All the caffeine I could want

Coffee is a taste I've never acquired, at least as a hot drink. Whenever someone offers me a cup of coffee, my standard response is "I take my caffeine cold." (Why is it they usually don't turn around and offer me a soda?) Perhaps it's coffee's bitterness or perhaps it's the lack of sweetness, but I prefer hot chocolate as a tummy warmer.

Oddly enough, I do like coffee-flavored ice cream and candy and, more recently, coffee-flavored cold drinks. So, given my long-standing love affair with Coca-Cola, with no hesitation I purchased a bottle of Coke Blak when I saw it on the store shelf.

Unlike in my last review of a Coke product, I think Coke has a winner here. There's a bit more of a coffee taste than I would like (its slogan is "Coke effervescence with coffee essence") and a bit less carbonation than other Coke products, but nothing to put me off. It's likely that I will be drinking Coke Blak a couple times a week in addition to my regular Coke habit.

It's probably smart of Coke to package Coke Blak in an 8-ounce bottle, given its potency, and the accompanying bump in price ($1.69–1.99 a bottle) should ensure some hefty profits for Coca-Cola. (Coke Blak is also available in a 4-pack.) If you're counting, a single serving has 45 calories—a small price for one of life's pleasures.

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Posted by Don Morris at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Low carb offering tastes like its older sibling

It's gotta be tough for Coke to keep coming up with flavors that keep our attention. Sometimes they do it right, like when they bring out my current favorite, Vanilla Coke. But other times I just shake my head in disbelief, which I just did after tasting their newest release, Coke C2.

I can't blame them for trying to cash in on the low-carb "revolution." Everybody and their brother are trying to go where the money is, and right now it's in low-carb snack items.

Coke C2 lowers the per-serving calories from 100 (in Coke Classic) to 45 and the carbs from 27 grams to 12 grams. Great numbers, but how do they do it? By sweetening it with a mixture of high-fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and aspartame.

What were they thinking? Once you put aspartame in it, it tastes just like Diet Coke! So, if you like the taste of Diet Coke, why not just drink that and eliminate another 30 grams of carbs?

(I'm assuming you're like me and drink the entire twenty-ounce bottle at a time. Two-and-a-half servings down the hatch. All 250 calories and 68 grams of sugar -- 70 for Vanilla Coke.)

My Take?

I don't see Coke drinkers switching to Coke C2—it tastes much too different. And I don't see Diet Coke drinkers making the switch either—that would add sugar to their diet.

Will Pepsi swillers switch? I don't think so, for the same reasons. No, I'm afraid that Coke C2 will go down in flames just like New Coke. Sure, the current low-carb craze will drive sales for a little while, but give it a few months and we'll all settle back to drinking our usual.

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Posted by Don Morris at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)