Earlier this week, we reported that Latin America’s second-largest bottler of Coca Cola was considering shifting away from sugar cane—the ingredient that helped turn the glass bottles of so-called Mexicoke into a cult hit in the US and beyond. Some fans didn’t take it that well.
Well, they can stop worrying. Today the bottler, Arca Continental, assured the Associated Press in a statement that—while it may indeed change the mix of sugar and fructose syrup it uses to make its products—the change would only affect Coca-Cola sold in Mexico—not the bottles it exports to the US, which will still be made with 100% cane sugar. The Associated Press reports:
The Mexican bottler in question, stressed in a statement that it has no plans to change the sweetener for the “Coca-Cola Nostalgia” bottles it exports to the U.S. Those will continue to use 100 percent cane sugar, it said. The company’s CEO said last week that the bottler could consider using more fructose, but that was only for drinks distributed in Mexico.
Arca Continental’s CEO Francisco Garza first raised the question of shifting from cane sugar to corn syrup on an earnings call with analysts last week. The measure was raised as a potential cost-saving measure after Mexico implemented a new soda tax, which will tack on an extra peso ($0.08) per liter to all soft drink purchases in the country. The tax is meant, in part, to battle against an obesity epidemic in Mexico, which also happens to be the largest per capita consumer of Coca-Cola products.