MexiCoke (Coca-Cola "hecho en Mexico")

The Taste

First things first:  the taste.  MexiCoke tastes great.  Much like Coca-Cola used to taste.  It comes in glass bottles, and there is something nostalgic and refreshing about drinking from a glass bottle.  From the way it looks, to the way it feels in your hands, but most importantly the way it doesn't alter the taste the way an aluminum can does.  But beyond that, the cola itself, is terrific.   The taste is very mellow and smooth, and very lightly carbonated.  You can really taste the syrup.  This is Coke the way I remember it, and the way it should be.

I'll put it to you this way.  All my life I've been a very enthusiastic Pepsi drinker.  Pepsi first, if there's a choice.  On occasion a Coke.  The taste of sugar Coke has made me flip -- sugar Coke is my first choice and I hardly ever drink Pepsi anymore.



We've Lost Our Way

Grab a Coca-Cola overseas (pretty much anywhere but the USA and Canada) and you'll notice it tastes different.  Better.  The way it used to be. That's because ironically, inside the US, the soft drink that is the face of America around the world is not made the way it used to be -- and still is in the rest of the world.  Here in the US, they don't use old fashioned sugar anymore; instead, they use High Fructose Corn Syrup, an unnatural sweetener made from corn courtesy of the corn lobby, our country's overabundance of corn and underabundance of sugar.  And despite claims that HFCS is equal to sugar, I can tell you if you know your sodas, it does not taste the same.

Oddly enough, ethnic food stores (the small corner stores such as Mexican Bodegas) not only bring in food from home but they import their Coca-Cola from home as well.  I would guess the taste of the US made stuff just isn't the same so it's in demand.  And thus was born a grey-market for importing Coca-Cola from Mexico. 

When I first discovered this, I just had to try it.  I bought a 6 pack over the web at an insane price.  Oh man was it good, but I had to treat it like gold.

One day out on errands with my wife, I drove past a bodega in traffic which had all their bottles of soda in the store front window.  I gave her "the look" and pulled over to check it out.  Not only did I score some Mexican Coke but some Mexican Pepsi as well, and at prices way better than on the internet. Finding such a bodega may be your best source and I'd recommend checking it out.

Coca-Cola Semi-Officially Imports It

The popularity of the grey-market imports made the Coca-Cola company take a stance somewhere between completely ignoring it and putting it on every store shelf.  They import the bottles and add a white FDA label, and distribute it in very limited channels.  In border states, it's easy to find in places like Costco.  I've found a somewhat steady supply as far north as eastern Pennsylvania in Sam's Club.


Now What?

Various soda companies are starting to recognize the appeal of going back to sugar instead of HFCS.  I'm sure this has more to do with competing demand for corn from boondoggles such as Ethanol than it does with taste and customer demand, but I'll take it either way.  Coca-Cola has notably abstained, aside from importing MexiCoke.  Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, for example, have done limited run "Throwback" versions of their sodas reverting back to sugar.


I'd like to see Coca-Cola do a "throwback" of their own.  Heck I'd like to see them permanently change the formula back over to sugar and ditch HFCS altogether. Two Coca-Cola bottlers in the US (Cleveland, OH and Allentown, PA) still use sugar (sucrose) in their product.  And in the weeks leading up to Passover, certain areas get Kosher for Passover versions.  I'll post a separate review of both later.  I'd like to see those two sucrose bottlers become the new model for the entire nation.  I don't fully understand the behind the scenes technicals of it, but apparently processing sugar and HFCS requires different machines, so it's not so simple as switching ingredients.

The wildcard that may explain Coca-Cola's hesitance is Truvia -- a new low calorie natural sweetener developed by Coca-Cola and Cargill.  Truvia is said to be sweeter than sugar and low-calorie.  Perhaps Coca-Cola is biding its time and waiting for Truvia to prove itself before being mainlined in the company's products.