As a decade long Diet Coke drinker, I've occasionally only had the regular kind available to me. Whenever I drink it, I think, "This was the stuff I loved as a kid?" Never was quite sure why it didn't taste as good. The story below might answer my question. It also makes me wonder why Coca Cola doesn't seize on this opportunity to make the true Coca Cola Classic (made with sugar) available to all of us. They could put it out in smaller bottles or charge a premium price and I'm sure they'd make enough to pay for it.

<<Mexican Coca-Cola taking root in U.S.

The Associated Press

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Deep in the heart of Coca-Cola country, there's at least one place where the iconic caramel-colored fizz doesn't reign supreme - or at least the version most Americans know.
At Las Tarascas Latino Supermarket, 30 miles from the soft drink giant's world headquarters, store manager Eric Carvallo adjusts prized bottles of Mexican Coke displayed prominently at the front of the store.

He then briefly points over his shoulder to a noticeably smaller display of American Cokes tucked in the corner.

Carvallo notes that his store goes through 10 to 15 cases of Mexican Coke each week - his entire stock - while he's barely able to push the five cases of the domestic version he orders.

"Sometimes I have it left over. Sometimes a case, case and a half. So it's a lot of difference," he said.

Taste is the main reason why his discriminating shoppers buy Mexican Coke - they say the cane sugar sweetener used in Mexican Coke has a sweeter, cleaner flavor than the high-fructose corn syrup in the American version. Many are willing to pay $1.10 per 12-ounce bottle for the imports, even with cans of American Coke sitting nearby for 49 cents each.

"You drink it and taste it - it's something you tasted all your life," said Carvallo, referring to the many immigrants who prefer Mexican Coke over its American counterpart.

While the flavor of Mexican Coke provides a taste of nostalgia for immigrants hundreds of miles from home, its retro green-tinted contour glass bottles have also caught on among some baby boomers, who can recall a time when their cola was made with sugar - before rising costs drove U.S. bottlers to switch to corn syrup in the 1980s.

With a niche market for Mexican Coke taking root in the United States, The Coca-Cola Co. and its bottlers are quietly looking to block its passage across the border.

One reason the Atlanta-based company wants the drink to have a low profile in the United States is that bottlers here don't profit from sales of the import, which are produced by independent Mexican bottlers. Mexican Coke, brought in by third-party distributors and retailers, infringes on franchise territory rights of the U.S. plants.

John Craven, editor of BevNet.com, an online beverage industry newsletter based in Cambridge, Mass., suggested Coke also might want to quell any potential demand for a formula that would cost more to produce.

Martin declined to specify what action the company has taken to curb the gray market trade of Mexican Coke, saying only that "our bottlers discourage that practice."

Discouraging the imports may be all they can do, since Mexican bottlers legally produce the drink and third-party distributors and retailers aren't bound by contracts between Coke and its U.S. bottlers.

"It's very tricky for them to enforce," Craven said. "It's not a product that they can get Customs to stop at the border since it's not a counterfeit."

Coca-Cola said it has been unable to track exactly how much Mexican Coke is sold in the United States, although some industry observers say the company's concerns are unwarranted since sales likely pale in comparison to its American counterpart.

"If there's a tiny amount of Coke from Mexico sold in the U.S., it's a pin drop compared to the ocean of American Coke sold by the U.S. bottlers," said John Sicher, editor of the New York-based industry publication Beverage Digest.

Craven agreed, but noted the company's resistance to this budding niche market. "Consumers are starting to wise up to a lot of these smaller brands that are out there, these regionally premium sodas," he said.>>