Why Mexican Coke Is Considered To Be Superior To American Coca-Cola

When I was young, my parents took my brother and I to Ensenada, Mexico for a weekend vacation. Across the street from our hotel was a tiny taco stand that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. Taco ingredients were pulled from a cooler, and so were the sodas and beers. My dad bought me a Baja fish taco (which are best enjoyed on the Baja California coast) and a Coke. I remember that the bottle was different — it was taller than the Coke bottles I'd seen at home, and the glass was thicker. I took one sip of the ice cold drink and remember thinking that it was the best Coke I'd ever had. It was just ... different. Better, somehow. Fizzier, maybe. I was too young to consider why it tasted better, it just did.

Fast forward to today and Mexican Coke is far more accessible in the United States than it was in the late 1980s. More often than not, people agree that there is just something different (and better) about Mexican Coke. As it turns out, there is one obvious difference between the ingredients listed on the Cokes in the neighboring nations: Mexican Coke is made with cane sugar while American Coke is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. (In fact, Mexico has a long history of using real sugar to make its sweet beverages.) Some people suggest that this is the reason why Mexican Coke tastes better than its American counterpart. But is this simple ingredient swap really the only reason why Mexican Coke is seen by many people to be the superior beverage?

Naturally, several people have conducted side-by-side taste tests. The results are all over the place with some experiments concluding that Mexican Coke is better, while others say American Coke tastes superior. Yet others showed that the two products taste the same. An impressively in-depth study from Serious Eats found that whether the Coke came in a bottle or a can had a huge impact on which soda was deemed better (the bottle won by leaps and bounds). Perhaps, this is why many people perceive Mexican Coke — which is nearly always served in a glass bottle — to be superior.

Another interesting aspect of the two Cokes is that there is more sodium listed on Mexican Coke's nutrition label than that of American Coke. This is presumably a result of more sodium bicarbonate being used (which makes soda bubbly) in the former. As it turns out, Coke is made slightly differently in each country it's produced in. If this is true, it would explain why some people (including my 8-year-old self) believe that the fizz factor is higher when it comes to Mexican Coke. (Just don't expect any fizz at all when you try TikTok's Coke with espresso and cream.)