Western beverage giants flock to Eastern Europe.

U.S. school children in the Cold War shrouded 1950s grew accustomed to viewing propaganda films showing a menacing red wave (communism) sweeping out of Eastern Europe to engulf the entire continent before moving on to North America.

In 1995, roughly five years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a different type of wave will continue to spread not west, but east as western beverage companies stake out new territories in the former communist bloc.

The Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Cadbury Schweppes plc and Miller Brewing Co., among others, have plunged into Eastern Europe. Smaller new age companies, such as Aqua Vie Beverage Corp., based in Ketchum, Idaho, also …