In today's sports culture, there is a word that almost always piques the interest of the die-hard fan and the sports pop culture enthusiast as well. That word? Throwbacks. You know, when the New York Jets come out in the navy and gold of the New York Titans; the Cleveland Cavaliers ditch their current unis to wear the orange and blue made popular in the late 80s, the Cincinnati Reds ditch their current uni for the double knits of the Big Red Machine, it happens all over the sporting world. However, one place where I never thought I would hear of throwbacks is in the beverage world. Yes, the beverage world.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) today reported strong second quarter results as the maker of soft drinks and salty snacks such as Cheetos weathered rising commodity prices and continued to benefit from the weak dollar.

Net income rose more than 9% to $1.7 billion, or $1.05 per share, as revenue soared 14% to $10.9 billion, the Purchase, NY-based company said in a statement. The results surpassed the $1.01 profit forecast and $10.6 billion sale forecast of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

"PepsiCo continued to drive growth across its worldwide snacks and beverage businesses primarily through strong product innovation, well-executed pricing actions and focus on expense control and productivity." said Chief Executive Indra Nooyi, "We are proud of our first-half performance and confident that we are well-positioned to deliver on our outlook amidst a challenging macroeconomic environment."

In the quarter, PepsiCo International showed over 20% revenue growth and over 30% profit growth from prior year. A weak spot was PepsiCo Americas Beverages. The economic slowdown has hurt the business, pushing down volumes by 1%. Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist both grew in the single-digits while Pepsi fell in the mid single digits. Energy drinks were a bright spot lead by a triple-digit volume growth in AMP Energy and a 50% gain in SoBe Life Water. Gatorade also showed gains in the quarter.

Investors reacted cautiously to the earnings report because the company said it could not provide "guidance on the 2008 projected EPS growth including the impact of the mark-to-market gains or losses on commodity hedges due to the unpredictability of future changes in commodity prices." The shares are up only fractionally in mid-morning trading.

PepsiCo. Inc. (NYSE:PEP) is encroaching on Coca-Cola Co.'s (NYSE:KO) turf at McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD).

Some McDonald's restaurants are selling Pepsi's Gatorade, Propel Fitness Water, Lipton Iced Tea, Tropicana orange juice, and Mountain Dew, according to the Associated Press. McDonald's had sold Coke's products exclusively since 1955, the AP said.

This is obviously a huge win for Pepsi. Demand for non-carbonated beverages is rising at a much faster pace than soda. It's the latest front in the cola wars. This will certainly help Pepsi over the long term.

Investors, though, continue to bet on Coke. Its shares have jumped 12 percent this year compared with 5 percent for Pepsi. Going forward, it's a different story.

Fourteen out of 16 analysts rate Pepsi shares either a buy or a strong buy. Two rate it a hold. Their median price target is $73 about $10 above were it currently trades.

Analysts are expecting on average for Coke to hit $53 in the next year, about $5 above its current price. Twelve out of 17 analysts rate Coke either a buy or strong buy and five consider it a hold.