Please don’t stand between me and my morning coffee, but you can have my soda. Soda has never done much for me and part of the reason is I don’t like the taste of plastic or metal with my beverage.

On our recent trip to Baja, Mexico I got to sample Mexican Coke and almost changed my tune. It was pretty darn good.

Mexican Coke is Coca-Cola that is made and bottled in Mexico. It comes in a thick glass bottle and apparently has quite the following in the United Sates. Fans say it is more “natural tasting.” I read that this natural taste is partially attributed to the use of refined cane sugar in Mexican Coke, as opposed to high-fructose corn syrup found in soft drinks bottled in the U.S.

There have even been blind taste tests where tasters have commented that Mexican Coke has “a more complex flavor with an ineffable spicy and herbal note” and that it contained something “that hinted at root beer or old-fashioned sarsaparilla candy.” Sounds like chit-chat at a fancy wine tasting, but I have to say I agree on those tasting notes. Mexican coke was decidedly tastier than the acidic, chemical flavor I associate with Coke in the U.S.

And while we’re talking old school, there’s no getting around that bottle, that curvy, elegant—glass—bottle. It even has an enamel label painted on it, instead of the standard tacky U.S. vinyl label.

I sipped and sipped and sipped and then I stopped. I didn’t want to stop. But since I was traveling on a tour bus, a tour bus with one bathroom, one bathroom for forty people, one bathroom that wasn’t working…well, I didn’t want to have to spend much time in there.

We drove off into the Mexican sunset while I waxed prosaically about Mexican Coke. It was good. So good, that it almost made a soda drinker out of me.

Want more old school delights? Check out Wanderfood Wednesday!