Can you get Cherry Coke in Cambodia? The short answer is that yes indeed you can, although it is far from available everywhere.
For a country that was so recently ruled by the tyrannical Pol Pot, was embroiled in civil war and had deeply ingrained poverty, modern Cambodia, or Phnom Penh at least at hip and happening places for the foreign expat.
To read about Pol Pot click here .
And obviously one of the qualifiers for this is of course a vibrant cola scene.
The Cambodian Cola scene
Things are obviously somewhat dominated by Coke and their evil empire, surprisingly though Pepsi tend not to be second on the list, with that honor going to the fine chaps at Ize.
Ive is genuinely one of the best local cola’s I have yet to try, which you can read about here. It is somewhat better than North Korean cola, which you can read about here.
Bottle wise you then have Aja Big Cola , a cola company from the America’s that go in hard and cheap in poorer nations, such as India and are apparently one of the biggest soda companies in the world. It truly is a strange old world out there.
Poor old Pepsi come in 4th, although after 18 months in Cambodia I did just buy an 8 pack of Cambodian Pepsi as it came with a free rain-mac. I’m a sucker for a deal.
To read about the time Pepsi traded cola for warships click here .
What is the Cherry Coke story?
I’be very brief on this as this subject does deserve and shall get its own article. Cherry Coke though was referenced i the 1970 Kinks song Lola, a clear 15 years before it would officially be introduced in 1985.
The Kinks had put the idea clear into peoples minds though and there was an unofficial Cherry Coke varietal made in many fountain-soda stores which just added cherry syrup.
With Coke at this point deeply involved in the Cola Wars at this point that jumped on the idea. Cherry Coke is now the most popular Coke variety out there, and yes we ignoring anything that has “diet”, or “zero” in the name.
Vanilla and coffee Coke get honorable mentions here, Clear Coke, not so much.
Can you get Cherry Coke in Cambodia?
We surely have digressed on this one have we not! The simple answer is that away from specialist and online stores Cherry Coke was sporadically available in Cambodia, but has recently been taken up by Kiwi-Mart, one of the most popular mini-marts in Phnom Penh. Think of 7-Eleven although much worse and far more expensive.
To read about about 7-Eleven coming to Cambodia click here .
Aside from that you can also get CherryCoke in Cambodia at various online stores and of course the legend that is AEON mall.
SFG drops the Mic