« Politicians Make My Eyes Tear Up | Main | Compulsory Volunteering» Russell Roberts
July 08, 2008
Passover, Coke, and Ethanol
Russell Roberts
During Passover, traditional Jews from Eastern Europe have a custom of avoiding corn along with flour and bread and other forbidden foods. The idea is that corn can be used to make corn bread which might lead to confusion about what someone is eating.
As a result of this custom, Coca Cola does a run of kosher for Passover Coke that uses sugar rather than corn syrup. Some years back, Coke switched away from sugar and started using corn syrup as a sweetener. Part of the reason is that sugar in the United States is artificially expensive because of our despicable sugar quota system that benefits a handful of wealthy sugar beet and sugar cane farmers at the expense of the rest of us.
Supposedly there are Coke aficionados, purists, who prefer the taste of Coke with sugar to Coke with corn syrup. These folks find solace in either Mexican Coke which is still sweetened with sugar or kosher for Passover Coke. These purists stock up either when they are in Mexico or in April when kosher for Passover Coke is available. But there is a limit to how much you can stockpile--presumably in addition to inventory costs of money and space, after a while, the Coke just isn't fresh enough. I assume purists also care about freshness.
Well there is good news on the horizon for Coke purists. Now that the price of corn is being artificially raised by the ethanol mandates of the U.S. government, I suspect that Coke will go back to using sugar if they haven't already. Dear readers, if you come across anything on this switchover, please let me know.
Posted by Russell Roberts in Prices | Permalink
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Comments
It's not so much the Coke going bad, as it is the Coke being contaminated by the container. Coke in the glass bottles keeps pretty much indefinitely. In plastic it's shelf life is pretty brief, though it's a little better in aluminum.
Posted by: quadrupole | Jul 8, 2008 1:13:31 PM
I've been buying Mexican coca-cola at Costco for a long time. Comes in the glass bottles, made with sugar, and tastes much better, and seeing as it's from Costco you can definitely stock up on it.
Posted by: EconStudent | Jul 8, 2008 2:18:17 PM
sugar? in your soda? Blech!
Posted by: shawn | Jul 8, 2008 2:21:58 PM
Similarly, I buy my Dr Pepper with sugar instead of corn syrup online from the sole bottling plant that still makes it that way:
http://www.dublindrpepper.com/
Posted by: Lance Jonn Romanoff | Jul 8, 2008 2:26:08 PM
Using cane sugar has been a way for higher end, smaller scale sodas to differentiate themselves, too. The Boylan's Cane Cola is a great example, and to my taste is much better than the current Coke. Jones Soda also made headlines last year by switching its line entirely to sugar.
Posted by: Jacob | Jul 8, 2008 2:48:18 PM
Ah, ethanol subsidies counteracting the effects of sugar tariffs. The system really does work!
Posted by: Nathan Benedict | Jul 8, 2008 2:54:28 PM
The last time I checked when I was up there, Coca Cola in Canada was still sweetened with sugar.
Posted by: Art Woolf | Jul 8, 2008 2:55:36 PM
The last time I checked when I was up there, Coca Cola in Canada was still sweetened with sugar.
Posted by: Art Woolf | Jul 8, 2008 2:56:59 PM
Romanoff,
You just made my life appreciably better. Thanks for the info!
Posted by: Rolo Tomasi | Jul 8, 2008 3:08:08 PM
That is hilarious, because I always thought thought I was the only one with the crazy family that stockpiled Coke before Pesach, singing its praises all 8 days.
What concerns me is what kind of cheap sweetener they're going to use now that both corn and ethanol are overpriced....extra doses of saccharin? Yech.
Posted by: adina | Jul 8, 2008 3:39:26 PM
There are now ads touting the wonders of corn sweeteners that have the look and feel of 1950s ads featuring doctors promoting safe cigarettes.
I drink Jones Soda.
Posted by: Fred | Jul 8, 2008 3:49:52 PM
"wealthy sugar beet and sugar cane farmers"
They were not made wealthy solely by the Bush tax cuts?
Posted by: The Dirty Mac | Jul 8, 2008 3:53:54 PM
I doubt that Coke will make the switch back to sugar. ADM is careful enough to make sure the sugar subsidies keep sugar artificially high enough that corn syrup is still the cheapest alternative for all the soda makers. It is not just the wealthy farmers that benefit from poor policy, but also Archer-Daniels-Midland. Ironically they also benefit from the obscene ethanol policy.
Posted by: dtt | Jul 8, 2008 5:10:00 PM
Don't forget about the virtues of Aspartame-sweetened drinks. ;)
Posted by: Gil | Jul 8, 2008 8:59:05 PM
I want to re-emphasize what dtt said. Russ had an incomplete list of beneficiaries of sugar tariffs. ADM, despite producing no sugar, lobbies vigorously for the tariffs, to ensure that corn syrup remained artificially competitive in price.
And I think it is technically tariffs, rather than quotas, on sugar. However I could be wrong, and of course quotas and tariffs have the same effect.
Posted by: James Hanley | Jul 8, 2008 9:21:02 PM
I don't understand why the government doesn't do the sensible thing and ban all sugar and corn syrup from all soda's. Our national health care costs are already sky high and the government can barely afford to provide it as it is.
Posted by: jpm | Jul 9, 2008 12:08:34 AM
"However I could be wrong, and of course quotas and tariffs have the same effect." -- Not if there's imperfect competition. Then for quotas and tariffs that lead to the same import restrictions, the quota results in a higher price and lower domestic output relative to the tariff. See C3 of the Helpman-Krugman 1989 book.
Posted by: DRDR | Jul 9, 2008 1:15:10 AM
Some more links on the sugar lobby: http://www.fff.org/freedom/0498d.asp
http://benmuse.typepad.com/ben_muse/sugar_big/index.html
I can't believe our tax dollars ever funded "Operation Bittersweet" -- truly high comedy.
Posted by: DRDR | Jul 9, 2008 1:29:04 AM
“I don't understand why the government doesn't do the sensible thing and ban all sugar and corn syrup from all soda's. Our national health care costs are already sky high and the government can barely afford to provide it as it is.”
Spoken like a true food Nazi and card carrying member of the Nanny Nation. Could the fact that sugar is not an additive, but rather that it is a food, have something to do with it? Or perhaps that sugar does not cause hyper tension, cancer, diabetes, and naturally occurs in any fruit or vegetable that has a sweet taste? If you don’t like sugar fine with me; go suck a persimmon far as I care. But please don’t try to cram your beliefs down my throat, Okay? Besides, mama always said, “Educated people don’t argue about matters of taste.”
Posted by: macquechoux | Jul 9, 2008 5:49:03 AM
The main issue, economics aside, is taste. Coke C2, now discontinued, had _four_ sweeteners: HFCS, AceK, sucralose, and I think saccharine. Regardless, to my nostalgic taste, it tasted most faithful to the Coke I remember of 30-40 years ago. And it was half the calories of 'full coke'.
The biggest issue with plastic bottles is their permeability to the outgassing of CO2 (they go flat, whereas Al and glass are airtight).
Posted by: MC | Jul 9, 2008 9:12:05 AM
The high price of sugar in the U.S. -- usually twice the world price -- results not just from high tariffs, but by domestic price supports and restrictions on domestic supply.
Posted by: Fran Smith | Jul 9, 2008 10:33:09 AM
Coke in Europe is sweetened with sugar, not corn syrup. And you don't need to be an aficionado to note the difference. I would be willing to pay up for sugar-sweetened Coke in the States.
Posted by: pinus | Jul 9, 2008 7:51:35 PM
In a related story...
"Cargill rolling out natural, no-calorie sweetener"
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0930999220080709
"Coca-Cola Co co-developed the product with Cargill and has exclusive rights to use Truvia in beverages."
Later this year there will be a new sweetener from Cargill. This indicates that Coca-Cola is looking to have multiple sources [in both natural and artificial sweeteners] to purchase from.
Will keep and eye out for the exact information you requested.
Best.
Posted by: David Damore | Jul 9, 2008 9:01:22 PM
The whole "New Coke" fiasco is held by conspiracy theorists to have all been cover for switching from sugar to HFCS. People, it is argued, would be able to tell the difference between sugar and HFCS, but not if they were distracted by something that didn't taste like Coka at all.
My brother-in-law, who lives in a NYC suburb, used to send me 2-liter bottles of Kosher-for-Passover Coke. It had a yellow cap with an uppercase "U" inside a circle or an "O". We would do "taste tests" at the office, debating the New Coke theory. Most people could tell the difference.
Over the years, I've become acclimated to the HFCS version, and I'm not even sure sugared Coke is even better anymore -- to me, it's just different now.
Posted by: cpurick | Jul 10, 2008 7:29:50 AM
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