You put de lime in de Coca-Cola...

[Lightnin']

... NOT LEMON!

Okay, I love Diet Coke. Let me amend that- I love Diet Coke... with LIME.

Diet Coke, by itself, has a faintly petrochemical aftertaste. Add a bit of lime, though, and it transforms into the nectar of the gods. I even keep a squeezer bottle of lime juice up here in the office, so that I can enjoy my Diet Coke with Lime whenever I want.

Diet Coke must've heard about this. And so, in typical evil corporation manner, they took a great idea...

... AND SCREWED IT UP.

They put lemon in it, not lime. And apparently, the only lemon they could find was the same stuff used in furniture polish.

Aw crap. How the hell do I get this taste out of my mouth? Wonder if I can find a dead rat or something? Anything's got to be better than this.

[Jodi]

First, any fool not raised in a cardboard box in the woods knows that you drink Diet Coke with lemon, not lime. Lime is a poor substitute, only to be accepted if fresh lemon is unavailable.

Second, you are absolutely right -- the new DC with lemon is godawful. It tastes much more chemical-y, not less -- so much of chemicals in fact that it resembles what I imagine Lemon Pledge would taste like. I hated it.

[LiquidLobotomy]

I was raised in a cardboard box and I know you drink DC with lemon. But I have to agree, the new lemon Diet Coke tastes like piss, and I should know (being raised in a box and all.) I don't know if the problem is too much lemon, or if it is the chemical substitute for lemon or what, but the stuff is nasty.

[Suo Na]

You put any kind of citrus in Coke and you might as well be drinking (shudder) Pepsi.

Coke has a vanilla base, Pepsi has a citrus base. That's why I hate Pepsi so.

[Podkayne]

Scene: deep in the labrythine corridors of the Evil Uber Multinational Corporation, two chemists in lab coats scurry in pursuit of their appointed tasks, each carrying a beaker.

Absorbed in their own plots for product domination, they aren't paying attention to where they are going, and they collide!

Chemist #1: Hey! You got Pledge in my Diet Coke!
Chemist #2: No, you got Diet Coke in my Pledge!
Both: Wait a minute! This tastes great!

(Actually, I love the stuff. Might have to try lime, now, too.)

[The Great Gazoo]

Originally posted by Suo Na
You put any kind of citrus in Coke and you might as well be drinking (shudder) Pepsi.

Coke has a vanilla base, Pepsi has a citrus base. That's why I hate Pepsi so.

That probably explains why I like Diet Coke with Lemon better than just Diet Coke - I like Diet Pepsi much better than Diet Coke.

There isn't really a lime Diet Coke, is there? You just added lime???

[Necros]

Podkayne said:

Actually, I love the stuff.

And I used to think you were pretty cool. Oh, sweet illusion!

[fandango]

Well, now they have Pepsi Twist as well, so you can get your lemon with Pepsi too. Personally, I think the DC w/Lemon tastes like the leftover milk from a bowl of Trix cereal.

[anya marie]

Pepsi twist is only drinkable after you add a couple tablespoons of sugar.

As for the DietCoke w/lemon "There is not enough rum in the world to make this shit drinkable.: Geri, from work.

[Gary Kumquat]

Ever since I came to Scotland, I've seen the light. There is only one true drink - Irn Bru.

[CalMeacham]

You put any kind of citrus in Coke and you might as well be drinking (shudder) Pepsi.

Coke has a vanilla base, Pepsi has a citrus base. That's why I hate Pepsi so.

According to Poundstone's book Big Secrets, both Pepsi and Coke (and all other "cola" drinks) are fantasia blends constructed of the triumvirate of cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus oils. So Coke's got citrus and Pepsi's got vanilla. The prevailing theory, he claims, is that Pepsi goes harder on lemon, and Coke dumps in more Orange. (These are oils, not juices, recall. And there are other weird oils in there, like neroli and lavender, it's speculated.)

Pepsi, in fact, marketed a diet version with overt lemon. It's surprising to see Coke following Pepsi's lead. But maybe they couldn't get people as excited about Diet Coke with Orange.

[Gyrate]

Originally posted by Gary Kumquat
Ever since I came to Scotland, I've seen the light. There is only one true drink - Irn Bru.

Irn-Bru? Excuse me while I hurl. You might as well drink unset Jell-O. OTOH, they have great ads (and a strange website).

I prefer Lilt myself -- whodathunk that pineapple-grapefruit soda would be so good?

[flodnak]

It's a furniture wax!
It's a refreshing carbonated beverage!

Relax! It's both a furniture wax and a refreshing carbonated beverage!

Anybody else remember Pepsi's attempt to market a lemon-tinged diet cola in the '70s or so? "Pepsi Light" I think they called it. It bombed, as far as I remember.

[CalMeacham]

flodnak:

Anybody else remember Pepsi's attempt to market a lemon-tinged diet cola in the '70s or so? "Pepsi Light" I think they called it. It bombed, as far as I remember.

Me:

Pepsi, in fact, marketed a diet version with overt lemon. It's surprising to see Coke following Pepsi's lead. But maybe they couldn't get people as excited about Diet Coke with Orange.

[Gyrate]

...Crystal Pepsi...

[TwistofFate]

Lilt- quite honestly the dryest liquid on the face of the earth.

[CalMeacham]

...Crystal Pepsi...

I agree wholeheartedly!I drank a big gulp of this stuff, expecting it to be just colorless Pepsi, and got a nasty surprise.

It's a furniture wax!
It's a refreshing carbonated beverage!

Relax! It's both a furniture wax and a refreshing carbonated beverage!

Great! I love it!

[Gary Kumquat]

Originally posted by jr8
Irn-Bru? Excuse me while I hurl. You might as well drink unset Jell-O.[/b]

You take that back, ya fecking infidel. Irn-bru is liquid nectar from the gods themselves.

You want an example of it's divine powers? Simple, I present the worlds finest hangover cure. Crack open two cans of irn bru as you retire after an evenings refreshments. The next day, as you awaken to feelings of nausea and a suspicion that you tried to trepan yourself the night before, down the now flat irn-bru. Within minutes all will be right in your world.

[Homebrew]

Originally posted by Gary Kumquat
I present the worlds finest hangover cure...

I don't know about your cure, but I recommend Big Red as a handover cure.

[GaryM]

Try adding "Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice" to your Diet Coke. Much better than natural lime juice.

[kabbes]

Made in Scotland from girders
Unpronouncable too!

[zenith]

they made it in diet version only.

The sugared version was excellent. It was originally conceived as a low-sugar pop marketed in the days before aspartame came to market and after the FDA banned both cyclamate and saccharin. It had 70 calories, vice 150 in regular Pepsi.

Then, the FDA decided that saccharin wasn't quite as poisonous as once thought, Pepsi Light came in both sugared and saccharined versions, and eventually just the saccharined version. I quit drinking the stuff when that happened, and apparently a whole lot of other people agreed with me that the new version tasted like crap, because it was gone from the grocery shelves in 6 months.

This new stuff, Pepsi Twist, has more sugar but also more lemon. It approximates Pepsi Light in taste, but I can't drink as much of it because it's 180 calories. In that I
must limit calories but can't stand the vile taste of artificial sweetener, Pepsi could sell me 2 1/2 times as much pop per day if they went back to the old formula.

Lemon nor lime could improve Diet Coke. Like Diet Pepsi or
anything else sweetened by vile-tasting crap that just might do a lot worse things to your body than make you fat if you don't exercise or rot your teeth if you don't brush,
Diet Coke is hopeless.

[Demise]

Originally posted by CalMeacham
But maybe they couldn't get people as excited about Diet Coke with Orange.

You're right, they couldn't.

What, you don't remember "OK Cola"?

[Tars Tarkas]

I read in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader that there was a Pepsi AM, also. Does anyone remember that, and why it was AM as opposed to anytime?

[CalMeacham]

After I added to this thread I stopped in a superrket. They are now selling Pepsi Twist -- Pepsi with lemon added! Bad ideas never die, they just get recirculated.