Take a look at the label and say the name out loud. Does it sound like “nazi cola” to you?
It certainly did to a customer at a Macey’s Grocery Store in Utah back in 2018. She was so offended that she contacted Macey’s on Twitter, Macey’s responded and pulled the soft drink from the shelves.
The company behind the drink, Real Soda in Real Bottles, found it to be an overreaction and claimed that name was actually German and meant something like “lake emergency cola”. Well …
Real Soda in Real Bottles is based in California and have been producing gimmicky soft drinks with silly name plays since the 1990s; Leninade, Orthodox Jooce, Make America Grape Again to name a few. They also make colas like Fukola Cola, Mexi Cola, and Sparkola.
Racist or just inappropriate?
Either way, Real Soda in Real Bottles discontinued the Not See Cola after the unwanted media attention in 2018. It was available for about 10 years.
Sources: Local grocery stores pull controversial soda bottles (KSL, June 11, 2018), Soda company owner behind ‘Not See Kola’ says outrage is ‘an overreaction’ (KSL, June 12, 2018).