“We appreciate the president’s enthusiasm for our Coca-Cola brand,” Quincey said in a conference call with investors Tuesday.

Coca-Cola’s announcement to launch a new cane sugar-sweetened variant in the United States this fall marks a departure from decades of high-fructose corn syrup dominance in American soft drinks.

A blind taste-test Wednesday at the Navy Pier offices of the Sun-Times and WBEZ showed more people prefer the original Coca-Cola over the Mexican variety, sold in glass bottles.