Yo quiero Coca-Cola

There’s something familiar, yet obviously different, about the Coca-Cola served up at La Tiendita, a Latin grocery store on Siegen Lane. Despite the nostalgic curved glass bottle instead of the standard cherry red aluminum can bearing the unique Coca-Cola script, it’s the same dark, amber-colored elixir, and it still bubbles and fizzes when you crack it open. So what makes this Coke so different? The phrase “hecho en Mexico” should say it all. This is Mexican-made Coke, shipped over the border to bring that iconic taste of home to so many Mexican immigrants living in Baton Rouge.

And what makes it so different? “The sweetener,” says Jaime Pineda, La Tiendita’s proprietor. While domestic Coke relies only on high-fructose corn syrup, Mexican Coke uses cane syrup, Pineda says, giving it a cleaner taste. A U.S. government-required stick-on label of nutrition facts lists high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener, but Pineda insists these sodas are more refresco, thanks to their cane sweetener.