Diet Mt. Dew tastes (within reasonable bounds) like Mt. Dew. Diet Dr. Pepper (plain) tastes almost exactly like Dr. Pepper. Diet root beer generally tastes like root beer. Diet Sprite and 7-Up taste like Sprite and 7-Up.
So why don’t Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi taste like Coke and Pepsi? I wondered this when I saw Diet Coke with Splenda in the supermarket this weekend. Why Diet Coke with Splenda? Why not try to make a sugar-free product that tastes like real Coca-Cola? If you’re going to add non-metabolizing sugar product to one of your soda lines, why not make it the soda line that actually has some sort of flavor instead of the blandest soft drink on the market?
Diet Coke tastes nothing like Coca-Cola. It’s bland and blah. There’s no flavor to speak of, other than the nubby nip of citric acid that’s had it’s teeth removed.
Diet Pepsi tastes like medicine. It’s bitey and nasty and acidic without any of the good points of Pepsi’s flavor. It’s the Tab of the Pepsicola line.
So why do neither of the diet versions of the two largest-grossing soft drinks in the world taste anything like the real versions?
Coke Zero tastes a lot like Coke. My guess is that Diet Coke is popular enough that messing with the falvor would potentially lose as many existing customers as you’d gain.
Also, if you stop drinking regular soda and only drink diet, you get very accustomed to it, to the point where regular soda is sickeningly sweet to you. I used to drink a ton of regular Dew every day. I cut soda out of my routine for a year, then started drinking diet. Now I can’t stand how sweet regular soda is, even though I used to love it. It’s all a matter of what you’re used to.
For some reason, Diet Coke has a completely different forumla than regular Coke. Don’t know if it’s because aspertame has some flavor that doesn’t work well in the regular Coke formula, or what. There is a product out now (I think it’s Coke Zero) that uses the same formula as regular Coke, only with Splenda replacing the sugar (easier to do, I’d imagine, since Splenda IS sugar, treated with a chemical process of some kind). I have not tried it, but I understand it’s much closer to the taste of regular Coke.
Not sure if Pepsi has the same thing going on, or not.
I have come to the conclusion that colas are unique in that a high percentage of their flavor, not just their sweetness, comes from sugar (or HFC). Other sodas have strong flavors (lemon/lime, ginger, orange or what have you) to balance them out.
Artificial sweeteners can reproduce the sweetness, but not the flavor or mouth-feel of actual sugars.
While Coke Zero is CLOSE to original Coca Cola flavor, it’s not that close. Probably if I drank it more regularly, I’d become accustomed to it being almost Coke…
Cola and diet cola seem to have entirely different markets. Diet colas aren’t supposed to taste like regular colas, and those who buy diet colas seldom buy full-on-sugar-rush cola, and vice-versa. The taste of Diet Coke actually does better in blind taste tests than Coca-Cola, but Coca-Cola drinkers rose up in arms when they changed the formula to comply. (Remember “New Coke”? Know why the can says "Coca-Cola Classic? Yeah – that.)
I’m a Coca-Cola Classic drinker, and I do not doubt you for one minute that Coke Zero doesn’t taste the same/as good. But, my understanding is that this is a function of the type of sweetener, and not a difference in the formula.
I’m just frustrated because I’m a diet cola drinker by necessity (Type II Diabetes), rather than choice, and finding a decent diet cola that tastes like the real thing is nearly impossible. On the other hand, I should try to keep the caffeine levels down, too, so I shouldn’t even be having diet colas (or Diet Mt. Dew, for that matter)…
Seriously, of course they have different formulas. It’s simple chemistry. Things react differently with different ingredients. I do find that non-cola products do taste more like their respective counterparts. That is part of the reason that I much prefer Sprite Zero and Diet 7-Up to other diet sodas.
Diet coke is really diet New Coke. Prior to Diet Coke, the diet Coke product was Tab, which used saccharin. I don’t think they’ve ever made Tab with a different sweetener.
Based on the ads, I tried Coke Zero (“grandpa” can’t even it’s not the same Coke he’s been drinking his whole life). Sigh. No, it doesn’t taste like Classic Coke. It’s not just the taste, it gives me a weird feeling in my stomach. I even tried mixing it half and half with Classic Coke, but it just didn’t cut it.
It is surprising that with the different artificial sweeteners they have now, that even when they try to make it taste just the same as Classic Coke, they can’t.
When I realised Diet Coke wasn’t meant to taste like Coke I liked it more. As ZenBeam says Diet Coke’s flavour is based on the flavour of the now defunct New Coke.
Looking online, there have been cyclamate/saccharine, saccharine, saccharine/sugar, and saccharine/aspartame blends for Tab over the years. The can sitting on my coffee table is the last formula, a combination of saccharine and aspartame. (This is ignoring the variety of Tab flavors… I remember Tab root beer, but from what I’ve seen online, there was a variety of Tab flavors that rivals the current plethora of Diet Rite flavors.)
Yeah, I’m a Tab drinker. And I’m a guy.
(In my defense, it’s a good drink now, if you’re accustomed to the artificial taste of diet sodas. Try it, if you regularly drink diet. I prefer it to Diet Coke, and wish it was available in vending machines.)
My pecking choice:
Dr Pepper
Coke
Dt Pepsi
Dt Coke
Pepsi
For some reason, I get really sick to my stomach when drinking diet drinks w/artificial sweetner. I miss my Dt Pepsi’s! My ultimate fav was dt cream soda, but my tummy just cannot tolerate it anymore.
My girlfriend drinks it all the time too. It’s a crisis at our place when there’s only 2 or 3 bottles.
One time about two years ago she was complaining of a two-day long headache… she finally figured out that she was having caffeine withdrawl…and diet pepsi is the only caffeine she consumes.
