BOSTON — James Robert B. Quincey, chief executive officer, ranked the Coca-Cola Co. by buckets or podiums in a Sept. 8 presentation at the Barclays Consumer Staples Conference in Boston.

He listed the Coke brand as the first bucket, or gold medal podium. Recently launched alcoholic drinks were ranked as the fourth bucket but with potential to move up to a medal-winning podium.

“(Coke is) a huge share of the beverage industry, clear gold medalist, far exceeds any other in that,” Mr. Quincey said. “Then you got the silver medal, if you like, where we are No. 2 or No. 1, but we're not a distant No. 1 as we might be with Coke.”

He put Fanta, Sprite and tea in this second bucket.

The third bucket revolves around a company vision to create scale for the company and what strategies are worth executing long term.

Mr. Quincey called the fourth bucket the “true experimentation bucket.”

“For me, alcohol is in this bucket,” he said.

Topo Chico Ranch Water Hard Seltzer, created through a partnership with the Molson Coors Beverage Co., is doing well in the United States, Mr. Quincey said. Fruit-flavored alcoholic drinks, including Simply Spiked alcoholic drinks created through the Molson Coors partnership, have launched domestically, and fruit-flavored alcoholic drinks are doing well in Japan and the Philippines, he said. A partnership with Brown-Forman Corp. created the Jack Daniel’s & Coca-Cola cocktail this year.

The Coke brand remains the main driver of company sales, though.