Cola Pie has a variety of origin stories told about it. All of which are apocryphal. This article will go into detail regarding some of the more popular stories told.
The Rivalry
In Wulfmont, the most popular origin story tells of a rivalry between a Soda Fountain owner and a baker who was a regular at the establishment. The baker was known around town for having an arrogant, disagreeable demeanor, and would frequently put others around him down for entirely arbitrary reasons. During an argument, the baker stormed out of the soda fountain, but not before saying something like "Just stick to your little soda syrups. You'll never be able to bake something as delicious as my cakes with them!"
Right as the fountain door slammed shut, the fountain owner vowed to make the baker eat those words.
He went home that night, looked over his stock of extra soda syrups and set to experimenting. It's said that months passed. With the fountain owner and his wife eventually settling on the use of cola syrup for a baked pie. After the two were satisfied with their chosen combination of cola syrup, flour and butter, they brought the pie to their soda fountain and offered slices to guests free of charge. The first of whom was the baker.
The baker chewed for a second or two before spitting it out right on the counter and accusing the fountaineer of trying to kill him. But after the fountaineer fearlessly ate a slice himself, other patrons soon followed. The only one present who didn't adore cola pie was the arrogant baker.
With a weak attempt at a parting quip, the baker stormed out of the soda fountain; never to return. The fountain continued to sell slices of Cola Pie, with every establishment in town following suit besides that of the arrogant baker. When the baker's son took over the business, his first action was to approach the fountaineer; who was now in his twilight years, to make amends for his father's actions.
The Mother
Residents of New Bayern favor the origin story involving the mother of a poor family who couldn't afford a birthday cake for her daughter (though other tellings of the story say it was a son).
The story goes that there was once a poor family living in New Bayern, and one of the children's birthdays was coming up. This family couldn't afford to use eggs or yeast on a cake, so a cake worthy of a birthday celebration simply couldn't be had. A lovely pie, however, was very much within the realm of possibility for this family.
So, the mother of the family set to work on a simple pie, when she noticed the bottle of cola syrup that she had bought by mistake. It was then that she knew how to take this from a pie that was merely good enough to something truly memorable.
She poured a portion of the cola syrup into her pie crust, thinned with water, and then made crumbs from flour, sugar and butter and allowed them to soak in the syrup. After baking, this family had the first (albeit rather runny) cola pie. Everyone in the family loved it! The child who's birthday was coming next asked if they could have the same when their time came, and the cola pie went from an act of improvisation to a family tradition that neighbors and friends were eager to adopt for themselves. Soon enough, Cola Pie was a treat beloved across the Kamerian Peninsula.
The Guesswork
There are those in Samor who claim that Cola Pie was a Samori invention. The story goes that a Samori family was once given a flask of cola syrup as a gift. However, a combination of how early this was in the soda fountain's history and the Samori people's relative isolation from human society resulted in them having no idea what they were meant to do with this sticky, sweet substance. After pouring it on pastries a few times, the husband of the family concluded that it was a sort of spiced molasses substitute.
The husband decided he'd try making a pie with it, the family loved it, and by the time the community was informed of cola syrup's intended purpose they had all come to like the pie better than the intended drink.
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