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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Stopped drinking colas when I was a kid and they all moved away from cane sugar to HFCS. Then they started bringing a lot of mexican coke to the area.
Yes, you can taste the difference. Unfortuantely, I can’t tolerate that much sugar in my diet so no more mexican coke for me.
Hey, that’s my picture!
Woohoo!
I live in Oregon… here we can get MexiCoke at Costco, Cash & Carry, and small boutique-like grocery stores like Market of Choice.
Translation: it costs us more to make this stuff, but we know it’ll be popular and we don’t want to have to sell it for the same price as our corn sugar coke in vending machines. Fuck you, America!
Greg Galvez and The Coca-Cola Company are liars.
I can’t even finish a can of HFCS Coke or Pepsi. It’s passable but I end up getting about 2/3 through it and I’m done sliming my throat. But I’ll guzzle a bottle of Mexi-Coke or a can of Pepsi Throwback before I even realize it’s gone.
Which I guess is fine by me ultimately. I drink less Coke overall.
Having the Mexican Coke as the cane-sugar alternative to Crap-Coke would be just fine and dandy if they actually SOLD IT IN STORES.
I only know of one grocery store that stocks it, and it’s over an hour and a half away. Plus it costs like 3 times the amount of money compared to Crap-Coke.
This is why I don’t drink Coke anymore – which was once my favorite cola.
I call BS. They just want to sell us the HFCS crap, and if we want real sugar (reality check, see poll, WE DO) they want us to pay way too much for the mexican coke.
I remember taste testing Coke (old sugar version) against Coke Classic with HFCS when it came out. They made new Coke so nasty we bought out all the old formula in town… we still had some a year later when Classic hit the shelf and it was a clear difference despite the claims from Coke that it was the same old formula.
I’ve tried MexiCoke, and it’s an improvement but not so much to be worth the extra cost per bottle. I love Dew Throwback as well as the Heritage Dr Pepper, they are way better than the normal versions. I hate Pepsi, but acknowledge that the Throwback version is less nasty than normal.
Listen here Coca-Cola… I WANT THE OLD COKE FORMULA WITH SUGAR BACK. MARK IT UP A LITTLE BIT, PUT IT IN A 12/24 PACK, AND SELL IT TO ME. PLEASE.
“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.”
Yes… Mr. Galvez, you can dangle a piece of shiny glass in front of mexicans and we would drink whatever was inside it (even shit) because it reminds us of home…
What an Idiot!!!
/Mexican Rant
Coca-Cola is in a world of hurt here. Pepsi and Mountain Dew throwback have been widely successful, and very hard to find in stock around where I live. I hope they continue to produce them. Sierra Mist (Pepsi product) is also made with sugar now…no HFCS, and it’s here to stay. I don’t work for Pepsi, but I just can’t stand regular Coca-Cola…wayy too syrup-y tasting. I have had the Mexican Coke ($1.50/bottle at Wegmans..a little less if you buy a case) and it is much better.
I love how Pepsi has been doing the throwback soda. I dont like pepsi itself but i like mountain dew and there is a HUGE difference in flavor and i prefer the real sugar.
I’ve also never seen coke with real sugar so this guys excuse isnt very helpful. Id greatly prefer to buy soda with sugar. I dont actually buy soda often but if it had actual sugar in it i could easily see myself buy a 12pack or so a week.
I seem to remember from a couple years back that Coca-Cola was cracking down on the importers and distributors of Mexican Coke. Has that changed?
I live in Austin, TX and Mexican Coke is everywhere – in fact a lot of restaurants/food trailers sell it in addition to regular fountain sodas. Where I notice the taste difference the most is if I drink it while eating something else with sugar. If I eat, say, a piece of cake, and drink a HFCS coke, the tastes clash it’s disgusting. If I sip a mexican coke, they go together quite nicely. And it’s not the “glass bottle effect”, because I prefer drinks in cans.
Mexican Coke is everywhere here in N TX
it’s usually in the Hispanic foods aisle in the gro store
Taste isn’t the issue for me. I’m trying to get rid of HFCS in my diet, so I’d rather buy that.
Unlike suger, HFCS doesn’t trigger the “I’m full” message from the body, thus you drink more (coke knows this) & and it is *cheaper*.
Thus why should they switch?
Am I the only one who prefers the corn syrup? Mexican Coca-Cola is disgusting.
“though only ‘in select grocery stores and bodegas…’”
and Costco. Every Costco I’ve been in has it.
I grew up on sugary soft drinks but when they switched to HFCS, I got used to it. I recently tried some of the throwbacks by Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper, but honestly I prefer the mouth-feel of HFCS. Has more “body” I guess. Anyhow it’s not really much of an issue for me since I stick with diet sodas (Splenda) whenever possible.
I didn’t used to be able to tell the difference but now that I’m pregnant I sure can. Since getting pregnant, anything with just about any kind of chemical just tastes icky. It coats my mouth with a chemically badness. I used to drink Coke by the gallon and now I can’t drink more than 2 oz before I hand the can off to my husband to finish it.
I also have friends that are so sensitive to HFCS that they get sick if they eat it. They pretty much check all of our ingredient labels if they come over a for a meal to make sure they don’t ingest enough HFCS to get sick. A bit obnoxious on their part but who am I to judge? They’re the ones that would get sick if they didn’t do that.
Coke with HFCS always tasted sortof acidy and it burned my mouth a little. Coke with cane sugar doesn’t do that to me at all. So yes, I can tell the difference real easily.
I can’t even stomach how stupid Coke’s response was… ” Coca-Cola with cane sugar and in a tall glass bottle they recognize is a reassuring ‘piece of home..” seriously almost gagged me.
Exactly – as if all citizens of Latino/a or South American heritage are merely refugees sobbing for “home.”
I live in Southern Louisiana and we have “Mexican Coca-Cola”. We also have a horribly made and stuck on sticker that states the nutrition and drink ingredients. All of our “Mexican Coca-Cola” contains HFCS according to the label.
You’ve got bootleg Mexican coke, hilarious. On the west coast, all our “Mexican coke” is sugar.
Cheerwine (a delicious cherry soda bottled only in North Carolina) comes in glass bottles but also in plastic. The glass has sugar and the plastic has corn syrup. Yes, you can taste the difference.
Mexican coke around here comes and goes. For a while every grocery store will have it, Sam’s Club has cases, etc. They have Mexican Fanta as well (real sugar, glass bottles). Then suddenly it’s gone from everywhere. I guess the local distributors deal with it.
The folks at Coke are dumb! Pepsi Throwback sells out really quick. Mexican Coke is usually available at my local Costco here in Northern VA. At 19.00 a case it is quite expensive.
Coke has their Kosher Coke to me it taste WAY different and worse than Mexican Coke. Perhaps the plastic bottle Vs. the glass bottle makes the difference or perhaps the Sucrose Vs. Sugar is it.
Wake up Coke and start mass producing it.
It’s not so much the taste as the viscosity. HFCS soda is disgustingly syrupy = thick.
coke sucks anyway. I drink pepsi. Diet pepsi actually.
/have 64 two liter bottles in the closet
In other words, “We’re too busy making money to give a crap.” That’s the biggest BS answer I’ve ever heard.
Tell them we think they’re stupid idiots who are literally shooing away mountains of cash because they think they’re right. I’ve stopped buying Coke because of the HFCS crap, it’s not the same.
taste is at least a legitimate gripe against HCFS… vs the usual misguided posts about the “health benefits” of cane/beet sugar
I really don’t understand the big fuss over sugar vs. HFCS. It’s sugar and unhealthy either way. Take everything in moderation. A little HFCS isn’t going to kill you and like 20 grams of cane sugar isn’t going be any better for you.
The music industry said it didn’t need to sell music online because there were already CD stores and radios. Look what happened to them.
A neighbor gave me a bottle of it around the fire pit one night, and it was better – much smoother tasting. I can’t say for certain if it was the sugar or the glass, but I would drink more Coca-Cola if the cane sugar version was more readily available.
BTW, I usually don’t drink anything caffeinated after 6 pm, but I figured this was worth the try. It was, and I would do it again.
I love this, it’s a drink that actually -feels- refreshing after I drink it. Regular coke and pepsi taste the same to me, but this versus throwback Pepsi? Mexican Coke hands down.
I hate that it’s $1.50 a bottle. :
I have a Coke machine in my living room. I have a cache full of search terms like ‘Mexican Coke’. The problem is they don’t distribute it widely, and Coke has a particularly nasty reputation in labor relations in the third world.
There’s micro-colas out there like Jones who do use cane sugar. And honestly, after sipping one I could tell it tasted better than Pepsi or Coke with their “corn sugar” sweetners. (I’d forgotten the taste. Hadn’t sipped a pure cane sugar soda since my youth.)
There’s a market out there. Why do the big cola companies refuse to see it?
There is a big difference in taste. I won’t even drink it anymore if it has corn syrup.
Well we sure don’t have Mexican Coke in Canada. No cane sugar for us Canucks. T.T
I have compared the two, side by side, I can state empirically that the taste is different.
pepsi throwback is better anyway. and mountain dew throwback
They taste a bit different. I order Mexican Coke at a local Taqueria. I honestly prefer the flavor of HFCS Coke, as that is what I grew up with. The “real thing” statement seems way off.
Wait, what? They don’t sell coke in glass bottles in the US?
Here in Canada, where we also use regular sugar in our Coke/Pepsi/etc (we lack the corn subsidies that make HFCS cheaper than other forms), you can buy coke in single-serving glass bottles. Is this not the case in the US? Coca Cola commercials, which I assume originate in the US, seem to show people drinking from these iconic glass bottles.
There is one good thing about living in the Cleveland area. Mexican/Jew Coke is pretty commonly available. One need walk into nothing more than the bastion of retail evil to find it sitting in glass bottles on the shelves.
our research shows that there is no perceptible taste difference between the products
Then your researchers need to be fired, because there’s a significant difference between the two. Same with all of the Pepsi Throwback versions of their respective sodas. (Which I hope will become a permanent part of their offerings).
To say that one is better than the other is subjective, to say that there is no significant difference is absurd.
I switched to coffee for my caffeine needs–and not Starbucks.
Coke can kiss my butt.
I dont know why but even Coca Light (Mexican Diet Coke) tastes better. Maybe its the glass bottle instead of plastic.
Im mexican, YES I CAN.
There is definitely a difference between pure cane sugar and HFCS. For example, last week I had sworn off sodas in an attempt to lose weight. I had gone 5 days with out a coke (major miracle) and someone handed me a new throwback Dr. Pepper with sugar. I used to love Dr Pepper but now go months between drinks of it. The Throwback DP is amazing and I really wanted more. I joke about how it changed my life, never ever will I drink a HFCS Dr. Pepper again. If only the Mexican Cokes were easier to get. Costco sells them by the case here in Washington, but that means I have to shell out $20 for a whole case. I would gladly pay $1.50 or so for one at a convenience store. A local 7-11 carries them, too. The owner told me that he buys the cases at Costco and he sells about 8 cases a day. I asked how many cases of 20oz bottles of regular Coke does he sell? He said maybe 1 a day. Our Costco here in town goes through a pallet of Mexican Coke cases in a couple of days according to a friend of mine that works there. You can not convince me there is no market for it or it is just for the hispanics to remember home.
No problem for me, I like Pepsi better anyway, so I’ll stock up on Throwback Pepsi and Mt. Dew.
Mexican Coke is widely available here Los Angeles. You can get a case of 24 bottles at Sam’s Club for $18 dollars, you can also get it at liquor stores for a higher price per unit and at the Mexican/Ranch markets for about 99 cents a unit. Truth is, Mexican Coke IN THE GLASS BOTTLE is the real deal. They do offer Coke with HFCS in Mexico, but it’s sold in a plastic bottle or in a can. Any real Coke drinker knows that the Mexican Coke in the glass bottle is just awesome. Besides, HFCS is one of the most disgusting things you could put in your body.
I see the Mexican Coke in our grocery stores. A 16 oz bottle is $1.59 and that is at an inexpensive store. Try to pack a 6 pack out of those and Pepsi Throwback wins every time.