Looks like it’s time for Coca-Cola to come up with a new secret recipe. U.S. President Donald Trump has floated the idea of the soft drink behemoth replacing corn syrup with cane sugar. This idea climbs atop a burgeoning national conversation about adverse health effects associated with concentrated sweeteners and public demand for healthier food and beverages.
As you know, Coca-Cola’s classic formulation today makes extensive use of that quintessentially American sweetener—corn syrup, which has displaced sugar in most American processed foods. Corn syrup became ubiquitous in the 1980s. Coca-Cola largely made the switch since corn syrup had become cheaper. Because corn syrup is less expensive than cane sugar, the economic incentive has led hundreds of manufacturers to prefer corn syrup as a sweetening agent.
Cane sugar, or sucrose, is extracted from the sugarcane plant and provides a different flavor experience than corn syrup. Coca-Cola has dabbled with cane sugar in the past, though only in limited runs of some of its products. It has not ruled out permanently changing its primary recipe.
In this case, concerns have been raised among consumers about the health-related risks of consuming corn syrup. Increasingly, consumers have come to view these sweeteners as contributors to obesity and other serious health issues. Because of this, the need for substitutes such as cane sugar are growing. In response to these concerns, Coca-Cola maintains that its products are “no more likely to contribute to obesity than table sugar or other full-calorie sweeteners.”
Cane sugar was the sweetener in the original Coca-Cola recipe developed in 1886. The new nostalgic taste tied to this formulation continues to be a topic of discussion among consumers to this day. Going back to cane sugar would be a radical departure in taste for Coca-Cola. This is due to the fact that cane sugar and today’s sweeteners taste completely different from one another.
And it’s not as though President Trump has hidden his intentions. Clearly, in fact, this is what he wants Coca-Cola to do. The company has yet to publicly acknowledge any shift in its recipe. What is often overlooked is Coca-Cola’s ability to operate with different formulations across the globe, easily adapting to local tastes and ingredient availability.