Growing up I was a Coca Cola kid. I loved the delightfully sweet taste of coke and that nice little burn at the back of my throat when I drank it. Back then Coke came in 16 ounce glass bottles that you took back to the store for a refund. One of the worst days of my young life (i.e. before I realized what real tragedy was was the day that Coke announced New Coke. As the supply of the old stuff ran low, I’d drag my dad from store to store, gas station to gas station, to find the cans with the silver lid as I knew they were old Coke while the gold tops were the hated new Coke.
Finally, Coke wizened up and announced that they were bringing back Classic Coke. There was dancing in the streets as we all eagerly awaited the delivery of the “new” old coke. Soon the soda was flowing freely again and I was happily guzzling my favorite drink once again. I was and always have been a coke purist. Although I would drink Coke in a can when I was younger, I always preferred the Coke canned in Chicago to that canned in other places. People thought I was nuts when I said there was a difference in taste, but I was convinced. Once they started bottling Coke in plastic bottles, I refused to drink canned Coke anymore. It tasted flat and too sugary.
We managed to keep Coke away from our son until he was three, but in a moment of weaknesses during a layover at Hickam Air Base where we were stuck in the terminal for 48 hours, I relented and let him taste some soda pop. He was just as hooked as his mom and although we severely limited his intake, he got enough to know he liked it. He viewed it as a special treat, one that should be shared and the day his newborn sister came home from the hospital, he wanted to stop and get a soda for his little sister. My love affair with the brown sugary stuff is entering a new stage as I recently realized that Coke from Mexico is still made with cane sugar and if you look hard enough you can find it in the States. I always get it when we go to the Maxwell Street Flea Market and last night I actually found it at our local Meijer and I purchased several bottles.
Although the Coca Cola company swears there is no difference in taste, I beg to differ. Mexican Coke comes in glass bottles, just like the real stuff, and it has a lighter sweeter taste. It doesn’t even need to be refrigerated, but tastes incredible at room temperature right out of the bottle. My research on the Web has revealed that I’m not the only gringo with a taste for the Real Deal. Bodegas around the country are selling Mexican Coke as fast as they can stock their shelves and it’s no wonder because one taste of that blissful brown liquid transports me back to childhood and days spent playing outside and coming in every so often for a cold soda.
Cairn by Cairn 
