In the United States, Mexican Coca-Cola, or Mexican Coke (, ''Glass Coca-Cola, or Coca-Cola in a glass bottle'') or, informally, "Mexicoke",
refers to
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
produced in and imported from Mexico.
The Mexican formula that is exported into the U.S. 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. It is nearly pure sucrose.
Description
The refini ...
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 enzy ...
used in the American formula since the early 1980s.
Some tasters have said that Mexican Coca-Cola tastes better, while other
blind tasting
In marketing, a blind taste test is often used as a tool for companies to compare their brand to another brand. For example, the Pepsi Challenge is a famous taste test that has been run by Pepsi since 1975. Additionally, taste tests are sometimes ...
tests reported no perceptible differences in flavor.
Mexican Coke should not be confused with the domestic version of Coca-Cola sold in Mexico, which since 2017 may contain the artificial sweetener
sucralose
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number E955. It is produced by chlorination of sucrose, selectively replacing three of the hydroxy groups—in the C1 a ...
, 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 corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...
opened its first bottling franchise in Mexico around 1921 with
Grupo Tampico, and then Grupo ARMA.
Monterrey
Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
-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.
In the U.S. food industry,
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 enzy ...
is a cheaper alternative sweetener to
sucrose (standard sugar) because of production quotas of domestic sugar, import
tariff
A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...
s on foreign sugar, and
subsidies of U.S. corn, among other factors.
The Coca-Cola Company and other U.S. soft drink makers continue to use sugar in other countries but transitioned to high-fructose corn syrup for U.S. markets in 1980 before completely switching over in 1984.
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 is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Cos ...
,
Sam's Club
Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is a chain of membership-only warehouse club retail stores in the United States owned by Walmart. It was founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam's Wholesale Club. , Sam's ...
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 Cinc ...
began to stock it.
Since then it has become readily available at grocery stores throughout the United States.
A 2012 scientific analysis of Mexican Coke found no sucrose (standard sugar), but instead found total
fructose
Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, 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 gal ...
and
glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
levels similar to other soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, though in different ratios,
but a response to that study said that sucrose hydrolises to its components in acid environments very fast.
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
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 enzy ...
, to comply with changes to the
Mexican food labeling law. It later clarified this change would not affect those bottles specifically exported to the United States as "Coca-Cola Nostalgia" products.
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 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 called sarsaparilla) as the ...
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 convenience food, packaged food in many countries, showing what nutrients and other ingredients (to limit and get e ...
, ingredients, and bottler and/or exporter's contact information, to meet US food labeling requirements.
Adding to the nostalgia factor, the Mexican Coca-Cola glass bottle does not have a twist-off cap as plastic bottles do.
New Zealand
A similar phenomenon exists in New Zealand, where Coca-Cola is available both bottled locally (sweetened with cane sugar) and imported from the United States (with high-fructose corn syrup).
Kosher for Pesach Coke
A similar version of Coca-Cola is bottled in Israel during the Jewish holiday of
Pesach
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt.
According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
(Passover in English). The corn syrup in the standard recipe is replaced by cane sugar in compliance with
Jewish dietary law, which states that no grains or grain products may be consumed during the holiday. It is packaged differently than standard Coke; a yellow bottle cap is used on the Kosher for Pesach bottles and the packaging is written in both Hebrew and English. It is exported internationally and can often be found in American kosher supermarkets during and around Pesach.
See also
*
Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar, a line of Pepsi products flavored with cane sugar
References
Further reading
*
{{Varieties of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola cola brands
Mexican drinks
Sugar industry of Mexico
Sugar-based drinks