The rumored nonsensical translation for “Coca-Cola” is “蝌蝌啃蠟”:
“蝌” means “tadpole,” and repeating a word for an animal twice is typical kiddy talk, so that makes “蝌蝌” more like “taddypole”;
“啃” is “to bite”; and “蠟” is “wax.”
So it’s actually the tadpole who bites the wax, not the drinker.
Still nonsensical, but it’s at least a more accurate translation.
The Chinese Wikipedia (far less credible than the English Wikipedia) entry for “Cola-Cola” still maintains that the initial official translation of the brand name is “Taddypole Bites Wax,” which also seems to be a popular Chinese urban myth, but I doubt if that ever really occurred. Years (probably decades) before Cola Cola entered the Mainland Chinese market, it already set up official distributions in other Chinese language markets, such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, and had had uniform brand name translation for years, same as the one currently in use. It’s a very pleasant name, which I understand to mean “delicious and makes you happy”; the “makes you happy” part comes from the phono-based translation of “cola” and has become the Chinese word (I believe it’s universal in all Chinese language communities) for “coke” (the beverage only). The success with the name also dictated how Pepsi translated its own, which could be loosely translated as “Everything Would Be a Happy Thing.”
Aside from disbelieving any company would give up on a perfectly fine and already culturally powerful name to create another, I also doubt if a company as well structured and image-conscious as Coca Cola would allow any regional distributor to get creative with any part of the product image (and the brand name no less), and I just can’t find any picture of any actual Coca Cola artifact bearing that name, so my take is better take it as a joke.