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So, Coca-Cola Co. carefully guards the recipe for its flavor syrup, and exports the product to bottlers all over the world, where the syrup is then mixed with sweetener, diluted with water, and carbonated. In border states like Arizona, one can find imports from the far side, even though Coca-Cola itself frowns on importing from one licensee-bottlers' region to anothers'.
The best-known difference between American coke and the Mexican version is that cane sugar is the sweetener of choice in Mexico, while the cheaper HFCS is used in America. Tasted side-by-side, though, what struck me was how much more acidic the AmeriCoke tasted. Unsure if this was extra phosphoric acid or just extra carbonation, I poured some of each into two identical glasses. The MexiCoke was noted to have a larger, but also more transient, head of foam than the AmeriCoke. The glasses were then swirled until the soda went flat. The decarbonated sodas did not have noticably different degrees of the characteristic cola-flavor (phosphoric acid). However, the AmeriCoke tasted sharper and "less flat", even when it was visibly decarbonated and bubbles did not nucleate on the tongue. I remain unsure what the difference is, and unable to determine whether it's a bottler-originating change, or one of syrup composition.
The best-known difference between American coke and the Mexican version is that cane sugar is the sweetener of choice in Mexico, while the cheaper HFCS is used in America. Tasted side-by-side, though, what struck me was how much more acidic the AmeriCoke tasted. Unsure if this was extra phosphoric acid or just extra carbonation, I poured some of each into two identical glasses. The MexiCoke was noted to have a larger, but also more transient, head of foam than the AmeriCoke. The glasses were then swirled until the soda went flat. The decarbonated sodas did not have noticably different degrees of the characteristic cola-flavor (phosphoric acid). However, the AmeriCoke tasted sharper and "less flat", even when it was visibly decarbonated and bubbles did not nucleate on the tongue. I remain unsure what the difference is, and unable to determine whether it's a bottler-originating change, or one of syrup composition.