Is Mexican Coke really better? Absolutely. The pure sugar cane tastes more natural than the highly processed fructose corn syrup common in the American version of the beverage. Unfortunately, you may have to go far out of your way to get your hands on the genuine item unless you have a high quality Mexican restaurant that serves it or a local grocery store or Costco that imports it clandestinely.
Other than gourmet coffee, my favorite beverage in the world is an ice cold glass of Coca-Cola. Of course, not only is the product great, but my love for business causes me to appreciate the nectar of the gods in far more ways than the average person could appreciate. When I look at a bottle of Coke, I see the company going public in 1919 at $40 per share before crashing to $19 per share. I also see that today, with dividends reinvested, a single share of Coca-Cola has grown into more than $10,000,000 in wealth. Oh yeah, and you’d collect roughly $300,000 in cash dividends on your shares. So, if great-grandma or grandpa had just splurged for a single certificate, you’d be very well off today.
Despite my extraordinary respect for Roberto Goizueta, which I spelled out in 9 Lessons You Can Learn from Roberto Goizueta on my About.com site, he made one key decision that was horrific. It was a case of (I believe) lower quality justified by an increased profit per serving. What was this shocking betrayal, you ask? In an effort to cut costs, the Coca-Cola network, during Goizueta’s tenure as CEO, substituted cheaper high fructose corn syrup for real sugar cane. The taste difference is substantial. (The company, of course, swears up and down its non-existent but we held blind taste tests with our friends and family and about 80% of people preferred the real, sugar-based Coke without knowing why we were having them try two different varieties, both out of a paper cup, with their eyes covered.)
Why Mexican Coke Is Better
The good folks in Mexico refused to go along with this trend and the bottlers maintained the original sugar cane formula. Thus, today you’ll find that Mexican Coke is far superior to the domestic version to the point that a mini-black market has opened up in restaurants and grocery stores. In fact, one of my local grocery stores has a secret cache of Mexican Cokes that it manages to get its hands on for those of us who love it, and we pay as much as 500% more than the retail value of the stuff due to scarcity. (more…)
