Coca-Cola will roll out cane sugar Coke in US after Trump push
The giant of American drinks American Coca-Cola says that it plans to introduce a new edulcoating coke with cane sugar to its existing range, confirming a plan that President Donald Trump presented last week.
The company already uses ordinary sugar to soften its signing coke drink in many regions of the world, but in the United States, it has generally used corn syrup, an alternative at a lower cost, for decades.
Trump’s secretary of health, Robert F Kennedy Jr, expressed his concerns about the health risks of corn syrup, although experts say that there are no clear nutritional reasons to promote sweetening compared to the other.
“It will be a very good decision by them – you will see. It’s just better!” Trump wrote on social networks last week.
In its quarterly investor update on Tuesday, the company confirmed that it “would launch an offer made with US Cane Sugar” in autumn.
The company said that the new product “would complete” its existing range, offering more choices to customers.
“We are certainly trying to use the entire tool … Kit of sweetening options available to a certain extent that there are consumer preferences,” said boss James Quincey, questioned about the decision. He noted that the company already used cane sugar in several brands in the United States, including lemonade, coffee and vitamin water.
Trump surprised a lot when he announced on Truth Social last week that the company had agreed to use a real cane sugar.
The American president had previously raised the problem with the business owner in January, according to a recent book 2024: how Trump took over the White House. The book reported that he had put the billionaire sugar producer Jose Fanjul – a major political donor – on the phone to discuss the issue.
Trump praised the move on social networks last week, writing: “I spoke to Coca-Cola about the use of the Sugar Real Cane in Coke in the United States, and they agreed to do so.”
At the time, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola said they “appreciated President Trump’s enthusiasm”.
A product marketed in the United States under the name of “Mexican coke”, which is sold in glass bottles at a higher price, also lists traditional sugar, not corn syrup, as an enclosure and has won a dedicated audience since its launch in 2005.
