I recently read an article on BBC that said that with the lifting of sanctions on Burma/Myanmar/whatever is that, there were now only two countries left in the world in which you cannot (legally) buy a coke.
Can you guess the two countries? Of course, the usual bad boys of pop (pun intended) communist Cuba, and North Korea. I love how the BBC when looking for a story, plays the classic North Korea card. You can read the story from the Beeb here.
Which two countries Can’t you buy coke in?
Cuba and the US have obviously not exactly been pals for a long time. For whatever reason Uncle Sam found it quite annoying to have Fidel’s reds 90km south of Miami, and decided to make a trade embargo, but capitalism is, as capitalism does, and whilst coke cannot be directly imported from America into Cuba, Mexican and other made cans and bottles of coke have long since made themselves available in the foreign currency stores/dollar stores of Cuba, and these days are not only very much legal, but a common sight.
Cuban Cola
It is also worth noting that Cuba makes its own Cola TuKola, a joint venture with a Brazilian company known as Los Portales SA, which is actually exceptional.
North Korean Coke
And how about coke in North Korea. Another absolute urban-myth perpetuated by people such as the BBC. Dear BBC, it is really easy to buy Coca-Cola in North Korea. When China started its open-door policy it wasn’t long before they started brewing up their own Coca-Cola, Chinese traders have long since been selling the “real thing” in North Korea, both at tourist, and foreign currency venues (such as the Diplo).
And of course, let’s not ignore the fact that North Korea much like Cuba also makes its own coke, although it is not quite as good as its Cuba cousin (to put it mildly).
What are all the countries that don’t sell Coca Cola?
So, is there anywhere on the planet that you cannot buy Coca-Cola? I have personally only found one so far, and that was Ittoqqortoormiit, an isolated community of 452 people in Eastern Greenland that did not have any Coca Cola. That at least I can confirm.
Coca-Cola was banned in the Middle-East
In the past Coca-Cola was banned in the Middle-East. This happened after coke opened a bottling plant in Israel. Those days are now gone though. One interesting result of this though is that Vimto is now huge in the Middle-East, North Africa and even Sudan.
Aside from that perhaps Trump was right and fake news really does exist? Are there any coke free countries out there? No there are not.