Over the past few weeks, my local grocery stores have had pallets of this stuff, at ever-reduced prices, and yesterday, they were selling 20oz bottles, just days shy of the sell-by date, 3 for $1. I got on Facebook and asked, “So, how awful must this stuff be if they can’t give it away?”
No, I didn’t really care to take one for the team, but people were saying that it was some really nasty stuff. Not just “doesn’t taste like Coke”, but people were saying that it tasted like:
Coconut room deodorizer
Banana Laffy Taffy, and not in a good way
That bubble gum that used to come in packs of baseball cards, and also not in a good way
Someone else suggested that it might make good, cheap toilet bowl or battery anode cleaner.
A couple weeks ago, next to these display was a cart full of some kind of alternate Mountain Dew that was a weird olive-green color. Anyone tried that, too?
There are tons of bizarre Mountain Dew flavors. My 20-something coworker loves it all. He brings in bottles and has tasting parties. Kids these days, I swear…
The successful ones stick around and they sell more product overall as a result. If the only product they sold was Coca-Cola, they would lose a huge share of the market. It’s a very simple but very important rule of business that you sell people what they want or they won’t buy it. Of course, you don’t know what they want if you don’t offer it first.
Coke (and other major soda producers like Pepsi) put out new products frequently, it’s part of the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” philosophy. And it seems to work a good part of the time. It’s not like they’re replacing their successful products with these new ones.
I was in college the first time in the early 1980s when Diet Coke was launched. In the months preceding this, it was test-marketed in college dorms, including my own.
I agree, it sounds like it’s one of those ideas that didn’t work (and most of those new things they try don’t work).
I just wish OK Soda would come back.
Huh… I just read that OK Soda was barely distributed anywhere before it was discontinued. One market was Seattle, which must be why I had a chance to drink it. I loved it. Then again, I was the target audience at the time.
I actually prefer Diet Coke to ‘regular’ Coke. To my taste buds, the best Coke product ever was Diet Coke Ginger Lime. I don’t think it’s made anymore - it died about the same time COVID hit.
I haven’t tried Coke Ultimate (nor even knew it existed before this thread). I’d be interested but I gotta say, if people could say it tastes like coconut or banana or bubble gum… I have to question their ability to review tasting stuff.
