Deathbyhours t1_jdl88xx wrote on March 25, 2023 at 5:23 AM

Reply to comment by hells_cowbells in TIL that Barq's Root Beer was first created by Edward Barq in Biloxi, Miss, in 1897. In 1934, Barq and a former employee, who moved to New Orleans, agreed to each distribute their own version of the root beer, with the New Orleans version having a red label and the Biloxi version having a blue one. by jdward01

Oh, they absolutely changed it. It’s indistinguishable from any generic root beer now. I assume part of the difference is that original Barq’s used cane sugar (that’s an assumption, too, but given where it was made I imagine that cane sugar was the cheap sweetener,) whereas the first change Coca Cooa would have made on Day 1 was to substitute high fructose corn syrup in what had just become a nation-wide product.

I can’t even drink Coke anymore, it’s just harsh and nasty, or I couldn’t until I discovered that you can buy Mexican Coca-Cola in glass bottles by the case at Home Depot. They still make it with cane sugar in Mexico, and it is a different kind of soda entirely.