Coca-Cola Cherry

Coca-Cola Cherry

Type	Cherry-flavored cola
Manufacturer	The Coca-Cola Company
Country of origin	United States
Introduced	1985
Variants	Diet Coke Cherry, Coca-Cola Cherry Zero
Related products	Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla

Coca-Cola Cherry (originally marketed as and still widely known as Cherry Coke) is a cherry-flavored version of Coca-Cola. It is produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers in the United States and some international markets.

History

Long before its official introduction in 1985, many diners and drugstore soda fountains dispensed an unofficial version of Cherry Coke by adding cherry-flavored syrup to the Coca-Cola mix.^[1]

Coca-Cola tested Cherry Coke on an audience at the 1982 World's Fair.^[2] After the introduction of Cherry Coke and the failure of New Coke the drink then entered mainstream production during the summer of 1985.^[3] Cherry Coke, which by 2007 had been renamed Coca-Cola Cherry in the U.S. and some other countries, was the third variation of Coca-Cola at that time – the others being Coca-Cola Classic and Diet Coke – and the first flavored Coke.^[4] It was released almost concurrently with the far less popular New Coke, and gained significant market share when that product was widely discontinued in the 1990s. Diet Cherry Coke was introduced in 1986, and renamed "Diet Coke Cherry" in 2005. A second low-calorie version, Coca-Cola Cherry Zero (based on Coca-Cola Zero), was added in 2007. The Coca-Cola Company would later introduce other flavored Coke variants, beginning with Vanilla Coke in May 2002, later followed by lime, raspberry, lemon, Black Cherry Vanilla and orange variants. Many of these are currently only sold in overseas markets and/or are microdispensed through Coca-Cola's Freestyle vending machines.

International distribution

2L bottle in the United Kingdom

Coca-Cola Cherry has been offered in a number of different countries. Currently, in addition to the U.S., the drink is available in China, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Finland, Germany, Belgium (only in cans and bottles of 1 litre), Denmark, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Latvia, South Africa, South Korea, Bulgaria, and Peru. It is also available in Japan and Romania, but is still known as Cherry Coke in those countries. Until recently it was only available in Ireland through British pharmaceutical chains such as Boots and Superdrug, however it returned officially to the country in 2014. In New Zealand Coca-Cola Cherry can be found in some supermarkets (usually imported from the UK or US). In the past the product has been offered in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Canada, Colombia, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Israel. The Australian version was released between 2003 and 2004 and was a different formula to the US version. It is no longer bottled in these countries, although the U.S. product is imported by some Canadian convenience stores near the Canada–US border, as well as by IGA, Costco and specialty retailers in Australia. In Sweden it is available at different grocery stores. The grocery stores source import from the United States and the self-produced Coca Cola Cherry from Coca Cola enterprises Sweden. In Norway, Cherry Coke is available at Reitan Group stores.

Since January 2011, Coca-Cola Cherry is also available in Switzerland distributed by Coop. Since July 2013 Coca-Cola Cherry is available in Croatia, Romania and Spain. It returned to Canada by the 2013, 2014, and 2015 holiday season in cases of 24 cans at Costco stores for the two former, and general retail in the latter. It featured the same flavour and formula as the United States flavour, with a slightly edited, bilingual version of that country's can design. In 2014, it was featured as one of the last major attempts by Target Canada in Ontario to gain market share before announcing its closing in January of the following year. It has been mentioned by Target Canada itself that Cherry Coke was the number one requested grocery request by shoppers.

As of July 2014 Coca-Cola Cherry is available in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (due to same label for the three countries). The label is same as regular coke but with different cherry color and cherry word below Coca-cola with an image of Cherry to the left of the word "cherry". Later in late 2014, it was introduced in Uruguay (only in cans). By the end of 2014, it was gone from the Lithuanian market, and maybe the whole Baltic region.

Coca-Cola Cherry returned to Canada once again in the summer of 2015 and 2016 as part of the "Share a Coke" campaign. Cherry Coke, in flats of 24 cans, have recently been available at Safeway, Sobeys, and Loblaws-owned stores across Canada with markings indicating production at the Brampton, Ontario bottling facility.

Packaging and marketing

Packaging for Coca-Cola Cherry differs greatly from country to country. Coca-Cola has altered the bottle and label designs for Coca-Cola Cherry several times since 1985. In most areas, the current can and bottle label designs are based on the standard Coca-Cola label in a pink or purple hue, often with images of cherries.

On February 7, 2007, Coca-Cola launched a new campaign for the Coca-Cola Cherry brand in the U.S., resulting in a significant redesign of the product's label. Jay-Z was chosen to be the spokesman and played a part in designing the new can graphics. A new diet version, Coca-Cola Cherry Zero, was also introduced, although the original Diet Coke Cherry will remain available in 12-packs. These designs remained in place until early 2011, when a cleaner design (closer to the label designs used overseas) was introduced.

References

1. Memory
2. "Soft Drinks: I Gave My Love a Cherry Coke". Time. 4 March 1985. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
3. "Cherry Coke Debut". Merced Sun-Star. July 8, 1985. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
4. "History of Bottling". The Coca-Cola Company. 2006–2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.