Mexican Coke!

I'm crazy about Mexican Coca-Cola. Mexican Coke is the real thing! This is because Mexican Coke is made with real sugar. Yum! As far as I can determine Mexican Coke follows the original Coke recipe. This is not true of "Coke Classic" because Coke Classic is made with corn syrup. Yuck!

How did this happen. Well, you may not be old enough to recall "New Coke." After getting trounced by Pepsi in the "Pepsi Challenge" (blind taste tests pitting Coca-Cola against Pepsi Cola) in the 1980s, Coca-Cola reformulated their product and conducted their own blind taste tests. New Coke won and management decided to dump their original formula for sweeter, New Coke.

The switch was made in record time. Almost overnight the original Coke left the shelves and New Coke took its place. But the people, including yours truly, rebelled. New Coke was universally rejected. Coca-Cola management was forced to pull New Coke off the shelves. Rather than return to the original formula, however, they reformulated Coca-Cola again removing the real sugar and replacing it with corn syrup. The new/old Coke was rebranded as Coca-Cola Classic. I've never forgiven them for this.

For years I wondered why they didn't just put the original Coke back on the market. Then I discovered what I believe to be the root cause, import restrictions on sugar. You see our government wants us to buy American made sugar. To see that we do they imposed import restrictions on sugar including those in the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981. I believe that this is why Coke Classic and lots of other sweet drinks are made with corn syrup rather than sugar in the USA.

The big losers from federal sugar programs are U.S. consumers. The Government Accountability Office estimates that U.S. sugar policies cost American consumers about $1.9 billion annually. At the same time, sugar policies have allowed a small group of sugar growers to become wealthy because supply restrictions have given them monopoly power. The GAO found that 42 percent of all sugar subsidies go to just 1 percent of sugar growers. To protect their monopolies, many sugar growers, such as the Fanjul family of Florida, have become influential campaign supporters of many key members of Congress. - Agricultural Regulations and Trade Barriers, Chris Edwards

Score! By accident I discovered Mexican Coke at my local grocery store's Hispanic section. Lo and behold Mexican Coke is made with real sugar, yum! No import restrictions on sugar in Mexico I suppose? Long story short I now have access to real Coke and so I now officially forgive Coca-Cola for changing its formula to include corn syrup (yuck) instead of real sugar (yum) in the USA. It wasn't their fault really; it was bad governmental policy that killed the original Coke.

Mark VanSchuyver