# Coke Zero the same as Coke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** soda-softdrinks\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222 "2012-04-19T00:10:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/21 "2012-04-19T02:53:16Z")
Was I wrong or right? Coke Zero is based on Coca-cola Classic and Diet Coke was based on New Coke? Or no? ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/22 "2012-04-19T03:25:39Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > 1. Coke in Australia is different to Coke in the US. We don’t use HFCS in any of our drinks over here, our Coke is still made with sugar. We can get imported soft drinks over here, and I’ve had US Coke - there is a noticeable difference, not so much in taste but in mouthfeel in general. To me, there is a definite taste difference between US Coke and our own Coke. The couple of times I was in the States (and still drinking fat Coke at the time) I couldn’t stand the flavour, and wound up drinking other things besides Soft Drinks ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/23 "2012-04-19T03:26:09Z")
I prefer Coke Zero over regular Coke. Before I tried it I wouldn’t touch any other drink but Coke. Diet Coke was so nasty I would go thirsty before I’d touch the stuff. The first time I had the Zero I was sold. It tastes a lot like Coke but without that syrupy thickness in the back of the throat. It’s far more refreshing. Oddly since I started drinking Coke Zero exclusively, the rare occasion I’ve had to take Diet Coke I didn’t mind it. I’d choose it over a regular Coke now. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/24 "2012-04-19T03:35:11Z")
Diet Coke came out in 1982 and New Coke was 1985, so DC is not based on NC. They do taste similar though. Diet Coke is supposed to taste more like Tab as that was the market they were competing for. Diet Pepsi is just a diet version of the regular Pepsi line. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/25 "2012-04-19T03:39:44Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > Diet Coke came out in 1982 and New Coke was 1985, so DC is not based on NC. They do taste similar though. Diet Coke is supposed to taste more like Tab as that was the market they were competing for. Diet Pepsi is just a diet version of the regular Pepsi line. One small correction to this: Tab was made by Coca-Cola, but was losing share to Diet Pepsi in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Diet Coke was developed to be comparable in flavor to Diet Pepsi. Diet Coke also used Nutrasweet as its sweetener (one of the first soft drinks to do so), whereas Tab used saccharin. As I understand it, New Coke (which was developed with the intent of winning taste comparisons against Pepsi) was developed, in part, using the flavor profile of Diet Coke. New Coke failed, in large part, because loyal Coke drinkers didn’t like the taste of Pepsi…and thus, didn’t like the taste of New Coke, either. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/26 "2012-04-19T03:59:50Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > It’s not that I can’t tell the difference, it’s that I can’t \*remember \*the difference. So I’m fairly indifferent. 😉 Problem is, that means there’s no reason for you to care whether Coke Zero tastes like regular Coke. When all anyone has to do is drink one right after the other and prove you wrong, it is kinda weird to keep claiming it tastes the same. I think it says something about the scientific illiteracy of our populace that advertisers can get away with this. And if there really are people who can’t tell at all, then why do they care whether Coke Zero tastes like Coke? Diet Coke tastes just like Coke to them, too. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/27 "2012-04-19T04:06:53Z")
Coke Zero tastes a lot like regular coke to me, but I could still tell the difference. I am one of the weirdos who actually prefers artificial sweeteners to sugar in my soft drinks though. Real soft drinks are often just too sweet for me, and leave me really thirsty afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/28 "2012-04-19T04:18:04Z")
You gonna order something, kid? Ah, yeah. Give me a Tab. Tab? I can’t give you a tab unless you order something. Right. Give me a Pepsi Free. You want a Pepsi, pal, you’re gonna pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/29 "2012-04-19T04:37:58Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > You gonna order something, kid? > > Ah, yeah. Give me a Tab. > > Tab? I can’t give you a tab unless you order something. > > Right. Give me a Pepsi Free. > > You want a Pepsi, pal, you’re gonna pay for it. Ronald Reagan? The Actor??? Then who’s vice president, Jerry Lewis? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/30 "2012-04-19T05:13:11Z")
Coke Zero tastes like robot urine to me, absolutely nothing like Coke. I’ve heard from others who agree with me that Coke Zero apparently tastes like some sort of bizarre diet Tab. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/31 "2012-04-19T07:41:00Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t that mainly because Diet Coke is based on “New Coke”, while Coke Zero is the Coca-cola recipe? As someone who actually liked New Coke, I can safely say that Diet Coke is more likely based on the devil’s piss than on New Coke. I quite like Coke Zero, though it does not taste the same as Coke Classic. But Diet Coke, bleegh. What I really would like to know, however, is what is the difference between Cherry Coke Zero and Diet Cherry Coke? Both taste just fine to me, and damned if I could tell which is which if blindfolded. Sometimes the store has one, sometimes the other. [this is where I’d put a shrug smiley if the board had one] ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/32 "2012-04-19T07:48:27Z")
I used to work for a small company in NZ that had Coca-Cola as one of its clients - not in any manufacturing capacity, so take this with a grain of salt/sugar/aspartemine… Anyways, we were told that Coke Zero was the Coke formula with artificial sweeteners replacing the sugar. Diet Coke was a completely different formula. We were also told it was trialled in New Zealand first, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Personally, I am a Coke Zero drinker and have done the same Coke/Diet Coke/Coke Zero/Pepsi/Pepsi Max blind taste tests that others have done, and could correctly identify them all. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/33 "2012-04-19T12:45:10Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > When all anyone has to do is drink one right after the other and prove you wrong, it is kinda weird to keep claiming it tastes the same. Once more, with bolding: [QUOTE=me] **It’s not that I can’t tell the difference,** it’s that I can’t remember the difference. So I’m fairly indifferent. [/QUOTE] The ad in the OP was NOT a blind taste test. It was a product switch. I agree with you that many (most? all? Sure, let’s go with all, I’m okay with that) people can tell that there’s a difference in taste in a side-by-side drink-one-then-drink-the-other taste test. I could. With Coke and Coke Zero, I could even make a pretty accurate ID of which was which, too, based as other people have said, on mouth feel. But Coke and Pepsi? Nah. I’d be able to point and say, “This one is sweeter,” or, “that one is thinner,” but I couldn’t tell you, “This one is Pepsi, this one is Coke.” I hear people say Pepsi is sweeter, and I believe them, but my brain doesn’t store the flavor profiles of colas, so I don’t recall them for myself. So sure, blind taste test, I’m sure most people could tell that the taste is different. (I do question whether as \*many \*people could identify brand/variety accurately as believe they could, but that’s besides the point.) But I do not think noting a difference in a blind taste test translates to many (most?) people being able to identify a drink as Coke Zero when the last Coke they had was a month, week, or even a day ago AND they were expecting a Coke and told that they were drinking a Coke. I think many people would drink the misidentified drink and not question it, because I see people happily drinking misidentified drinks all the time, and I know that I’m one of them. Why is it so hard for you to believe people like **Ferret Herder** and me exist? Go ahead, think we’re the minority and we have defective taste buds or something. Okay. So they got half a dozen people with defective taste buds while they were filming 200 people for the ad. They cut out all the people with superior discerning taste buds like yourself and the ad only shows the people like FH and me in it. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/34 "2012-04-19T13:11:04Z")
I haven’t had more than a sip of Coke in years, since I switched to Diet Coke. Now I prefer Coke Zero when I can get it (they don’t have it in the machines here). It tastes like Coke to me – but like I said, it’s been a long time since I had a Coke to compare it to. Compared to Diet Coke, CZ taste just like Coke. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/35 "2012-04-19T13:23:02Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Now I absolutely believe people who say they’ve discerned the difference in a blind taste test, but I also believe there are lots of people who could couldn’t, and even more who could tell the difference in a blind taste test, but not in the wild, as it were. One time because we’re nerds here, my coworkers and I did blind cola taste tests with something like five or six different kinds. We guessed which brands were which and also rated each one. All of us failed the identification test and the one that ended up rated the highest after everyone filled out their form was a generic brand bought at Jewel. No diet cola or Coke Zero-type products were included in the trial. Edit: I should add that all of us were pretty confident in our abilities to tell the differences and identify the proper products. We all were surprised at our lack of ability to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/36 "2012-04-19T15:17:03Z")
My personal experience is that Coke Zero does taste more like Classic Coke than Diet Coke does, but it is definitely not the same. Both the taste and the mouthfeel are different, though consuming Coke Zero with food rather than by itself seems to disguise the difference a bit. “Classic” Coke also tastes and feels different from _real_ Classic Coke, which is made with sugar, rather than corn syrup. I find Coke Zero a tolerable substitute for regular Coke, but I dislike Diet Coke. I have personally engaged in a blind taste test of all four versions–HFCS “Classic”, real Classic, Diet, and Zero–and was able to identify each. The test was with bottled colas; it can be trickier with fountain drinks, because the syrup proportions and other factors can differ, as **Sierra** mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/37 "2012-04-19T15:30:43Z")
When they were developing Diet Coke originally they were unable to get a diet drink to taste anything like regular Coke, so they ended up making a drink that was close to Tab. So Diet Coke has nothing to do with regular Coke other than the color and the fact that they come out of the same bottling plants. But Coke Zero was meant to be regular Coke minus the sugar. Flavor technology marches on and now this is possible, unlike back in the early 1980s. As has been noted, whether or not Coke Zero is an adequate approximation of Coke is still a matter of taste. I find Zero to be like Coke in a foggy mirror… it resembles Coke in a basic way but is not nearly the “taste infringement” the fake Coke brand execs in the commercial complain about. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/38 "2012-04-19T16:40:18Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Coke Zero and regular Coke taste nothing alike, and I’m surprised by those that cannot tell the difference. Coke Zero tastes like there’s something missing, like sugar or something. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Diet Coke is just a nastiness that you convince yourself you are used to. I only drink the sugar-free stuff these days, and prefer Diet Coke with meals, but Coke Zero on it’s own for the taste. Coke Zero is far less distinguishable from regular Coke. But it’s been years since I’ve had a regular calorie-laden Coke. ☹ > [@Jragon](#): > > Coke Zero tastes like robot urine to me, absolutely nothing like Coke. > > I’ve heard from others who agree with me that Coke Zero apparently tastes like some sort of bizarre diet Tab. Tab was (and probably still is) EEeeevil. Ugh! I don’t understand how anyone could have “enjoyed” Tab. It was definitely an acquired taste. When “Diet Coke” first came out I was confused . . . isn’t that “Tab?” Apparently Tab was known as a girlie drink, and Diet Coke was marketed to men or gender neutral. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/39 "2012-04-19T17:16:48Z")
I’ve never got the appeal of diet drinks. They always have that strange metallic aftertaste, use weird chemicals for sweeteners, and there is increasing evidence that they make you fatter than if you just drank regular soda. I’ll stick with Coke, bottled in Mexico so it has real sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222/40 "2012-04-19T17:19:14Z")
Diet Coke was never designed to taste like regular Coke. It was designed to just be a good tasting zero calorie drink. Whether they were successful is a matter of opinion (FWIW, I find it okay). Coke Zero is a zero calorie drink that is specifically designed to taste like regular Coke. I think it is was successful. I like it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-zero-the-same-as-coke/619222.md?page=3)