Whether you call it Coke, Cola or refer to it by its actual brand name Coca-Cola: Everybody around the world knows the soft drink. Its red-and-white design is ubiquitous and even responsible for Santa Claus’ wardrobe choice.
Still, the beverage isn’t legally available everywhere in the world. There are two countries where you won’t find the carbonated drink in stores – at least officially.
Due to ongoing trade embargoes and sanctions, there are currently no legal avenues to buy Coca-Cola in Cuba and North Korea. That isn’t to say that you can’t get your hands on the drink in any other way, just that importing or bottling the beverage is not officially possible in these places.
Up until 2012, Myanmar was also a country where you couldn’t legally buy a Coke. After the ban was lifted, the soft drink manufacturer invested $200 million to kickstart distribution in the area.
Over the last century, the people of Vietnam and China also had to make do without Cola for a couple of years, with the brand’s beverages becoming available again in 1994 and 1979, respectively.On its website, Coca-Cola lists 202 markets across four regions where its drinks are sold and marketed.
This number, however, has to be approached with caution, since the company doesn’t clarify what constitutes a market and there are currently only 195 UN members, with Taiwan being a potential 196th.
The sales of its various beverages in these markets, however they may be defined, generated 75 percent of the company’s $33 billion operating revenue in 2020, with bottling investments and global ventures making up the remaining 25 percent.
In North Korea – the other Coca-Cola-free zone – recent media reports suggested it was being sold in a restaurant in Pyongyang. But Coca-Cola says if any drinks are being sold in either North Korea or Cuba, they are being smuggled in on the black market, not via official channels.
The dark fizzy soda was created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. From the early days the Coca-Cola company looked to expand worldwide, and by the early 1900s it was bottling the drink in Asia and Europe. But the big boost came as a result of World War II when Coca-Cola was provided to US troops overseas.
There were more than 60 military bottling plants for Coca-Cola around the world during the war, and locals got a taste for the drink too. It became powerfully associated with American patriotism, says Standage, and was seen as so crucial to the war effort that it was exempted from sugar rationing.
Dwight Eisenhower, at the time the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, was said to be a particular fan and he ensured its availability in North Africa.He also introduced the drink to top Soviet general, Georgy Zhukov, who asked if a special, colourless version – one that looked like vodka – could be made, and Coca-Cola duly obliged for a while, says Standage.
These days Coca-Cola is regularly ranked as one of the top, if not the top, global brands.
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