Few soda companies can be considered as influential as Coca-Cola. In some parts of the country if you order a “coke” they immediately give you a Coca-Cola without asking. With a brand name like Coca-Cola, and such a distinctive flavor, how can I be pitting two bottles against each other? The sweeteners, of course! The Coca-Cola sold in the United States is made with that ever-present sweetener, High Fructose Corn Syrup, otherwise known as “HFCS”. There are, however, certain places where the more traditional cane sugar is preferred.

One of those places is south of the border, Mexico, where local Coca-Cola bottlers use real sugar instead of the HFCS. Available here in the States as an import, I picked up a bottle from the international aisle of my grocery the other day to pit the two products against each other. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to taste much of a difference. I’ve had real sugar versions of other soft drinks before, but never  noticed a difference. Of course most would say real sugar is preferable, but is it really? I set out to take my time and see if I can really can taste the difference.

I was careful to buy both the normal and the imported in glass bottles, to keep them as similar as possible. I wouldn’t have wanted to attribute a particular taste to the sweetener when it may have been caused by a can or plastic container. Leaving size out of the equation, the only difference between them was the second ingredient in the list: Cane Sugar versus High Fructose Corn Syrup. Flavor wise, the two products had that classic Coca-Cola flavor I was expecting, and were very similar at first taste.

However, the Mexican version had less of an after taste and with this came much easier drink-ability compared to the State Side version. The one theme I associate with Coca-Cola is that fizzy, almost burning, sensation (Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you). The import had a much softer “burn” factor. When chugging the two, it went down much smoother than the regular Coca-Cola.

TLDR: If I was given a choice between the two products, all things being equal, I would certainly choose the imported Mexican version for its smoother taste.