A few weeks back, we asked readers if they would buy a cane sugar version of Coca Cola and an overwhelming 89% of you said “yes.” So Consumerist asked Coke if the company had any plans to introduce non-HFCS version — a la Pepsi Throwback — on a national scale. The answer — no, because we already have Mexican Coke.
“We already provide a Coca-Cola with sugar in the U.S. – is Coca-Cola from Mexico and it’s available year round,” Greg Galvez, vice president and general manager of Importation and Commercialization, Coca-Cola North America, told Consumerist.
Galvez appears to contradict himself on the topic of cane sugar vs. High Fructose Corn Syrup.
First he tells us that the reason for going national — though only “in select grocery stores and bodegas that appeal to a high percentage of Hispanic consumers” — with the cane sugar Mexican Coke was that: “For some Hispanics, the familiarity of Coca-Cola with cane sugar and in a tall glass bottle they recognize is a reassuring ‘piece of home.’”
But then, when asked if there is any difference in taste between Coca Cola sweetened with cane sugar and Coke with HFCS, he replied that “our research shows that there is no perceptible taste difference between the products. Whether sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or sugar, a Coke is a Coke and both are ‘the real thing.’”
If one of the reasons Hispanic immigrants drink the Mexican Coke is the cane sugar, doesn’t that imply that there is a difference in taste? And if there’s no taste difference between the two, then the only reason to import or drink Mexican Coke is because it’s in a glass bottle?
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I found that the Big Lots in Stockbridge, GA carries Mexican Coke for $1/bottle. Haven’t tried it yet…
$1/Bottle. 12 oz bottle. That seems to be about the standard price. Sam’s sells the 24 pack bottles for $18.
In comparison, Coke only sells the 12 oz cans of Crap-Coke for what, fifty cents? seventy-five cents? 24 packs of cans for $6-$8?
No wonder Coke is happy sending us supplies of Mexi-Coke. At the prices they’re able to charge, they’ve got to be making a killing.
Dear Coke.
Fu@k you.
AGREED. Mexican Coke is VERY hard to find in rural Pennsylvania.
How about Amish Coke?
I don’t think that’s even a liquid.
Let them eat cake, I mean drink Mexican Coke
Try finding Mexican Coke in New Hampshire….almost can’t get farther away from Mexico and still be in the US.
Oh, and that PR guy should think before he speaks…
Have you tried looking in any of the Brazilian markets out there? I haven’t yet, but it seems like the best chance.
- Fellow New Hampshirite
I live in Philadelphia – it’s hard to find in PA period. The only place in the whole state I’ve managed to find that sells it is a Wegemans in Doylestown.
Then you should move to Kennett Square. It’s abundant.
If you were to live in say the Lancaster, PA area, there’s a Costco that carries cases of the stuff. Very, very tasty.
I would buy it if I could find it. Their opnion sucks! They don’t want masses to buy it because they know they limit the mexican coke and it can’t become mainstream.Everything they seem to do has been going to squat. that includes the cokerewards program, I QUIT and switched to gatorade.
They should go fuak themselves?
fuatk.
Screw Coke and the polar bear they rode in on. Chinga un oso!
Remember… these are the same corporate geniuses who thought New Coke was a brilliant idea.
Its the same company but I highly doubt that it’s the same people. After all, new Coke came out 25 years ago in 1985.
and truly honestly, drinking a can/bottle of HFCS-laced Coke “classic” when I last visited the US tasted almost identical to my recollection of “new” coke when Bill Cosby proclaimed it as “the best tasting Coca-Cola ever.” If you remember those ads, I pity you as much as I pity me, just as much as drinking “new” coke, or corn-syrup ladened Coke.
Fuak?
Lol. I know what you mean but lol. I also agree with you too.
If they (US Govmt) would get rid of the sugar tarrifs it would be affordable for Coke to go back to sugar and get rid of HFCS.
Plus, corn prices would go down and corn ethanol may become viable.
hate to get off topic, but corn based Ethanol is a huge waste. Much better to go with closed loop algae bioreactors. Uses much less water, makes oil directly and the crop doubles every day. Oh, and it sucks up CO2, although I don’t believe in CO2 based AGW.
Not to mention, it doesn’t use the soil at all, which eliminates most, if not all, artificial fertilizers (which corn uses in abundance) and arable soil can then be allocated to products we can actually use sustainably and improve farmland longevity. A closed-loop system also minimizes contact with the outside environment, which eliminates the use of pesticides (corn also needs a lot of these). Furthermore, since we don’t dump a pile of fertilizer/pesticide onto the farm (hopefully), we reduce water pollution due to soil runoff and pesticide contamination.
There are many great uses for field corn– ethanol simply isn’t one of them. It’s much better utilized as feedstock for things like biodegradable polymers (which can replace things like “disposable” shopping bags), or drastically reduced and replaced with a more diverse crop distribution. Which brings us back to Congress’ continued and utterly stupid funding of corn-based agribusiness.
The problem is, Big Corn also gives a lot of campaign cash to Congresscritters. You think the campaign finance/advertisement explosion we’re seeing is bad, wait until Monsanto and company start cementing corn subsidies permanently into law.
Yup. To quote a libertarian that I forget the name of (famous black guy): The republicans want to take your money to give to farmers, and the democrats want to take your money and give it to poor people.
Absolutely correct. At 25 cents a pound for tariff-protected US sugar vs. a 5 cents a pound for Brazilian sugar (rough numbers I seem to recall from working for a major US ready-to-eat cereal maker), it’s little wonder that companies choose HFCS. Free trade my butt.
And that’s why the US won’t go for ethanol fuel in a big way (the way that Brasil did years ago). It’s much more efficient to make ethanol with sugar cane than with corn. Of course, someone would have to stand up to the ADM lobby if that change were to be made, and that’s not going to happen.
Mmmm.. Coke is good here…
I live in Michigan, and its harvest season… but you should SEE the acres and acres of corn that’s out there that’s dead and dying because it was subsidized and not needed. How many countries could we have fed if they harvested it? How many other tasty veggies could we have grown instead?
Boggles the mind.
Oh, so THAT’s why I see so many dying cornfields around. Man, that’s farked up.
KABOOM! I live in Vermont and every fall I see hundreds of acres of dying, unharvested corn. Now the light bulb goes on!
yep, i drive past farms in my area with signs up selling ‘deer corn’ – it was grown and not harvested and now they are selling it on a harvest it yourself basis, dead stalks and all, for hunters to use as deer lures. they get paid twice
Thanks for clarifying what this means. I was wondering lol.
What’s even worse here is that the land being cultivated with corn every year that isn’t harvested is ruining the land. It’d be better to just not plant anything and let the nutrients in the soil recover for a year than to plant corn that is then mowed under.
Or grow some clover or other nitrogen replenishing plants.
Maybe they just need to put water on it. You know, like from the toilet.
But Brawndo has electrolytes! Brawndo has what plants need!
That corn isn’t dead and dying… it’s dead and DRYING (ha, see what I did there?!)… almost all the corn you see grown in MI is called Yellow Dent Corn (i think it’s called that because the tops of th kernals get a little dent in them when dried and hardened, but that’s besides the point). Very little corn around here is for us to eat. But the stuff that we eat is obviously harvested while it is still green and moist, and it’s a labor intensive process to harvest. Everything else is left on the fields to dry… There’s a couple reasons for this, one is that dry corn can be harvested very quickly and efficiantly with a combine, which will strip the ears from the stalk, strip off the husks and silk, bust all of the kernals off the cob, then blast all the garbage out the back, which will mostly degrade by next season. So now they are left with piles of dry corn, which can be stored without instantly going moldy. This corn is mostly used for animal feed, although some is used for ethanol production. I’m not sure if any of this corn is used to make food grade products, like our beloved HFCS, or corn meal.
Long story short… it’s left in the fields to dry. It will get harvested. It’s very rare that a field will go unharvested.
“How many countries could we have fed if they harvested it?”
None, actually. The countries where people are starving can’t afford the cost of shipping the corn from here to there. If there are fields of corn going unharvested, it’s because none of the people who need it are capable of buying it.
We’d also have to stop subsidizing corn. Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t that many family farms left. So the subsidy program is just benefiting big business.
[Citation needed.]
All I can find is a USDA report that says 98% of U.S. farm ARE family farms.
The 2% of non-family farms only account for 14% of agricultural output.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB12/EIB12c.pdf
“All I can find is a USDA report that says 98% of U.S. farm ARE family farms. “
And Wal-Mart is a family-owned company.
But that would mean lifting some of the cruel embargoes we have on certain third world countries because we’re mad that they don’t share our political system..
Also, the high fructose corn syrup, corn and other trade groups would throw money and propaganda at it and make it take a decade. Anybody who supported it would be called a farmer-hater and a communist. Hate to say it, but there’s better things our country could be doing.
Coke with cane sugar has a much cleaner taste, and is noticeably sweeter. When I drink HFCS, my mouth is left with what feels like a sticky film. I don’t get that same feeling from cane sugar drinks.
Exactly. I find it ‘crisper’ without the slimy feeling. If you could disassociate the taste from the other physical sensations…. well maybe it ‘tastes’ the same, but texture, smell, appearance are all part of taste IMHO.
I perceive the difference as a difference in aftertaste. Man, I love that cane sugar Coke aftertaste.
You never had a rum and Coke until you’ve had one made with the Kosher stuff they sell around Passover. I wonder what would happen if all us goyim started stocking up on the stuff when it appears in grocery stores. Would they make more?
I buy up a dozen or so 2-liters when Passover comes around, and keep ‘em for proper mixing. It just tastes so much better.
My local grocery store actually complained about me buying up all the Kosher Coke because I was “denying” it to the Jewish community. They really couldn’t say anything though because there’s no stipulation on who can buy it. I’ve done taste tests with my friends with Passover Coke and regular Coke. There /is/ a difference. It’s a slight one, but definitely there.
How do they KNOW you are Jewish? They should just order more and STFU.
How did they know you weren’t Jewish? Anyone can be Jewish as a religious belief, even if you aren’t Jewish in the sense that you are descended from Israelites.
Actually, the coke w/sugar tastes a bit different, but not too much. The main thing I notice (when they have Kosher coke around Passover – it has real sugar in it) is that I drink LESS of it. It seems that the HFCS and Cane Sugar trigger the “full” feeling at different points in the body.
Could be just me, but I’d tend to think that someone, somewhere figured this out, and was paid to keep her mouth shut so the purveyors of flavored suggary water could sell more of their wares.
That said, I’d buy the real sugar coke all day long over the corn syrup crap… But alas, I haven’t been able to find it (except during passover) around here in the midwest.
Cleaner? Sort of. Has a bit of an earthy taste to it (which is a good thing).
I’ve noticed that it isn’t so much flavor as much as mouthfeel. HFCS in soda seems to have a syrupy mouthfeel. Cane sugar goes down cleaner.
HFCS aside from taste also messes with your digestion. It shuts down the part of your brain that tells you that you are full so anytime you consume HFCS you not only gain weight from it but you also eat more than you would normally.
The sugar molecules in HFCS also aren’t bound, doing away with all that nasty “digestion” [who needs it?] of the fructose and sending it straight to your liver for fat-storing goodness.
I love Coke . . . always giving the customers exactly what they want. I wonder if Steve Jobs consults them.
I don’t think he does. Otherwise the response would have been, “HFCS tastes exactly the same as sugar. The customers are just holding the bottle wrong.”
And the bottle would cost five times more than the Mexican coke even though it has the same contents. It’s all about the packaging of your product. People pay for the packaging. At least Apple fanboys do…
It does taste better. I don’t know if it’s the cane sugar or if the packaging effects the flavor (glass rather than plastic or metal). It doesn’t matter. It tastes different to me. I rarely buy Coke, but if I do, it is a Mexican Coke as a special treat!
I just tried Coke with sugar in the caribbean, out of aluminum cans, and it still had a different taste and mouthfeel than HFCS Coke. I do like glass for beverages, cause I think it has the least coloration on taste unlike glass or aluminum, but you can still tell a difference in the 2 types of Cokes, regardless of container.
yes, i noticed that with cans of cane sugar coke in europe vs the glass bottles of mexican coke i get here. the aftertaste of the sugar stuff is different than the HFCS but the only difference i notice between the containers is that the cans were a little fizzier. potentially a container sealing issue?
I live in Corpus Christi which has a very high Hispanic population. There is no Mexican Coke in the grocery stores. I’ll stick with Mountain Dew Throwback and Dr. B.
Greg, Why don’t you try a spoonful of HFCS (or even just powdered corn sugar), and then a spoonful of table sugar. Can you tell the difference? The rest of us sure can.
Aside from the texture/mouthfeel differences noted by many, the raw taste of corn-sourced vs. cane-sourced sugar is very noticeable. I’ve noted it as a homebrewer for years, it’s pretty obvious. They’re throwing up a smokescreen because they can’t admit they’re in love with super cheap corn syrup.
Oops, this was supposed to go at the bottom. My bad.
Have you tried going to a bodega/mexican market?
Perception is reality. It’s what you grew up with. Comfort food!
I would agree with you except one night I bought what I thought was ordinary Mountain Dew (was not paying attention and it was dark when I got it back to the car) and as soon as I took a sip, it tasted delicious! I was like, holy cow, Mountain Dew is freaking awesome. After I got out of the car, I noticed that it was a Throw Back Mountain Dew. HFCS just isn’t as good.
Nope – I’ve done blind taste tests and almost 100% of the time people could tell the difference between the two.
Lots of mexican americans in my area. No place that sells it. I’ve even asked some of my coworkers about it. Guess I’ll just stick with the sugar pepsi products.
I actually do notice a difference. One is much “heavier” than the other. I want to drink a bunch of water after having it.
I have lived in Europe before for a year and MUCH preferred sugar-sweetened drinks. I blame it on Europe.
Mexican coke is good (like the Kosher coke) but I can’t get it here. Back in my hometown, we had a lot of Mexican and Hispanic immigrants, so it was EASY to find Mexican coke. Here, not so much. I have been looking for it (I rarely ever drink pop) but can’t find it.
I can taste a huge difference between regular Pepsi and Pepsi Throwback. If the only difference is HFCS / Sugar, then I vote “Definitely,” but if there are other differences, I vote “Maybe.”
There was also a noticable difference in Mountain dew Throwback too…. could it really be the sweetener?
Dr Pepper..not so much, if it is there, it is too subtle for me to notice. Maybe it’s a little smoother.but that’s it.
Mountain Dew Throwback could be my downfall.
We already knwo that Mexican coke exists.
We just want it mass produced so that it’s not 4x the normal cost.
see above posts regarding sugar tariffs. If it costs 4x as much to make it is going to be more expensive at the store.
Then why are Pepsi Throwback products priced exactly the same, if not sometimes cheaper? Fail argument is fail.
The more people buy it, the more money it makes, and the less it raises prices. the real reason cane sugar sodas are so pricey is because it’s kept limited as a “novelty item” so that they have an excuse to charge more.
However, even as a novelty item, year round cane sugar sodas like Jones aren’t that much more expensive per case compared to HFCS sodas.
Coke is talking out of their ass.
it’s not cane sugar they’re using for the throwbacks, it’s beet sugar. cane sugar is what is tariffed.
Don’t suppose that Coca Cola has some long term contracts with ADM to supply HFCS?
Uh… DUH… yeah…
They probably get a huge kickback to use HFCS.
Instead of renaming HFCS corn sugar they should just skip the middle man and rename it DIABETES
Can you get Mexican Coke in 2L bottles, or do we have to wait for Jew Coke to be available?
“Jew Coke”
i love it.
I don’t.
I thought “Jew Coke” was a bit unnecessary.
I feel like a confused Gentile now. There’s regular Coke, Coke made for Mexicans, and Coke made for Jews. How is that offensive?
come on guys, he’s referencing Coke that’s kosher for Passover as “Jew Coke” and you’re all uptight about that? as Jews you should have a better sense of humor than that.
and before you start kvetching further, i’m Jewish too. lighten up.
I’ve never seen 2L Mexican Coke. I love me that Jewish Coke. I look forward to it all year.
You can even find it in 3L bottles in Mexico…
I am crying tears of laughter here
We also would have accepted Heeb Coke or Yid Coke. Some of us who have been Jewish nearly all of our lives would have also been OK with MOT Coke.
Our grocery stores in MN (Cub Foods and Coborns) have Mexican coke in glass bottles in the mexican aisle. Tried it – prefer the US version with the corn syrup. Same goes with regular Mt Dew and Mt Dew Throwback – am I the only one?
Yeah, I am so not with you on this.
I’ve found I prefer the taste of Mt Dew throwback, but not the Pepsi throwback. I don’t drink Coke at all.
Greg Galvez is a big fat liar.
Coke: enjoy your US subsidized fructose fed cancer! Yay cheap cornsyrup, boo expensive sugar.
http://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20012601-10391704.html
It isn’t so much a taste difference as a texture & mouth-feel difference. Sugar coke is smoother, with less bite and tastes less acidic. “New” Coke is sharper.. it just isnt’ the same.
Plus, sugar coke makes my teeth buzz. It feels weird, but it actually reminds you you’re drinking sugar.
When I drink a Coke made with HFCS, I look like a dog that just ate peanut butter.
Exactly, the sugar coke and pepsi has a smoother after-taste. The HFCS versions leave you with that mouth-rot feeling. The moment it hits your tongue there’s not much difference in taste, but the after-taste is what I like about the real sugar versions.
BTW, I’ve read that most of the Mexican coke these days is made with beet sugar and not cane sugar. Maybe next we can have a poll to see who can tell the difference between those two.
EXACTLY how I always describe it. Coke with real sugar doesn’t have the acidic bite to it that regular Coke has, which makes it far better in my opinion. For them to act as if there’s no difference or that there’s no reason to release real sugar Coke here because some niche markets IMPORT Coke from Mexico is just ridiculous.
20 people from the corn industry created accounts to vote Nah
/YouTubed
If Coke were to bottle a “real sugar” version in the USA, wouldn’t it still be cheaper to use beet sugar instead of cane sugar? Would anyone know the difference?
Pepsi Throwback uses a mixture of beet and cane sugar (or at least they did when first introducing it a couple years ago). Some people claim the new mass-produced throwback tastes different, and suspect full beet sugar. Or maybe they are imagining the whole thing.
I’m sure their regional bottlers are thrilled that corporate is encouraging customers to import from abroad.
I thought at one point, Coke was trying to stop the importation of Mexican Coke into the US? I don’t think there was any way of doing it, since it is a legitimate product, maybe they gave up.
I get mine along with sugar Fanta at my corner Walgreens, and I don’t think we have a huge number of Hispanics.
Yeah, I could have sworn that they sued a bottler recently for importing it.
No taste difference? Yeah, riiiiight. You just keep right on telling yourself that, Mr Coke CEO.
EVERYTHING tastes better in glass bottles. That’s why they don’t put beer in plastic ones. Beer from a can tastes waaaay different than beer from a bottle. I drink the Mexican Coke when I can because it absolutely tastes different from everything else. The fact it has sugar in it may contribute to that, but there is definitely a taste difference.
And to imply that Coke is Coke is an outright lie. I remember the Coke display in Vegas. They had a row of fountain machines offering a taste of Coke from all across the world. There is a massive difference in taste from Coke in Brazil and Coke in Atlanta. I was in the Caribbean last winter and they had coke in the mini-bar in the room. Holy cow, did it taste different! Coke is not Coke everywhere. It tastes different depending on the bottling plant. Coke is in a dream world or has completely lost their taste buds if they believe any different.
“Coke is Coke” outright bullshit, and a lie.
Coke says that Coke Zero has “real Coke taste”. So that would Coke Zero is Coke. But it’s not. Coke Zero tastes like shit. It’s /BARELY/ better than Diet Coke. In fact, it used to be far, FAR better than Diet Coke when it had Splenda. But then it didn’t sell well, and Coke went back to a Splenda/Aspartame mix. And geh…
Aspartame is 10X worse than HFCS. I drink that crap, and I get still taste aspartame five hours later.
But yeah. Coke is Coke? Not when Coke says that Coke Zero has “real Coke taste” when that shit doesn’t taste anything like Coke.
If the only difference is the bottle, then why not just make HFCS Coke in those full sized bottles instead of the tiny American ones and call it good? Oh, because there are other differences, that’s right.
A couple week ago I went into 7-11 to get a Pepsi, then I’ve seen the throwback one, bought that, and I could easily taste the difference, and it tasted better.
Studies have shown that the majority of people can’t actually tell the difference between Coke, Pepsi, and grocery store colas. I would bet that even fewer people can tell the difference in taste between Mexican Coke and HFCS Coke. The Coke guy is basically saying that it’s really about people’s perceptions, not about the taste.
Studies have also shown that 100% of the population below the age of 65 hate RC Cola.
In my early 20′s, when it was my turn to buy soda, I got RC every time. I kind of miss it… but I try not to drink sodas anymore. Except Izze. Delicious, delicious izze.
Oooo Izze is good, that’s true.
I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t tell the difference. Not only can I taste and feel the difference, you can actually SEE the difference between HFCS and sugar coke in the way that it bubbles and foams.
I’ve had numerous individuals ask me “why does this coke taste different? It’s so good”, when I serve them up kosher/mexi-coke, before I’ve explained the whole sugar thing to them.
Along those same lines, you’d be amazed how many people think they can taste whether a drink has caffeine, or how many people confuse “carbonation” with “caffeinated”.
“Studies have shown that the majority of people can’t actually tell the difference between Coke, Pepsi, and grocery store colas.”
The same people who buy HFCS and is good for them.
The rest of us who don’t can! Gosh.
I call BS on this, pepsi and Coke taste NOTHING alike.
I’ve mainly seen Mexican Coca-cola in the international foods section at Wegmanns in Pennsylvania.
Now that I’ve been in Georgia for a little while, I’ve seen it in some random gas stations and at some Publix/Kroger stores. It doesn’t seem as ubiquitous as the coke rep makes it sound, though.
Having tried it only once, all I can say is it tasted “old”, like it had been mixed several years ago. I’m with some other commenters that it had a better mouthfeel and a less viscous texture than its HFCS counterpart.
Pepsi came out with cane sugar Pepsi months ago and it tasted exaclty like…Pepsi
I wonder if the corn syrup sellers have put pressure on Coke…
I like to think you can taste the original flavor of the soda better with cane sugar. I can actually believe that Dr. Pepper started as a mix of all the fruit syrups on hand when I drink a Dublin/Anniversary DP. Not so with the mainstream type.
And you can taste the cola with a Mexican coke. Too bad it’s only found in glass bottles and is thus way over priced.
Well, here in Mexico, you can get non-glass bottled versions. And guess what? They’re made with corn syrup, not sugar. Heck, one of the bottling plants is right across the road from my plant, and the syrup tankers arrive daily. And yes, I can easily tell the difference between sugar Coke and corn syrup Coke (they both Mexican Coke).
Mexico has a pretty big sugar industry, as well as a pretty big corn industry, and yet the move to HFCS is all but complete here (except for the glass bottles), so I wonder what the relative cost differences are here? I have no idea if anything is subsidized, imported, or has a tariff on it like in the States.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/corn_subsidies.cfm
US corn is exported too.
we went into our local Mexican grocery store – the owners lived above us in our old apartments. The first this I did was find the Coca-cola, and I bought two liters of it. There were in glass bottles, opened when we got into the car, and my husband, daughter and I split it. It was the best coke I’ve ever had.
I think Coca-cola would be surprised how quickly they would sell out if they did a “throwback” type thing like Pepsi did.
Sugar coke and HFCS coke taste VERY different, especially when sampling side by side. Either their researchers are incompetent, or Greg Galvez is a big fat liar.
I tasted Coke with sugar for the first time on a recently trip to Aruba, and it definitely tasted different than American HFCS Coke. It didn’t have as much of a “bite” to it. Overall it was pretty similar, and I wouldn’t say it’s particularly better or worse than HFCS Coke taste-wise. It’s mostly the same, with some subtle differences.
I wonder if people would taste a difference if they were told it was made with “Corn Suger”.
I think the sugar coke tastes better, but maybe its all in our head.
There’s definitely a taste difference but I don’t believe HFCS “feels sticky” or “syrupy” like so many people claim.
it’s complicated by the fact that you can only (besides passover) get the cane sugar coke in a glass bottle. most people prefer the glass bottle to a can as it is, so you have this covariance between the glass+cane sugar going on.
i feel like i prefer mexican coke, but it could just be the glass bottle and/or placebo effect.
The solution is to abandon coca cola and drink mountain dew!
Grocery store near me carries Mexican coke, and definitely does /not/ have a high hispanic population. But unfortunately, it’s only sold as singles which makes it far more expensive than the HFCS version.
But I love the glass bottle, and I’ve got concerns about HFCS.
We live two blocks from a Mexican grocery store. We were not big Coke/Pepsi drinkers before as we never particularly liked either of them/ Mexican Coke and Pepsi however are very good when you need that carbonated beverage fix. I would not order Coke or Pepsi at a restaurant, nor would I buy HFCS ones for home, but I drink several Mexican ones per week now.
I can taste the difference. I know I’m supposed to prefer the cane sugar version, but I don’t. It tastes too sweet and sticky… maybe it’s that the Mexican Cokes also have a bit of a sulfur-y edge (which you get in some sodas because of the local water).
It’s funny, I prefer natural sugar Coke, but just can’t get used to Pepsi throwback.
If you are in Texas and near an HEB grocery store, their store brand colas are now available made with cane sugar instead of HFCS. The Original cola (Coke) and Dr. B are available in 12-packs of cans and 6-packs of glass bottles. The price is a tad higher than their regular store brands, but still cheaper than their name brand counterparts.
There is a difference in taste, because the Mexican version is FLAT. We want coke canned locally with real sugar!
I’ve had both and yes, they do taste different. Also, Coke Zero and Diet Coke (Coca-lite) tastes much, much different in South and Central America than it does here.
When the Throwback version of Pepsi and Mt. Dew first came out I did a double blind taste test with about 15 friends. Almost everyone could correctly identify the sugar and HFCS version, even the handful of people that don’t drink soda. I call shenanigans on “no perceptible taste difference.”
Guess this makes me all the more happy to be part of the Pepsi Generation.
Pepsi Throwback (and Sierra Mist Cranberry w/Sugar) FTW!
Sierra Mist Cranberry might just be my favorite new soda…i need to try it as a mixer…
It absolutely tastes different. Try drinking one side by side with one of their X-Mas/Santa glass bottles that they release during the winter and you, or at least in my opinion, it tastes a lot different. I was at Price Chopper the other day and asked one of their employees where I could find Mexican Coke and he just looked at me strangely and asked if I was kidding. He then went on to tell me he only did that stuff on the weekends but knew a guy who could hook me up. After he said all that I started laughing and told him I was looking for soda. They’ve got some real classy folks working over there!
Saying “a Coke is a Coke and both are ‘the real thing’” is nothing but PR speak. What they mean is Coke is whatever they call a Coke, whether it has sugar, HFCS, or motor oil and that we should buy it for their brand name, not the quality of their product.
If you drink coke, then it doesn’t really matter if it has Corn Sugar, Cane Sugar, Aspartame or “Splenda.”
Soda/”Soft Drinks”/”Pop” is CARP, plain and simple.
Water is king.