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By Mike Dunphy, CNN

(CNN) — When American pharmacist John Stith Pemberton reached his eureka moment on May 8, 1886, his formula for what would become Coca-Cola sparked a global soft drink revolution that still reverberates today.

In fact, it’s now possible to “buy the world a Coke,” as the 1970s jingle goes, in nearly every country — apart from Cuba, North Korea and, since 2022, Russia — but even these places have developed local substitutes to satisfy their citizens’ cola cravings.

Those same cravings have also inspired many entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and even governments around the world to create regional alternatives that incorporate native ingredients and novel formulas for a new cola experience from the roots up.

Often, the successful ones end up owned or part-owned by The Coca-Cola Company — such as Thums Up cola in India and Inca Kola in Peru — but here are eight indie colas around the world that fizz and froth like a classic cola but pour something very different.

Kofola, Czechia

“Love is in Kofola’s DNA” declares this Czech take on cola. What’s actually in this formula is a secret recipe of 14 herbal and fruit extracts, plus caffeine, created during the Cold War in then Czechoslovakia. It was the result of a state assignment, issued to the United Pharmaceutical Works, to create a purely Czechoslovak drink tasty enough to compete with cola drinks from the capitalist West.

The result, Kofola, looks every bit like a Coke in appearance but tastes more herbal in flavor. Among the 14 ingredients in the proprietary Kofo syrup that make it so are raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, cinnamon, licorice, caramel, apple, cherry and orange peel. On top of that, it has 30% less sugar than a Coke and no phosphoric acid.

It’s an acquired taste for some, but as the Kofola slogan says: “If you love it, then there’s nothing to work out.”

Cockta, Slovenia

Another chapter in the cola Cold War, Cockta landed on its formula in 1952, thanks to Emerik Zelinka, professor of chemistry at the University of Ljubljana in then Yugoslavia. Within a year, it was filling bottles and refreshing Yugoslavs as the new national drink. Like many Cold War colas, it almost fell with communism but eventually recovered and found success under capitalism — and quite a bit of it. Today, Cockta is distributed in 18 countries, including the United States.

New fans are won over by the tart, citrus, floral flavor that comes from its secret, caffeine-free combination of 11 herbs and spices, including pomegranate, lemon and orange. But the primary tasting note comes care of the dog rose berry, aka “rosehip.” Cockta also mixes remarkably well with Slovenian red Refošk wine to create a bambus, the local name for a red wine and cola mix.

Ojaja Cola, Nigeria

This Nigerian cola, launched with great fanfare in February 2026, comes with spiritual and royal roots. In fact, it’s the brainchild of His Imperial Majesty Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, the 51st Ooni of Ife and spiritual leader of the Yoruba people. The African homeland is written into the drink’s DNA, with 100% indigenous ingredients, including everything from actual kola nuts that provide natural caffeine to a spicy ginger kick.

The mission goes further, as the Ooni of Ife noted on his Instagram page at the launch. “This milestone transcends the realm of beverages,” he wrote. “Every aspect of the Ojaja brand reflects an

Análisis por David Goldman, CNN

Taco Bell ha sido la estrella del sector de la comida rápida durante varios años. Pero ahora, la empresa se enfrenta a la peor pesadilla de un restaurante: un brote de diarrea explosiva.

La lechuga iceberg picada vendida en algunos locales de Taco Bell del Medio Oeste ha sido vinculada con el gran brote del parásito de la ciclosporiasis que afecta a varias zonas de Estados Unidos. Los CDC han identificado más de 1.600 casos vinculados a este brote, incluidas casi 100 hospitalizaciones, y las autoridades estatales investigan miles de casos más. La lechuga fue suministrada a Taco Bell en Michigan, Ohio, Virginia Occidental, Indiana y Kentucky por Taylor Farms, informó el jueves una fuente cercana a la investigación a Brenda Goodman y Deidre McPhillips, de CNN.

Taylor Farms no respondió a la solicitud de comentarios de CNN.

El jueves, Taco Bell anunció que había retirado de su cadena de suministro nacional, por precaución, la lechuga potencialmente afectada y que buscaría un proveedor sustituto en un plazo de 24 horas para determinados estados.

“Nos enorgullece haber actuado siempre con rapidez y de forma proactiva para proteger a nuestros clientes”, declaró Taco Bell en un comunicado.

Sin embargo, la historia demuestra que los clientes de comida rápida son cambiantes, y es posible que Taco Bell tenga mucho trabajo por delante para recuperar a los clientes que se sintieron asqueados, especialmente a aquellos que enfermaron.

Taco Bell atravesaba una excelente racha. Las ventas de la compañía en sus locales existentes habían crecido durante ocho trimestres consecutivos. Y no se trataba de ganancias marginales: la empresa informó que las ventas en los establecimientos abiertos desde hace al menos un año aumentaron un notable 8 % en el primer trimestre. Los beneficios en dichos locales crecieron un 16 %.

En comparación, McDonald’s registró un crecimiento del 3,8 % según esa misma métrica de ventas en el primer trimestre. Burger King creció un 5,8 %, mientras que Wendy’s cayó un 2,1 %.

Taco Bell ha logrado atraer clientes gracias a sus ofertas económicas, que incluyen varios productos del menú con un precio de US$ 3 o menos.

Pero, como bien saben McDonald’s y Chipotle, esa buena imagen puede cambiar en un instante. A finales de 2024, McDonald’s estaba en plena recuperación hasta que un brote de E. coli, cuyo origen se rastreó hasta las cebollas servidas en las hamburguesas Quarter Pounder, enfermó a más de 100 clientes. Las ventas de McDonald’s en el cuarto trimestre de 2024 cayeron un 1,4 %, tras haber aumentado un 4,3 % en el mismo trimestre del año anterior.

Por eso, la respuesta de Taco Bell ante el brote será clave.

Hasta ahora, la empresa ha trabajado más en la cocina que en el ámbito público. Retirar la lechuga afectada fue el primer paso necesario, pero un breve comunicado publicado en su sitio web podría no bastar para convencer a los clientes de que Taco Bell tiene la situación bajo control.

McDonald’s, en cambio, invirtió US$ 100 millones en 2024 en una campaña publicitaria y en un programa de apoyo a los franquiciados para atraer de nuevo a los clientes a sus restaurantes. Su CEO, Chris Kempczinski, convocó una conferencia de prensa especial y concedió varias entrevistas para calmar los temores y asegurar a los clientes (y a los inversores) que la empresa estaba tomando medidas serias para solucionar el problema.

La historia de Chipotle en la década anterior fue distinta: la compañía no logró contener un brote masivo de E. coli que comenzó en 2015 y sufrió un daño a su reputación tan grande que reemplazó a su CEO y fundador por Brian Niccol, quien había dirigido Taco Bell durante siete años. Las ventas de Chipotle tardaron años en recuperarse.

“Los clien

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Zoe Whitfield

(CNN) — So intimately tethered is the American family at the center of Karim Aïnouz’s latest movie “Rosebush Pruning” – by blood, desire, and an excessive interest in designer labels – that the arrival of any outsider would guarantee friction. When Elle Fanning’s character Martha (the girlfriend of eldest son Jack, portrayed by Jamie Bell), is introduced for the first time, his sister Anna (Riley Keough) quickly dismisses the perceived intruder in the most damning way she knows how: venomously characterizing Martha’s perfectly chic black and red floral dress as high street garb.

“It’s obviously not Zara,” costume designer Bina Daigeler, who sourced the dress from a vintage store in Barcelona, clarified on a video call. “You can’t see who made it, which made it easier for Anna to say, ‘oh, it’s probably a Zara dress.’” The conclusion to one of the film’s more explicitly uncomfortable scenes, Anna’s remark follows a request by her widowed father (Tracy Letts), blind since the matriarch’s passing, to describe their guest’s appearance: dress, handbag, hair, bosom. Anna’s attitude speaks to the jealousy that fuels the movie’s wider narrative – Jack is adored, largely inappropriately, by all the members of his family – while his father’s probing highlights a warped sense of entitlement.

The four siblings – Anna, Jack, middle brother Ed (Callum Turner) and younger brother Robert (Lukas Gage) – are all adult and all still living at the family home, a modernist property in the hinterlands of Catalonia, Spain. By their own account they’re all overly enthusiastic about fashion, with access to the kind of wealth that allows them to focus solely on the pursuit of clothes and style, and this pre-occupation is tightly woven into the film’s dialogue. Indeed, the movie opens with Ed quizzing an older Greek man he’s befriended on the Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester, before berating him for confusing his Bottega Veneta loafers for Sebago.

Loosely based on the 1965 Marco Bellocchio film, “Fists in the Pocket,” “Rosebush Pruning” is Aïnouz’s second English language film and was co-written by Efthimis Filippou. With its unconventional family dynamic, it adopts a similar energy to Yorgos Lanthimos’s absurd family drama “Dogtooth,” (also co-written by Filippou), while its eat the rich style of satire puts it in conversation with Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn.” Aïnouz’s new feature, however, is extreme in its brand of dysfunction and study of incestuous lust, amped up by its arresting cinematography. Here it is Ed, whose early voiceovers announce the lay of land, that ultimately devises a violent plan to disrupt the family’s co-dependency, allowing Jack, an anomaly amongst the “lazy, mediocre, vapid, egotists,” a chance to live independently with his girlfriend.

“It was very intuitive, between me and Karim, we had fun together immediately,” said Daigeler, who was Oscar-nominated for her work on 2020’s “Mulan” and led the costume department on the acclaimed Cate Blanchett vehicle “Tár.” “We’d meet early in the house before anybody else and exchange ideas. He mentioned the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla a lot, and I love Sorolla. He’s often on my moodboards. We were in Barcelona, near the sea, in the mountains with the family – all these emotions are somehow reflected in Sorolla’s paintings.”

The fittings, she added, “were like a dress up party, and I think that suited the movie because it’s a family absolutely crazy about fashion. We are talking about a very deconstructed family, so I wanted to merge that into the costum