Andy Warhol believed that the greatness of America lay in how the richest consumers bought exactly the same things as the poorest. ‘You can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and, just think, you can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.’ The Spectator’s Rory Sutherland says that it’s the only drink that if a retailer doesn’t sell it, from an African beach shack to a Michelin-starred restaurant, it’s their fault, not yours.

Some places do choose not to serve it, though. There is a clubman’s tale of two members of the Cavalry Club who asked if there was any Coca-Cola on the premises. The wine waiter drew himself up to his full height and said: ‘For drinking purposes, sir?’

There is a certain sort of coffee shop, too, that avoids Coca-Cola. The sort where, if you ask for a flat white, they reply: ‘Dairy or oat milk?’ The sort where they haven’t got round to plastering the walls, and no two chairs are the same. The sort where they will not stock the second most popular drink in the world after water, and will instead suggest that you are at fault for supposing they........

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