Updated July 22, 2025 at 3:41 PM EDT
Coke drinkers who want to avoid corn syrup sometimes opt for Mexican Coke, which is made with cane sugar. But the drink's U.S. fans will have a new option later this year.
"We're going to be bringing a Coke sweetened with U.S. cane sugar into the market this fall," Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO James Quincey said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday.
The company announced the change in the quarterly earnings report it released Tuesday, describing the new drink as an expansion of its product line.
Quincey said the new offering would "complement" Coca-Cola's core portfolio of drinks, suggesting it could arrive as an alternative, rather than a replacement, for its flagship Coke product.
Trump floated plan a week earlier
Coca-Cola's move comes a week after the White House issued a statement by President Trump saying he had been talking to the soft drink giant about using cane sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup in its signature drink.
"I'd like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You'll see. It's just better!" Trump said.
Trump is a noted fan of Diet Coke, a product line that is mainly sweetened with the artificial sweetener aspartame.
The president's involvement in the recipe of a popular drink was noted in Tuesday's call, but officials did not go into detail about what, if any, communications they had with the White House.
"As you may have seen last week, we appreciate the president's enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand," Quincey said.
When asked whether he and Trump had discussed the idea of using cane sugar in Coke, the CEO replied in part, "engagement with government is a piece of what goes on."
The White House did not respond to NPR's request for comment on whether the Trump administration had contacted the company about cane sugar.
The use of domestic sugar aligns with Trump's economic priorities, as he has imposed steep tariffs on dozens of foreign nations. The source of the sugar could also affect the drink's cost: The U.S. sugar industry enjoys substantial market protections against foreign rivals.
"The U.S. has high trade barriers against imported sugar," as NPR's Scott Horsley has reported. "As a result, the price of sugar in this country is usually about twice what it is on the world market."
While some U.S. consumers see Mexican Coke as a unique Coca-Cola product that uses cane sugar, Quincey noted that the company already uses the sweetener in several drinks.
"Actually, we use cane sugar in a number of our other brands in the U.S. portfolio, from lemonade to teas, some of the coffee stuff, some of the Vitamin Water drinks," he said.
But, he added, Coca-Cola wants to explore new options to suit consumer preferences.
Trump's push for cane sugar over corn syrup has not gone over well with the U.S. corn industry.
Corn Refiners Association President and CEO John Bode predicts that an increase in using U.S. cane sugar will lead to a rise in foreign cane sugar imports.
Bode said in a statement to NPR, "Replacing high fructose corn syrup with cane sugar would cost thousands of American food manufacturing jobs, depress farm income, and expand the trade deficit."
What RFK Jr. and the research say about cane sugar
While President Trump famously adores Diet Coke, cane sugar has emerged as a popular issue for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a key proponent of the administration's Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement.
"MAHA is winning," Kennedy tweeted last month, applauding the Steak 'n Shake restaurant chain's move to "offer Coca-Cola with real cane sugar in glass bottles."
But just three months ago, Kennedy said that in the U.S., sugar "is poisoning us." And in March, Kennedy hailed West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey for seeking "a SNAP waiver to get sodas and other sugar drinks off of food stamps."
While he has spoken out against sugar, Kennedy has acknowledged that the government isn't likely to be able to remove it from Americans' diets. He has also condemned the use of additives such as high-fructose corn syrup, artificial dyes and artificial flavors in food.
High-fructose corn syrup has been a regular target of health experts for years, thanks to its ubiquity in sweet drinks and processed foods.
"In 2004, a widely read report suggested high fructose corn syrup was a major cause of the obesity epidemic, and documentaries such as Fast Food Nation and King Corn piled on," as NPR reported in 2012, noting that despite the report being recanted by its authors, the idea took hold.
But whether sugar or syrup are used to sweeten food and drinks, the potential health risks for American consumers are virtually the same, according to David M. Klurfeld, an adjunct professor in the Department of Applied Health Science at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington.
"There is overwhelming evidence that cane or beet sugar have almost no difference from HFCS [high fructose corn syrup] in composition and no difference in any health effects," Klurfeld tells NPR.
High-fructose corn syrup and table sugar have fairly similar proportions of glucose and fructose, he says, adding that when sugar is added to soft drinks with acidic pH levels, their chemical compositions become even more alike.
"The data linking HFCS with obesity or any adverse health effect are observational epidemiology," Klurfeld says. "This cannot prove cause and effect because of confounding variables — people who drink the most soda are heavier, exercise less, have different diets, etc."
But, he adds, "Randomized controlled studies comparing sugar and HFCS for effects on blood glucose, lipids, or weight loss have all show no differences."
NPR's Scott Neuman contributed to this report.
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