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In the United States and Canada, Mexican Coca-Cola, or Mexican Coke ( es, Coca Cola de Vidrio, English: Glass Coca-Cola, or Coca-Cola in a glass bottle) or, informally, "Mexicoke", refers to
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlan ...
produced in and imported from Mexico. Mexican Coca-Cola is sweetened with
white sugar White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. Description The refining process completely removes t ...
instead of the
high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...
used in the U.S. since the early 1980s. Some tasters have said that Mexican Coca-Cola tastes better, while other
blind tasting Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...
tests reported no perceptible differences in flavor. Coca-Cola made in the United States uses a different recipe, containing high-fructose corn syrup, in contrast to the sugar used by the Mexican formula for export. As of 2023, the domestic version of Coca-Cola sold in Mexico contains an artificial sweetener
sucralose Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so it is noncaloric. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. It is produced by chlorination o ...
, with a can containing one-third less sugar than the export product.


History

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...
opened its first bottling franchise in Mexico around 1921 with Grupo Tampico, and then Grupo ARMA.
Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...
-based
FEMSA Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V., doing business as FEMSA, is a Mexican multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. It operates the largest independent Coca-Cola bottling group in the world and the la ...
is currently the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Mexico and most of Latin America. The Coca-Cola Company originally imported the Mexican-produced version into the U.S. primarily to sell it to Mexican immigrants who grew up with that formula. Mexican Coke was first sold at grocers who served Latino clientele, but as its popularity grew among non-Latinos, by 2009 larger chains like
Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
,
Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's C ...
and
Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...
began to stock it. It is now readily available at most grocery stores throughout the United States. In 2013, a Mexican Coca-Cola bottler announced it would stop using
cane sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
in favor of glucose-fructose syrup. It later clarified this change would not affect those bottles specifically exported to the United States as "Coca-Cola Nostalgia" products. A scientific analysis of Mexican Coke found no sucrose (standard sugar), but instead found total
fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a ketonic simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbe ...
and
glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...
levels similar to other soft drinks sweetened with
high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...
, though in different ratios.


Taste

Results from taste tests have been mixed. In a tasting conducted by a local Westchester, New York magazine, some tasters noted that the Mexican Coke had "a more complex flavor with an ineffable spicy and herbal note," and that it contained something "that darkly hinted at
root beer Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree ''Sassafras albidum'' or the vine of '' Smilax ornata'' (known as sarsaparilla, also used to make a soft drink, sarsaparilla) as the p ...
or old-fashioned sarsaparilla candies." However, participants in a different
double-blind In a blind or blinded experiment, information which may influence the participants of the experiment is withheld until after the experiment is complete. Good blinding can reduce or eliminate experimental biases that arise from a participants' expec ...
test preferred American Coca-Cola. Participants in taste tests conducted by Coca-Cola and others reported no perceptible differences in flavor between American Coke and the Mexican formulation.


Bottle

Mexican Coca-Cola is sold in a thick or glass bottle, which some have contrasted as being "more elegant, with a pleasingly nostalgic shape," compared to the more common plastic American Coca-Cola bottles. Formerly, Coca-Cola was widely available in refundable and non-refundable glass bottles of various sizes in the U.S., but nearly all bottlers began replacing most glass bottles with plastic during the late 1980s. Most exporters of Mexican Coke affix a paper sticker on each bottle containing the
nutrition facts label The nutrition facts label (also known as the nutrition information panel, and other slight variations) is a label required on most packaged food in many countries, showing what nutrients and other ingredients (to limit and get enough of) are in ...
, ingredients, and bottler and/or exporter's contact information, to meet US food labeling requirements. Adding to the nostalgia factor, the Mexican Coca-Cola bottle does not have a twist-off cap as American glass and plastic bottles do.


See also

*
Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar, originally called Pepsi Throwback—and still branded that way in some markets—is a soft drink sold by PepsiCo. The drink is flavored with cane sugar and beet sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, with whic ...
, a line of Pepsi products flavored with cane sugar


References


Further reading

* {{Varieties of Coca-Cola Coca-Cola Coca-Cola brands Mexican drinks