In the coming weeks, all Dartmouth Dining locations except Collis Market will replace Coca-Cola beverages with PepsiCo products, Dartmouth Dining director Jon Plodzik wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth. Following a 10-year beverage contract with Coca-Cola — which expired in July — the College signed a new seven-year beverage contract with PepsiCo, he wrote.
According to Dartmouth Student Government dining advisory board member JJ Dega ’26, the board discussed a new beverage contract with Dartmouth Dining during a regular meeting in February. During the meeting, representatives for Dartmouth Dining said they had received two contracts — one from Coca-Cola and one from PepsiCo. While the Coca-Cola contract “was exclusive and had price increases,” the PepsiCo contract was not exclusive, Dega said.
In the meeting, Dartmouth Dining said the nonexclusivity of the PepsiCo contract meant the College could sell PepsiCo and Coca-Cola products “side-by-side,” according to Dega. Collis Market will continue to “offer a variety” of Coca-Cola products, Plodzik wrote. PepsiCo also offered to “expand physical infrastructure” through food and drink vending machines that would accept dining dollars, Dega said.
According to Plodzik, the transition will take “a few weeks” as Coca-Cola removes equipment and PepsiCo installs its own. He added that the Class of 1953 Commons will begin to offer “premium brands” owned by PepsiCo, including Vitality and Sunkist juice, Tractor Beverage and Cocovibe coconut water.
“You should see some very popular brands like Gatorade, Bubly, Starbucks drinks, Aquafina, Celsius, Tropicana, Mountain Dew, Pure Leaf Tea and Muscle Milk in the coming weeks throughout all our locations,” Plodzik wrote.
According to Plodzik, the College solicited feedback from several stakeholders about the beverage contract during the winter and spring terms of 2024. Stakeholders included Dartmouth Athletics, Dartmouth Dining, DSG’s dining advisory board, Dick’s House, procurement services, Residential Operations and Student Affairs, Plodzik wrote. He added that feedback included “comparison taste testing.”
While the College consulted stakeholders, some students have responded negatively to the switch. Sumant Sharma ’26 said the switch was “the worst thing to happen to [him] since [his] birth.”
“I just want a Diet Coke,” Sharma said. “It’s a hot girl summer kind of thing — you go for a Diet Coke. You don’t reach for a Pepsi — nobody does that. You go for a Pepsi, you’re disappointed. Why is the standard different in [’53 Commons]? This is ridiculous.”
According to Plodzik, the College aimed to select a beverage vendor that offered “the largest selection of non-sugary beverages” and lower prices for students. The dining advisory board also considered how the new beverage contract would “affect student price increases” and expand the availability of “using meal plans with [PepsiCo] products,” according to Dega.
David Rogers ’25 said he “depends on a lot of the drinks Coke owns” and is “pretty upset” that some Coca-Cola products will no longer be available.
According to the Coca-Cola website, Coca-Cola brands include Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid and Smartwater, among others.
At the same time, Rogers said he “loves” PepsiCo’s coconut water and Gatorade products and thinks there are “some good alternatives” to his favorite Coca-Cola products — such as Tropicana instead of Minute Maid. Still, he said not having Monster Energy drinks — a Coca-Cola product — would be a “nail in the coffin.”
“A Monster Zero — horrible for my heart — I was having one a day,” Rogers said. “There’s something about a Monster Zero, any flavor, that is essential to me getting any sort of work done.”
Rogers added that he does not really taste “that much difference” between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but said he will miss not having the Core Power protein milk from Fair Life and the Passion Orange Guava juice from Minute Maid. Rogers added that he would “definitely” buy Coca-Cola products — including Monster Zero — at Collis Market if still available.
Dega added that the dining advisory board also preferred the nonexclusivity of the PepsiCo contract because it heard favorable feedback about Coca-Cola products from students through a dining survey and the DSG student issues survey.
“Student feedback was that they would still like to see [Coca-Cola] products [and] didn’t want to get rid of all of them,” Dega said.
Kent Friel ’26 and Charlotte Hampton ’26 contributed to reporting.
