Mexican Coke Vs. American Coke

A friend of mine went on a recent trip to Mexico and was telling me about how their Coca-Cola is so much better than ours. I had to try for myself so I went to a market near home and found a bottle – which was delicious. I thought this was interesting seeing as Coke is an American company, I thought it would remain constant all over the world. As I did more research I found out that the headquarters in Atlanta only produce the concentrate, which is then sold to licensed Coke bottlers around the world who produce their own finished product. In many stores where Mexican Coke and American Coke are sold, the Mexican Coke is by far more popular. One store owner in Atlanta says he barely sells 5 cases a week while he sells 10-15 cases of the Mexican variety. The main reason for the popularity of Mexican Coke is the taste; while American Coke uses high-fructose corn syrup, Mexico uses real cane sugar. Immigrants almost always favor the Mexican product because it gives them a taste of nostalgia when they are so far from home. Also the way the product is packaged – in “its retro green-tinted contour glass bottles have also caught on among some baby boomers, who can recall a time when their cola was made with sugar – before rising costs drove U.S. bottlers to switch to corn syrup in the 1980s.” Even though many consumers prefer Mexican Coke, the amount that is sold in the United States is nothing compared to American Coke. Still, the American bottlers don’t get any profits from the Mexican Coke and in turn, they believe it infringes on their “territory rights.” I think American bottlers should go back to using real sugar when bottling their coke because I’m sure Americans, or at least me, are willing to pay a little more for a better product. I understand that a promise to pay more is not reassuring to the companies who really can’t afford more expensive materials, but I’m sure if they do a test run where they produce their product with sugar, they will see how much more popular Coke will become. J

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041109/news_1b9mexcoke.html