For true fans of Diet Coke, soda is sacrament, and reverence comes with strict parameters. The fountain version served at McDonald's is thought to represent the peak of the form, but given the choice between plastic, glass, and metal vessels, conventional wisdom dictates that Diet Coke tastes best in aluminum cans. In recent weeks, those cans have reportedly been disappearing from shelves across India. Because the country's Diet Coke comes only in aluminum-can form, Reuters notes, it's at the mercy of ongoing supply issues stemming from the war in Iran. The Middle East has the capacity to produce 7 million metric tons of aluminum each year (75 percent of which is exported). That's 9 percent of the world's production capacity. And since the fighting began in late February, prices have continued to climb worldwide. The base price of a ton of aluminum surpassed $3,600 in April, a four-year high. The metal shows up everywhere in daily life: solar panels, MacBooks, airplane fuselage,...
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