Coke Bottle... Not-So-Clear

Considered one of the most recognizable drink product designs ever made, the Coca-Cola glass bottle originated at the end of the 19th century and still widely found in today's metal and plastic-dominated world.

Naturally, the transparent green-tinted glass has given way to one of the most popular and sought after colorways in modern vinyl production. Some of the earliest 'Coke Bottle Clear' pressings were found in the mid 1980's, but they really found their popularity in the 2010's, with hundreds to thousands of releases replicating the iconic bottle color. Though not necessarily limited to any particular genre, the most commonly collected releases found themselves to be from mainstream pop artists' studio albums at the height of the vinyl resurgence movement.

Commonly collected releases include Lana Del Rey's Lust For Life, Ariana Grande's Positions, and–most recently–Chappell Roan's debut album The Rise & Fall Of A Midwest Princess, according to a sample of collectors on the vinyl-collecting database Discogs.

However, the increasingly popularity of the color-way has also led to an increase in widespread criticism stemming from the range in the final products' appearances. Some releases are able to successfully imitate the transparent teal-ish color of the soda bottle, while other releases end up more translucent and–by popular nickname–'swamp' green, instead. To fully appreciate the beauty of the Coke Bottle Clear, we need to know where these pressings come from.

Left: The 'Lapis Lazuli' pressing for Sabrina Carpenter's sixth studio album Short n' Sweet, pressed by Vantiva in Guadalajara, Mexico.

By logic: when one vinyl pressing plant is bigger than others, it will deliver more product with their distinctive identifiers (such as tint & translucency). This is observed when considering that most 'Coke Bottle Clear' releases from the Czech-based GZ Media and its worldwide subsidiaries.

For those looking to thank (or blame) any particular companies for their ability (or inability) to deliver vinyl in the iconic color, it's easiest to simply collect and display examples of these releases in accordance to the plants they came from.