Hacker News Reader

Comment by acwan93 | Hacker News Reader

Original McDonald’s fries and New Coke are two 80s things I would try if they were available today. Even if the companies brought it back for a limited time I’m sure there would be enough interest.

I just checked and New Coke was available as part of a Stranger Things campaign, only in limited cities though.

View on HN

There is not much difference between 'New Coke' and 'Coca-Cola Classic' to be honest. Both were moves to hide the fact that Coke was switching from cane sugar to HFCS. After the New Coke debacle the switch back to 'Classic' was the old formula but with HFCS. If you want a taste of what Coke used to be like you want to find Mexican Coke bottles, that is as close as you will get.

You can also find US-market Coca-Cola sweetened with sugar at most Walmarts. It costs a bit less than the Mexican Coke. There's a section in the soda aisle that has a variety of "classic" and new soft drinks that don't have HFCS.

Actually, you can get Coca-Cola with cane sugar anywhere in the States every year from late March to mid April.

HFCS is not "Kosher for Passover", so as soon as the Passover season rolls around, you can get the original recipe as long as the bottling plant is one that carries a supervision. I know aficionados that stock up every year.

I'm unsure how accurate this video is, but it says even Mexican Coke is now made with HFCS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJgQEpFMptQ

I would hope the ingredients on the label would be accurate.

The reason HFCS took off in the U.S. is the high tariffs applied to sugar imports to protect the domestic sugar manufacturers. Without that market distortion in place, sugar is probably cheaper than HFCS.

I recommend watching the video, the real meat of it starts at about 6:20. The creator works for Vox and is generally considered pretty reputable. Basically they did a study and found Mexican Coke, despite the label, is made with HFCS.

Gizmodo has also reported on it: https://gizmodo.com/mexican-coke-is-ditching-cane-sugar-for-...

Apparently HFCS is cheaper in Mexico too. I'm far from an expert on this, just going with what these articles and videos are saying.

I'm not surprised. I remember hearing NAFTA really screwed with the price of corn and tortillas for Mexicans around 2007. Distorting corn and corn syrup prices is kind of obvious. The surprising part is incorrect labeling and poor enforcement. I imagine Kosher Coke is legit?

Corn subsidies are another market distortion that keep sugar more expensive than HFCS.

Especially subsidies to US "Grade C" Corn serve to keep a lot of corn derivatives incredibly cheap (HFCS, corn ethanol, fatty cattle feed stock filler, etc), because "Grade C" (aka "US Standard Corn") isn't typically considered useful for much more than its derivatives but there is a massive trade in it because of how cheap that corn is.

The Coke execs from the time have done interviews. When presented with the sugar -> HFCS theory they responded with "we weren't that smart". I tend to believe them.

They switched because of the "Pepsi challenge". Pepsi beat coke at taste test booths.

New Coke was Diet Coke with HFCS instead of aspartame. New Coke beat both Pepsi and Old Coke at taste test booths.

Turns out it was because when you're just doing a shot of cola people pick the sweeter one. When there's a whole can tastes differ.

I've read that Diet Coke still uses the flavor profile of New Coke. Coke Zero is the diet version closer to the original.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com