I plucked this bottle out of a container recycling blue bin today. Glass bottle, pop-top, and a logo which would have been quite fresh in the late 1960s. I wondered if the bottle depot would take something so old. They did, and it's not old. Thums Up is the dominant cola soft drink in India today, and has been since it's introduction in 1977. The label, identifying it as "a product of the Coca-Cola Company," hints at the brand's interesting history.
In a nutshell, An Indian bottler introduced Thums Up in 1977 to fill the cola void after Coke chose to leave the Indian market in the late 1970s, rather than accept 60 percent local ownership. In 1990, after India opened the door to multinationals, Pepsi entered the Indian market, followed by Coca-Cola in 1993. Coke purchased Thums Up, and it's 85% market share, and re-marketing it a "manly," cola.
Thums Up had been the market leader for over 35 years, until this last August, when, according to this Web site, another Coke product -- Sprite -- took the lead share, 16% to 15.6%
According to this blog post, back in 2009, Thums Up could be purchased at an "unassuming little Punjab market" at 50th Avenue, and Main, for only one dollar! I would expect it to be available, at countless little corner stores all over Greater Vancouver, which has a huge Indo-Canadian population. Many of those who were born in India will have certainly brought their taste for India's favourite cola with them.
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That's a nice history lesson :) .
Like you said, there are certainly a lot of places to find thumbs up around Vancouver. Sometimes it's a bit of a crazy search, but that's part of the fun and makes me feel like i'm once again on an adventure in India!
Now that I know about it, I'll be hunting Thums Up myself. I'm not a soda-, or cola-fancier, per-se, but, it's described as having a pretty definite flavour all it's own. I'd like to try this "taste of India.' I'll list any vendors I find.