Imported Mexican Coca-Cola Won't Change Recipe

By Jude Joffe-Block
November 06, 2013

Despite a recent scare, it appears that fans of imported Mexican Coke need not worry about any changes to the beverage's taste on this side of the border.

"Mexicoke," bottled in glass and sweetened with sugar, has a following in the U.S. among those who prefer it to the version sweetened with high fructose corn syrup sold here.

But in light of a new tax on soft drinks passed by the Mexican Congress last week, one of Mexico's biggest Coca-Cola bottlers suggested, in a call with analysts, that it was considering increasing the amount of fructose used in its recipe as a cost saving measure.

That set off some reports that imported Mexican Coke could be impacted. 

Today The Associated Press is reporting the possible changes mentioned by the Mexican bottler only pertain to Coke sold in Mexico.

Arca Continental, which bottles Coca-Cola drinks in Mexico, stressed in a statement that it has no plans to change the sweetener for the Coke bottles it exports. Those will continue to use 100 percent cane sugar, it said. The company's CEO said last week that the bottler could consider using more fructose, but that was only for drinks distributed in Mexico.

Fronteras Desk contacted Arca Continental this morning and received this response via email from a spokesman, suggesting the bottler wants to downplay any potential changes on either side of the border: 

"The Coca-Cola that we export to the United States and is distributed by local bottlers uses the same formula created in 1886 and there are no plans to modify it, neither in Mexico, nor in that country," said the statement, which was sent in Spanish.

But for some time Mexican Coke bottlers have been using a mix of high fructose corn syrup and sugar in the bottles destined for the local market, according to The Wall Street Journal.

All this suggests the Mexicoke sold here in the U.S. isn't necessarily available on store shelves in Mexico.

Or as Quartz reports, perhaps Mexican Coke imported here isn't always only purely sugar-cane sweetened, despite the way it is labeled.

In 2010 researchers from the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine tested Mexican Coke purchased in Los Angeles that listed "sugar" as an ingredient. 

However the laboratory test suggested the soft drink was made with high fructose corn syrup.