Coca Cola is the world’s most popular and widely distributed product (based on my own very scientific research of traveling and drinking a lot of it). From super rural villages in Ecuador, to Nepalese hill stations accessible only by foot, to remote Indonesian islands, there isn’t a place on the planet that you cannot buy a bottle of Coke. While the recipe varies slightly from place to place, you can always count on the familiar jolt of sugar and carbonation no matter how far from home you are. Coke’s ubiquity is a modern marvel of mass production, distribution, and marketing, and I really can’t think of any product that even comes close to it’s universal recognition. Can you?

Coke delivered via carts

Coke delivered via bike

In Amritsar, we encountered what I believe to be the cheapest Coke on earth – 5 Indian Rupees per bottle. That’s about 11 cents! I think the Sikhs are subsidizing the cost slightly – the 5 Rupee Coke Stand was just outside the free food building at the Golden Temple. No matter how cheap you find it internationally, you almost never find soda fountain machine Coke anywhere but home (with the exception of McDonalds restaurants anywhere). And those fountain machines provide one thing I miss dearly when traveling abroad – free refills!

5 rupee coke, and the pilgrams enjoying it