Ever since I started working the graveyard shift, I've watched my ever-expanding waistline with dismay. Part of the reason for said expansion is the fact that I am now drinking way more Coke than ever, usually in an effort to stay awake. I know that Cokes made up a huge portion of my daily caloric intake, but I am so hooked on soda that I can't possibly quit. Diet Coke, you ask? Phooey! Few things are as nasty as traditional diet soda.Enter my online buddy Billy, who recently sang the praises of Coke Zero in his blog. It tastes great, Billy said. It's closer in taste to Coke Classic than Diet Coke, he said. Bah, humbug, I thought.
Fast-forward a week or so. I was at work, bored as usual. I started asking everyone if they had tried Coke Zero and what they thought of it. My coworker Andreas said that he had tasted it, and that it tasted more like Coke Classic than Diet. So, armed with a second opinion, I went to Safeway to buy me some.
[insert golden light and trumpet and harp music here] Hallelujah! It really DOES taste more like Coke Classic! It's not the super-sweet toxic swill that is Diet Coke! HA! Watch out, waistline! I'll be waging war on you now!
After a little Google research, I have discovered that Coke Zero has actually been on the market abroad for a while now. Consumers in Europe (and Asia, I presume) know it as Coke Light. Apparently, it tastes so much better than Diet Coke because it is actually based on the formula for Coke Classic. All they did was take out the sugar and put in artificial sweeteners. Diet Coke, in contrast, was based on that ill-fated, idiotic flop of a corporate experiment called "New Coke". Remember that? I wonder if any idiot executives in Atlanta lost their jobs over that fiasco...
Anyway... thanks, Billy!