The Great Coke Test
Growing up, we were always fascinated by the glass bottles of Coca-Cola in the myriad Mexican grocery stores sprinked throughout the Bay Area. At the time, it seemed to be an infatuation with the aesthetic of the glass bottle, a nostalgic reminder of the halcyon pre-soda wars days.
Now, we know better; it was really just the cane sugar. The use of cane sugar versus high-frutcose corn syrup (which American Classic Coke uses) as a sweetner is a common topic of conversation around Passover time, but a recent debate in the Chronicle newsroom evolved into a taste test pitting Mexico against America:
We convened an all-star Food and Wine staff panel to taste MexiCoke blind against U.S. Coca-Cola Classic. We bought glass bottles of both and sipped them out of wineglasses.You know, whenever we have "MexiCoke," we can't help but describe it as possessing a "finer mousse of bubbles." In fact, we're gonna have to use that at the next MenuPages' bar outing.All agreed that they taste very different, but we didn't settle on a favorite.
Executive Food & Wine Editor Michael Bauer lined up with Jon for the U.S. Coke; he liked its "cleaner finish" and lower sweetness level. Food Editor Miriam Morgan was conmigo on MexiCoke, saying, "It has a fuller flavor." I also liked Mexican Coke's finer mousse of bubbles and straightforward sugar flavor.
