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Deathbyhours t1_jdj1ik8 wrote

The original Barq’s is still my favorite root beer. It was a dark day when Coca Cola bought it and immediately changed the recipe.

One of the things I liked about it, other than the taste and mouthfeel, was the slogan in all their advertising: “Drink Barq’s, It’s Good.” Coca-Cola changed that, too, perhaps fearful of running afoul of truth-in-advertising laws.

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hells_cowbells t1_jdkqggs wrote

100% truth. I grew up around the Mississippi coast in the 80s, and that version of Barq's was amazing. My dad had one of the older Coke machines at his business, the kind that had the 12 oz glass bottles in it. The drinks were so cold, and the ice cold Barq's was so good. People think I'm just imagining it, but I swear Coke changed the formula after they bought it, and it isn't as good as it used to be.

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Deathbyhours t1_jdl88xx wrote

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.

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