With the shrinking of the retail food market, trying to procure certain items in Korea is very difficult. Even more difficult for me, because I’m male. It is nigh impossible to find root beer in Korea. The only way to get it is via import, as there are no local bottlers. If you want to get some root beer, you need to either to go the black market shops that sell things from soldiers to civilians near military bases, or get onto the military bases themselves. Considering my interaction with soldiers here is as limited as possibly by choice, and I do not live near any military bases (thank goodness!), I have very little chance to stumble upon root beer in its "wild" state in Korea.
My normal course of action is simply to wait until enough people go abroad to "discover" the item in question and then create a Korean copy or import a regional variant. My attempts to get my local Costco to import a case for me to jump start this process failed. Koreans that I know have tried root beer. They all react like they’ve just swallowed medicine. It simply doesn’t agree with their taste buds. It’s like the first time you drink beer with friends. It tastes awful, but you don’t say so out of fear of disappointing your peers. Eventually you get to the point where it has killed enough of your tongue and you move past the taste and begin to enjoy it for the first time. Everyone here is still a root beer virgin, and they never take to it immediately.
I had a source for root beer. She is heading back to Canada soon. This girl got invited to military base parties all the time. She got on base, then was allowed to shop at the base store. Import only food at sweet military prices. She would even transport the stuff she bought back at cost. All my wife had to do was meet her at work. Say what you will about the military-industrial complex, or in this case the "military-industrial food complex", but it’s ability to deliver my carbonated beverage of choice around the world at incredible prices wins some points from me.
Now, as I finish this post, I am sipping the last of my root beer in Korea. That is until I find another source, or start going on "beer runs" myself. I doubt I’ll be invited to party with "the guys" over at the military bases any time soon, so I better start looking for seedy underground stalls that might contain some sugary sweet goodness the next time I’m around a base. Oh future sugar pusher, where art thou?
