I don’t know what accounts for the difference in taste, but there is definitely a difference. I assumed it was processed differently all around, and glass vs. plastic vs. cans. I would be surprised if the sugar is the only factor that’s different, based on the flavor notes I could taste.
Since regular Coke has no animal products in it, how would it not be kosher?
Corn is one of the forbidden fruits of Passover, hence no HFCS allowed.
IANJ, but my understanding is it’s because of the corn. Also, it’s not kosher for passover, which is stricter. Or something.
ETA: Shoulda previewed first. Oh well.
Why does it taste different?
'Cause it’s made by Mexicans, with love 
I didn’t mention it in my original post, but yes there is a difference there too in the after taste. US Coke leaves a sticky feeling on my teeth and tongue which the Mexican stuff does not.
Yes, I’m well aware of Mexican Coke. It’s just that I’ve been other places, other than Mexico, where Coca Cola was in a glass bottle, and sugar was used in place of corn syrup.
My wife is a Coke-aholic. She doesn’t like Pepsi. Her taste buds are somehow WAY different than mine, because any difference in taste between Pepsi and Coke is so ridiculously minimal that it’s laughable, by me at least.
Anyway, a number of years ago at passover time I mistakenly bought kosher Coke. She took one sip and spit it out into the sink. I can barely, if I try, tell the difference between one brand of cola and another, and she can, without pause, not only tell the difference between kosher and regular Coke, but she can’t even drink kosher Coke because it tastes so terrible to her.
Yeah, I don’t get it either, but it’s completely and utterly true. The difference to some people is apparently huge.
There is a big difference in the taste of beet sugar vs cane sugar – at least in baking.
For YEARS my family and I could NOT figure out why all the cookies I made tasted stale the second they came out of the oven (this was mostly for Christmas. I do a LOT of baking for Christmas). So, after the first year where the cookies tasted terrible, we thought maybe we’d used old flour, so we made cookies that year with freshly bought flour. No difference. The next year, we made sure we had fresh vanilla. No difference. That odd, earthy, musty flavor was still permeating the cookies. It was driving me nuts. I’ve been baking since I was a little kid and have always taken pride in the fact that my baking was always pretty danged good (or so everyone always tells me, anyway) For about 4 years, any time I baked, I would make sure I had all fresh ingredients and was stymied each time by the awful flavor.
One day, I was talking to my mother (who is an awesome baker and used to work in restaurants) about how frustrated I was about the whole instantly stale cookie thing. We discussed the ingredients one by one. Then she asked me what kind of sugar I used. I’d never paid attention. Sugar is sugar, right?
Well, she mentioned that she only ever used C&H and we’d been using Domino.
Next time I went to the grocery store, I checked the labels between the two brands. Domino sugar was beet sugar.
So, I bought the C&H and made some cookies – not really expecting there to be a difference, but holy cow, what a difference! The cookies I made were DELICIOUS! The flavor was back, no odd musty staleness! Who’da thunk it? But it makes sense because beets are musty tasting to me.
So, now, I always check my sugar to make sure it’s pure cane and I’ve not regretted it.
I am also one of those people who notice a difference in the taste of Pepsi. I’ve not liked most of the colas out there since they switched to HFCS. I used to like them all: Coke, Pepsi, RC – they all had a different flavor back in the old days. What I drank, depended on my mood.
Then, they changed the formula of Coke and all I could taste was oil of cloves. I HATE oil of cloves, so Coke was tossed out. Pepsi was the least changed, but wasn’t as good. RC is unrecognizable to what it used to taste like when I was younger.
When they brought out Pepsi Throwback, I bought some. I was THRILLED to have the old taste back. It’s more mellow or something. It’s a slight difference, but one that makes all the difference to me.
I wish the other cola companies would make their products available with cane sugar. I can never find Coke made with cane sugar…
Michigander living in Mexico here. Not only is there a difference between Mexican Coke and US Coke, there’s a difference between Mexican Coke and Mexican Coke. The stuff in the glass bottles, as far as I can tell, is always made with sugar. Increasingly, though, the stuff in the plastic bottles is made with corn syrup. There’s a Coke bottling plant just outside my workplace; I assume the big tanker trucks are bringing in corn syrup for the plastic bottled Coke, but it may be finished Coke syrup for all I know.
I live in a very highly concentrated Jewish area. I’ll see if there’s yellow-capped plastic Coke bottles here near the end of March, when Passover begins. Back home during Passover, yellow-capped Coke is Kosher for Passover, meaning it’s made with sugar. Of course, there are so many glass bottles available, there may be no need for Kosher Coke during Passover.
Based on taste alone, I’m convinced that fountain Coke is corn syrup here.
I’ve had Mexican Coke maybe a dozen times over the last 20 or so years, always in bottles. I can taste a noticable difference between the HFCS and throwback versions of Dew and Pepsi, and I taste that same difference in Mexican Coke.
Practically overwhelming that is what seems to me a huge difference in the amount of carbonation. Mexican Coke seems much flatter, and is missing the carbonic acid “bite” of US Coke.
I’ve noticed this each time I’ve had it, and speculated it may be done intentionally due to the potentially very hot and unrefrigerated conditions the bottles could be exposed to and the desire for them to not explode. Or that they’re more likely to be opened warm and fizz out all over the opener.
Of course, it could all be in my head 
Anecdotal again I know, but I personally can certainly taste the difference between Soft Drinks with HFCS and cane suger.
I didn’t even know there was a difference, until my first trip to the States and discovering the soft drink tasted significantly different. (and to me worse) After some research discovered the only difference was the sweetener used.
I am fully convinced that it could vary by individual. My wife cannot really tell a difference between Coke and Coke Zero, where as to me Coke Zero has a somewhat unpleseant aftertaste, luckily not as bad as Diet Coke, which to me has a terrible aftertaste.
I got hold of Throwback Mountain Dew which uses some type of non corn sugar. It definitely changed the flavor enough that it took a few cans until I stopped having a that tastes different do I still like it reaction. I’m sure there is a large percentage of the population that won’t differentiate the change, but everybody has differently capable senses and brain structure. We need only mention that other things you consume can also change your taste perception.
I’ve been buying a bunch of that Pepsi Throwback, which is made with real sugar instead of HFCS. I did taste tests with the two different kinds of Pepsi and I can most definitely tell the difference. Same with Mexican coke and US coke, although I don’t like Coke.
The differences I see are the ‘new’ Pepsi has more astringency, so I think they add more phosphoric acid. There’s more mouthfeel to the sugar based one, which I love in Pepsi, but not so much in Mountain Dew for some reason.
Oddly, I have the opposite opinion. (How does one measure gas in solution?) Mexican Coke seems much, much fizzier to me. I used to blame it on the altitude (I’m usually a kilometer or two above sea level, versus 600 feet in Michigan), but then I spent a year in Sonora (sea level) and had the same sensation that it was fizzier.
There are only certain parts of the country that are extraordinarily hot compared to (e.g.) Michigan. Much of the country is actually pretty temperate due to the altitude. Right now, it’s chilly enough that even I’ve been wearing a jacket the last couple of weeks (and the locals wear scarves and thick coats and winter hats).
Actually, now I’m truly curious about how to measure gas in solution. I make my own carbonated water when I’m at home, and I guess it would be nice to apply some consistency to the process.
I really can’t imagine it’s the sugar. It’s gotta be the water. I mean, water tastes WAY different in different places but sugar is pretty much the same everywhere. I’ve never had Mexican coke, though, so I could be wrong. I’d just be really surprised if it wasn’t the water’s fault.
But isn’t water used for making beverages heavily filtered?
Could it be the amount of sugar in the formula? They pour in the sugar in everything over here. My guess is the sweeter Sprite is a result of increased sugar content.
Well, it’s run through something along the lines of a Brita, to filter out the chlorine, etc. Won’t entirely change the taste.
Kosher Mexican Coke? is there even such a thing?
I will say that when I lived in Cleveland, I saw KFP Diet Coke, KFP Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, and other KFP soft drinks like Sprite and 7-Up at a nearby Kosher supermarket.