00:10:07.278 --> 00:10:09.488 And that is our barbecue chicken pizza. 00:10:09.614 --> 00:10:11.157 - It's perfection. 00:10:11.282 --> 00:10:12.908 There are a lot of imitators out there, 00:10:13.075 --> 00:10:16.203 but none of them taste like this one. 00:10:19.540 --> 00:10:20.875 - That's insanely delicious. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.669 One bite and you get why this is a legend. 00:10:23.794 --> 00:10:25.630 There's sweetness from the sauce 00:10:25.796 --> 00:10:27.590 and a little bit of bite from the red onion. 00:10:27.715 --> 00:10:29.133 - It was perfection from day one. 00:10:29.300 --> 00:10:30.718 And that's why there wasn't really any need 00:10:30.843 --> 00:10:32.178 to make any changes to it. 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:35.056 - Get rid of your Members Only jacket. 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:38.267 You can get rid of your Cabbage Patch Kid, 00:10:38.434 --> 00:10:41.228 your stone wash jeans, but this is the thing from the '80s 00:10:41.312 --> 00:10:42.855 you never wanna let go of. 00:10:43.939 --> 00:10:46.192 After its debut in 1985, 00:10:46.275 --> 00:10:49.070 variations of CPKs barbecue chicken pizza 00:10:49.195 --> 00:10:50.655 appeared in countless pizza 00:10:50.738 --> 00:10:52.073 shops across the country. 00:10:52.239 --> 00:10:53.658 Even the biggest national pizza 00:10:53.741 --> 00:10:54.950 chains got in on the trend, 00:10:55.117 --> 00:10:56.577 with Domino's introducing their 00:10:56.702 --> 00:10:59.580 Memphis Barbecue Chicken pizza in 2009 00:10:59.705 --> 00:11:01.165 and Pizza Hut offering 00:11:01.290 --> 00:11:05.252 a Giddy-Up Barbecue Chicken pizza in 2014. 00:11:05.378 --> 00:11:07.755 California Pizza Kitchen inspired a generation 00:11:07.880 --> 00:11:10.675 of pizza chefs to think beyond the Margherita 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:12.510 and let the dough be a blank canvas 00:11:12.635 --> 00:11:14.720 for their wildest culinary imaginations. 00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:22.853 The 1980s changed life as we knew it in so many ways. 00:11:22.937 --> 00:11:25.064 But one of the biggest that we don't often think about 00:11:25.189 --> 00:11:28.109 is the revolution in how we eat and drink. 00:11:28.275 --> 00:11:31.112 While some kitchen innovations popularized in the '80s, 00:11:31.278 --> 00:11:33.614 like the microwave and the food processor, 00:11:33.781 --> 00:11:35.783 are just as popular today, 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:38.202 there were others that soon wound up in basements 00:11:38.285 --> 00:11:40.871 collecting dust next to the old eight track player. 00:11:40.996 --> 00:11:42.790 And the electric egg scrambler 00:11:42.915 --> 00:11:45.960 was possibly one of the most ridiculous. 00:11:47.378 --> 00:11:51.215 The Ronco inside the shell electric egg scrambler 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:54.093 hit the market in 1977. 00:11:54.218 --> 00:11:56.929 The device contains an angled pin 00:11:57.054 --> 00:11:58.931 which you use to pierce an egg. 00:11:59.098 --> 00:12:00.725 Press down gently 00:12:00.808 --> 00:12:02.560 until the motor starts. 00:12:02.685 --> 00:12:05.479 The pin rotates inside the shell. 00:12:05.604 --> 00:12:07.231 Got some serious RPMs here. 00:12:07.356 --> 00:12:11.026 It boasted a five second scramble time per egg. 00:12:12.194 --> 00:12:13.362 When you crack the egg into the pan, 00:12:13.446 --> 00:12:14.947 the whisking is done. 00:12:15.114 --> 00:12:18.075 Wow, completely scrambled. 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.413 Now it says it's supposed to make it taste better. 00:12:22.538 --> 00:12:24.832 Scrambled eggs, French toast, and omelets 00:12:24.957 --> 00:12:27.501 not only look better, but taste better. 00:12:27.626 --> 00:12:29.128 - Does it make it taste better? 00:12:30.379 --> 00:12:33.424 It tastes like an egg. 00:12:33.591 --> 00:12:36.677 Turns out not every innovation is worth its shelf space, 00:12:36.802 --> 00:12:38.262 but there are also changes 00:12:38.387 --> 00:12:39.764 that are a bit harder to quantify. 00:12:39.889 --> 00:12:41.891 A lot of people might not realize that one of the biggest 00:12:42.057 --> 00:12:44.059 and most consequential transformations 00:12:44.185 --> 00:12:48.105 in the history of soda happened in America in the '80s, 00:12:48.230 --> 00:12:49.982 but was it for better or worse? 00:12:50.107 --> 00:12:53.611 In 1981, when President Ronald Reagan increased 00:12:53.778 --> 00:12:57.406 import tariffs, ending our 40-year love affair 00:12:57.490 --> 00:12:58.824 with cheap sugar. 00:12:58.949 --> 00:13:02.286 So that increased the cost of soda production, 00:13:02.411 --> 00:13:05.080 so the juggernauts like Pepsi and Coke, 00:13:05.206 --> 00:13:08.000 they had to change their recipes 00:13:08.125 --> 00:13:11.128 and replace the sugar with a cheaper substitute. 00:13:11.295 --> 00:13:12.421 40 years later, 00:13:12.588 --> 00:13:15.007 there are legions of soda diehards out there 00:13:15.132 --> 00:13:18.886 who swear it tasted better before the switch. 00:13:19.011 --> 00:13:21.639 What if we could turn back the time on cola 00:13:21.764 --> 00:13:24.517 and try sodas with their original recipes 00:13:24.642 --> 00:13:26.769 and find out if they tasted better? 00:13:28.270 --> 00:13:32.441 Today I'm in Foster City, California at Mattson HQ. 00:13:32.566 --> 00:13:35.277 Now I have been sworn to secrecy in terms of who, 00:13:35.444 --> 00:13:38.531 but some of the world's largest and most successful 00:13:38.614 --> 00:13:42.326 global brands who make your favorites snacks, sodas, 00:13:42.451 --> 00:13:45.246 fast food, baby food, cereal, alcohol, 00:13:45.371 --> 00:13:46.872 have all sought the expertise 00:13:46.956 --> 00:13:49.208 of the specialists inside these walls. 00:13:49.291 --> 00:13:53.003 Now, today I've asked them to recreate some original 1980 00:13:53.128 --> 00:13:55.714 soda recipes so that I can see if it tastes better 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.716 than the stuff that we can buy today. 00:13:57.800 --> 00:13:59.385 Hello. How are you doing? 00:13:59.510 --> 00:14:00.261 - Great. 00:14:00.386 --> 00:14:02.012 - Nice to meet you. 00:14:02.096 --> 00:14:04.890 - Ever since the birth of cola a century earlier, 00:14:05.015 --> 00:14:06.767 it had relied on one key ingredient 00:14:06.934 --> 00:14:08.894 to give it that signature sweetness, 00:14:09.019 --> 00:14:11.564 but suddenly the two biggest soda companies in the world 00:14:11.689 --> 00:14:14.233 ditched that ingredient for something entirely new. 00:14:14.400 --> 00:14:20.322 In '84, on the exact same day, Coca-Cola and Pepsi announced 00:14:20.447 --> 00:14:24.076 that they're making the change from sugar to corn syrup. 00:14:24.201 --> 00:14:26.495 As sugar prices started to rise in America 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:30.082 in the late 1970s, it was the ideal substitute, 00:14:30.207 --> 00:14:32.376 because it could supply the same sweetening 00:14:32.501 --> 00:14:34.253 at a fraction of the cost. 00:14:34.336 --> 00:14:36.422 By the '80s, it was pinch hitting for sugar 00:14:36.547 --> 00:14:39.341 not only in cola, but in cereals, snacks, 00:14:39.466 --> 00:14:41.343 and baked goods across the country. 00:14:41.468 --> 00:14:43.512 It's still widely used today, 00:14:43.637 --> 00:14:46.640 but does it really taste the same as sugar? 00:14:46.765 --> 00:14:49.810 So if we're talking about the soda of the 21st century 00:14:49.935 --> 00:14:51.812 and the sodas of the '80s, 00:14:51.937 --> 00:14:57.234 the difference is sugar and high fructose corn syrup. 00:14:57.318 --> 00:14:58.527 Is it possible to try it? 00:14:58.611 --> 00:14:59.737 - We can certainly try it. 00:14:59.904 --> 00:15:02.281 - First up, high fructose corn syrup, 00:15:02.448 --> 00:15:04.366 the sweetener used in today's cola. 00:15:09.246 --> 00:15:10.289 Wow. 00:15:10.456 --> 00:15:11.832 High fructose corn syrup 00:15:12.958 --> 00:15:16.503 is exponentially sweeter than most sugars. 00:15:16.629 --> 00:15:19.965 It was like an injection of sweetness, 00:15:20.090 --> 00:15:22.301 like there was nothing else perceptible. 00:15:22.468 --> 00:15:24.136 Now for the sucrose, 00:15:24.261 --> 00:15:28.140 the sweetener they used in colas up to 1984. 00:15:32.937 --> 00:15:35.147 There's a faint, almost caramel-y, 00:15:36.565 --> 00:15:39.026 bordering on a toasted sort of flavor. 00:15:39.109 --> 00:15:45.199 There is a depth of flavor to traditional sugar and sucrose 00:15:45.324 --> 00:15:48.577 that high fructose corn syrup simply does not have. 00:15:48.744 --> 00:15:49.662 - Complexity, right. 00:15:49.787 --> 00:15:51.330 - Complexity, exactly right. 00:15:55.167 --> 00:15:56.919 Coming up, we'll u So I came here on a mission 00:15:57.002 --> 00:16:01.090 to see if the sodas prior to 1984 were better 00:16:01.215 --> 00:16:05.928 or maybe slightly inferior to the sodas that came after 00:16:06.053 --> 00:16:10.015 when we shifted from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. 00:16:11.266 --> 00:16:14.728 Doug is mixing up two samples of generic cola. 00:16:14.895 --> 00:16:16.939 And while the exact formulas for Coke and Pepsi 00:16:17.106 --> 00:16:19.650 are a closely guarded secret, 00:16:19.775 --> 00:16:21.902 we have all the basic ingredients and measurements 00:16:22.027 --> 00:16:24.446 to make a generic cola for our taste test, 00:16:24.571 --> 00:16:27.074 including cola flavoring, caffeine, 00:16:27.157 --> 00:16:31.370 phosphoric acid, carbonated, water, and caramel coloring. 00:16:31.453 --> 00:16:33.205 The only difference between the two samples 00:16:33.288 --> 00:16:34.415 is the sweetener. 00:16:34.581 --> 00:16:36.625 There's one with old school sugar 00:16:36.792 --> 00:16:40.254 and one with high fructose corn syrup. 00:16:40.379 --> 00:16:43.966 Let's see if I could tell the difference between the two. 00:16:49.888 --> 00:16:52.808 This was less sweet, 00:16:52.933 --> 00:16:57.062 more like caramel forward, more vanilla forward. 00:17:01.358 --> 00:17:03.777 This tastes like the Coke that I've had the most. 00:17:03.944 --> 00:17:07.489 It had a much more pronounced sweet note. 00:17:07.614 --> 00:17:09.491 Okay. I got it. 00:17:09.616 --> 00:17:12.202 I'm gonna say the first one you poured, 00:17:12.286 --> 00:17:13.412 which was on the left, 00:17:13.495 --> 00:17:16.123 is high fructose corn syrup and that that's sugar. 00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:20.127 The sugar's got a little more character, but it's so close. 00:17:20.961 --> 00:17:22.129 - Lift your glass up. 00:17:25.841 --> 00:17:28.886 - HFCS. 00:17:29.011 --> 00:17:31.638 But honestly, I can't say 00:17:31.764 --> 00:17:34.892 that what we had in the early '80s was better. 00:17:34.975 --> 00:17:36.226 It was different, 00:17:36.351 --> 00:17:39.855 but what we have now is still pretty fantastic. 00:17:39.938 --> 00:17:42.149 Not all cola connoisseurs would agree with me. 00:17:44.651 --> 00:17:49.406 A lot of them still swear by the original sugar recipes. 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:52.326 And today that craving is fueling a big market 00:17:52.451 --> 00:17:54.787 for Coke made in Mexico, 00:17:54.912 --> 00:17:56.914 where they still use sugar. 00:17:58.916 --> 00:18:02.586 Mexican Coke was first imported into the US in 2005 00:18:02.711 --> 00:18:04.713 and quickly became a cult favorite. 00:18:05.964 --> 00:18:08.759 Big cola escaped the decade relatively unscathed 00:18:08.842 --> 00:18:10.844 after their sweetener switcheroo. 00:18:10.969 --> 00:18:12.596 Certainly the innovators at the time 00:18:12.721 --> 00:18:14.181 weren't afraid to shake things up, 00:18:14.264 --> 00:18:16.517 but hey, it was the '80s and big change was in the air. 00:18:16.975 --> 00:18:19.770 But this much is clear, the innovators of the time 00:18:19.853 --> 00:18:21.355 weren't afraid to shake things up 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.673 because as Ferris Bueller once said, life moves pretty fast. 00:18:24.209 --> 00:18:26.920 If you don't stop and look around once in a while, 00:18:27.045 --> 00:18:28.338 you can miss it. 00:18:28.463 --> 00:18:29.589 See you next time.