I'm disturbed by the fact that the 7X flavor contains alcohol - there's a lot of people that can't drink something lik this for religious reasons... I wonder if it is real.
There is a trace amount of alcohol in Coke as a byproduct of the Corn-to-HFCS conversion. Because of this grain byproduct, Coke produces a Kosher version of Coke around the jewish holidays that uses cane or beet sugar (sucrose) instead of high-fructose corn syrup. I grab as much K-Coke as I can during the passover season and hoard it all year. It's good stuff.
Local bottlers will tweak the syrup/water ratio for the local tastes. I've been told it's sweeter in the south than the north. The Mexican mix is insanely heavy on the syrup.
I've tried Coke syrup straight. It'll make the muscles in your jaw convulse from the insane sugar hit.
The key, for me, anyway, to Mexican Coke is to keep it at room temperature and serve it over ice. It's always cold enough, and the slight dilution from the melting ice makes it perfect.
Also, the Mexican mix isn't heavy on the syrup, it's heavy on cane sugar.
One of my biggest wishes is that Coke would bring the European formula of Orange Fanta to the USA. It's an excellent drink (and #2 in popularity to Coca-Cola from what I hear), but in the USA it's this thick syrupy supersweet undrinkable mess.
That said, basically all liquid flavorings are alcohol solutions. The 1 oz vanilla probably adds as much alcohol as the 7X does. And I suspect that the Mormons and Muslims are okay with vanilla extract.
But it IS in your vanilla extract etc.
"To this day, Coca-Cola uses as an ingredient a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola#Coca_.E2.80.94_cocain...