Coca-Cola Makes The World's Best-Selling Canned Coffee

Don't feel bad if you didn't know that Coca-Cola makes the best-selling coffee sold in a can in the whole wide world. After all, it's not even sold in the United States.

People in need of a burst of energy have plenty of options from which to choose, from traditional coffee, tea, and soda to energy drinks and shots. Helping to caffeinate people is big business. In the United States alone, the energy drink industry had $14 billion in sales in 2021, according to Statista. That's up from $11 billion in 2017. Other data from Fortune Business Insights illustrates the global demand for ready to drink (RTD) coffee, which had an estimated value of $22.44 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow by nearly $20 billion more by 2027 for a value of $42.36 billion. The study from Fortune Business Insights says the market is hot for ready to drink coffee products because of the growing love of coffee shops across the world. It also elaborates that the number of people who drink coffee will continue to increase.

It's no wonder then that companies are trying to find inroads into the ready to drink coffee market, even if they are not known for coffee beverages, like Coca-Cola.

You can find Coca-Cola's coffee in a can in the land of over 4 million vending machines: Japan, per Japan Wireless.

The unique beverage was created by the Japanese arm of Coca-Cola and is named Georgia after the home state of the company (via Coca-Cola Company). At 47-years-old as of July 2022, it is the top-grossing made-to-drink coffee beverage in the world, reports the company. Japan has had an affinity for canned coffee for years, starting with Ueshima Coffee Company introducing the first coffee sold in a can in 1969, according to Wide Open Eats. 

According to Coca-Cola, the consumer market in Japan has changed over the years and sugary beverages aren't as popular as they once were, making the lower sugar kinds of Georgia coffee more popular. There are around 30 varieties of Georgia coffee being sold in Japan, and of those, about two-thirds of them are blends of coffee and milk.  Although Coca-Cola does not sell canned coffee in the U.S., which Wide Open Eats speculates is partly because there are not as many vending machines in the States, the international company did introduce a line of beverages called Coca-Cola with Coffee in 2021. 

To buy Coca-Cola's Georgia coffee, you'd need to travel to Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, or several other places far away. Or, you can find it for sale on Amazon for $154.99 for 30 250-gram cans.