TikTok creator Julie Ann Douglas (@julieannsurratt) returned to the Stone Hill Town Center in Pflugerville, Texas, for what she calls more investigative journalism. This time, she says she has a suspect: a delivery truck she keeps spotting outside drive-thrus, which she believes is behind the crispest fountain Coke in the shopping center.
What Makes the Coke at Whataburger and Raising Cane’s so Good?
By her own account, Douglas is “very, very particular” about her Coke. The tell is carbonation. “The Whataburger just has really crispy Coke,” she says. “Like, it’s, dare I say, almost on the level of McDonald’s.”
Then, Douglas clocked the truck. She says she saw the same one outside a Whataburger days earlier, and now it sat at the Raising Cane’s. The question wrote itself. Would the Coke here hit the same way?
She ordered and ran her pre-flight check before the first sip. “Sometimes I can just tell if a Coke’s gonna be good or not,” she says, “typically by the weight and how cold it is.” Not enough ice is a bad omen, per her account. This cup passed. Decent ice. Very cold. Carbonation that looked right.
Then the review, two words long. “[F’ing] Coke.”
She named a culprit. She thinks the truck serves every Coke account around the center under one contract, and that it separates a flat pour from a sharp one.
“I think it was like ‘New CO₂,'” she says. “I don’t want the old CO₂ anymore because that … just didn’t cut it for me.”
‘Get Coke at In-N-Out’
In the comments section, some viewers identified the company.
“It’s called NUCO; it’s what gives the drinks carbonation, go to Swig Soda Shop off 130 (like 3 mins from Stone Hill), and they also use NUCO,” wrote one commenter. This person is referring to a Pflugerville beverage gas company called NuCO2, which likely services many businesses in the area.
But some people disagreed with her Coke assessment, as one person wrote, “Raising Cane’s and Whataburger Cokes are horrible. So are McDonald’s. Burger King has great sodas.”
Crispy Coke: the Tank, Not the Truck
McDonald’s built a cult following on fountain Coca-Cola products, and its CEO, Chris Kempczinski, credits the back-of-house setup over the loading dock.
The restaurants keep tanks that, he told Time Magazine, “allow us to have a better mixing process” between syrup and chilled, carbonated water—a setup smaller operators can’t match.
Delivery also matters a great deal. Most restaurants get Coke syrup in plastic bags; McDonald’s takes it in stainless steel tanks “that ensure its freshness,” the New York Times reported of a partnership dating to 1955. Fresher syrup, colder water, tighter carbonation, and some trade secrets—the recipe for Douglas’ beloved “crispy” Cokes.
Subplot reached out to Douglas via TikTok direct message and comment, and to Raising Cane’s via email. We will update this story if they respond.
