Coke bottles bitter US economic formula

Reuters ^ | 7/24/25 | Jennifer Saba

[DallasBiff]

NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Mexico is a frequent target of Donald Trump’s ire, but he prefers the Coke sold there. After holding conversations with the president, Coca-Cola (KO.N), opens new tab unveiled plans to roll out a version of its signature soda using cane sugar, as it is sold south of the border, instead of corn syrup. Even setting aside the idea of the Oval Office occupant influencing one of the world’s most successful recipes, it’s a classic case of industrial policy gone awry.

The $300 billion company has occasionally tinkered with the Coke formula over its 139-year lifespan, removing the cocaine, opens new tab that was originally included in 1903 and introducing a sweeter New Coke in 1985, which created a marketing disaster. After Coca-Cola and other carbonated beverage makers started using corn syrup for their U.S. products in the 1980s, the so-called Mexican Coke, bottled with purer sucrose, became a cultish find in supermarkets.

Making it more widely available bubbles up a multitude of complications. Homegrown sugar – as Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey vowed to use – is pricey because the Department of Agriculture tightly controls production and limits imports. There have been levies on it since 1789, and the U.S. government started providing farmers with financing in 1981 to help underpin prices. It costs about 50% more today for domestic sugar than what’s sold internationally, according to the Sweeteners Users Association trade group

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: cocacola; coke; reuters

[DallasBiff]

Just my anecdotal evidence, I lost 60 lbs. giving up high fructose soft drinks.

Just a question, is south Florida and Hawaii the only places where sugar cane can be grown in the US?

[Oystir]

Beet sugar and cane sugar are essentially the same chemical: both are composed of around 99.9–99.95% pure sucrose (C12H22O11) and are considered chemically identical in refined form

[Tijeras_Slim]

Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas.

[God luvs America]

The more whining reuters, AP (American Pravda), CNN, ABC, SEE BS and the rest do, the more it means we are on the right track and America is winning!!!

[Semper Vigilantis]

Same here (not 60 lbs as I was only 210, but A LOT). Easiest diet ever!

[SaveFerris]

(Donald Trump ... he prefers the Coke sold there)

👍👍

[Adder]

I thought LA grew sugar also...

Anyway, Jennifer doesn’t seem to know that Coca Cola was always made with cane sugar. The “tampering with the recipe” came from Coke. Going back to sugar would be more like UNtampering...

[Governor Dinwiddie]

You know times are tough for the lib media when they start shilling for HFCS.

[algore]

I don’t drink Coke much, but if I do I will drink Mexi coke in a bottle.

I love Mexi Sprite in a bottle though. I just wish I could get it for under $2 per.

Everyone seems to forget that US Coke comes with real sugar for Passover

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Yep.

And a lot of places grow sugar beets as part of their crop rotation. Corn, beans, sugar beets. Helps prevent hardpan.

Make a bigger market for American sugar and you will have more people growing it.

[ansel12]

Anyone who has had a Diet Coke, knows that it would taste much better made with cane sugar.

[Dr. Sivana]

There have been levies on it since 1789

I hadn't known that. Wasn't England's "Sugar Act" one of the reasons we fought for Independence? Or is a British acquaintance asked my childhood friend, "So . . . how do you like taxation WITH representation?"

[Williams]

They really don’t know what to say because they know the sweeteners being used are not healthy and that’s beyond doubt.

I went into a chain which had Mexican Diet Coke in their fountain.

So that wasn’t even sugar but they were using a different artificial sweetener the details of which I don’t remember. The Mexican Diet Coke was way better than our Diet Cokes.

[Dr. Sivana]

So, if the tariffs were on sugar from the beginning, and we mostly had sugar in soda up until the ‘80s, we can go back to that. I remember getting Coca-Cola in 16 ounce leaded glass 8-packs (returnables) in Chicago on sale for 99 cents. The sugar could not have been TOO expensive.

[pierrem15]

Now get Coca Cola to make Fanta in the US like they make it in Europe: some real orange juice and cane sugar. HFCS is just a wretched food ingredient.

[jjotto]

Cane no longer grown in Hawaii except as a boutique crop.

Beet sugar or imported cane sugar.

[JBW1949]

They can make Coca-Cola any way they wish...I drink Diet Pepsi Mini’s........

[Myrddin]

I had developed an iced matcha tea latte habit at Starbucks in 2008. My weight rose to 208 lbs. Starbucks dropped the use of melon syrup sweetener and made the product taste bad. I dropped it and my weight rapidly fell to 192 lbs. Better for my finances too.

This morning I weighed in a 146.8 lbs. Hold my weight after the Whipple surgery for cancer has been a challenge.

[blackdog]

The mass media has no idea what they are even saying. Sugar production comes from GMO Sugar Beets. The beet pulp and other plant byproducts go into all sorts of food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and animal feed products. The majority of all sugar sold in grocery stores is beet sugar, not cane sugar. Beet sugar crops are essentially grown in potato growing states. Idaho, Nebraska, Dakotas, Iowa, etc...

[DallasBiff]

I went into a chain which had Mexican Diet Coke in their fountain.

So that wasn’t even sugar but they were using a different artificial sweetener the details of which I don’t remember. The Mexican Diet Coke was way better than our Diet Cokes.

Just speculation, maybe the Mexican Diet Coke used cyclamates, which were banned in the US in the early 70's due to some rat study. Diet drinks then went to saccharine, which tastes horrible, then I think aspartame came along in the early 80's, which tastes horrible, but not as bad as saccharine.