Yesterday, as I was between bouts of assaulting and battering Chet the E-Mail Boy, Tarheel Marc asked if I'd yet tried the new Diet Coke Plus™ (a vitamin-infused bastardization of the basic formula).
I allowed that I was out of the loop on this new elixir, but that I would certainly be willing to give it a go if it cost the same and tasted the same as regular Diet Coke®. The addition of vitamins, while an interesting sort of thing, isn't something I wouldn't pay more for it, and it isn't one of those things I've been craving (getting, as I do, all of my vitaminic nutrition from a variety of other foods, such as Vienna sausages), but still, I wouldn't discount the soda based just because it had something good for you in it.
Anyway, imagine my utter surprise this morning when I stopped at the convenience store for a drive-time breakfast snack, and there right before me in the cooler was an entire rack of this product!
Obviously, it would do you a disservice, gentle readers, were I not to purchase this beverage and give you a review of it.
Following is that review:
The bottle has the familiar Coke®-bottle shape of other Coke® products, although it does have a peculiar addition of a tealish-turquoisey colored banding on the label and cap that makes me queasy. I suppose it's intended to make the consumer think of such things as Propel®, which personally I find tastes like dirty socks.
Upon reading the label, I see that it describes itself as "Diet Coke® with Viamins and Minerals," and sure enough, it says on the back that it has niacinamide (vitamin B3), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6) and cyanocobalimin (vitamin B12).
The taste?
Well, it ain't Diet Coke®. The first taste is familiar, but it has a peculiar afterwhang that is reminscent of Dial® Antibacterial Handwash. It's not overwhelming, but it IS there--sort of a fruity, chemically note that completely and utterly ruins EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT DIET COKE!
Of course, I also disdain the other garbage flavors they keep trying to put in there--lemon, lime, black cherry, ocelot urine, vanilla, mango--why keep mucking with it!?
Anyway, now that I've tried it I don't have to worry about it anymore.
Oh, and by the way, here are the OTHER things in DC+ that aren't in the regular version:
Magnesium sulfate, potassium sorbate, acesulfame potassium, and zinc gluconate.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 4, 2007 08:58 AMI actually prefer the taste—and the cost—of the caffeine free diet Sam’s stuff from Wal-Mart.
And best of all no healthy stuff.
I think I get all the vitamins I need standing outside in the sunshine,smoking a cigar twice a day. And from the nutrient rich, hops & barley brewed softdrinks I prefer on the weekends. So no vitamin infused Diet COke for me thanks.
I do like the lime flavored DC just fine.
Posted by: Nate at May 4, 2007 10:01 AMActually, it is pretty good. So is the stuff we get from Food World, Diet Rally. I'm not sure who makes any of these store brand sodas, but the introduction of aspartame has really been a boon to everyone since it tastes so much better than saccharine.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at May 4, 2007 10:02 AMI picked up a DC+ last night, so my wife (she drinks at least one DC per night) and I performed a taste test. She didn't much care for it. Based on the aftertaste I thought at first DC+ was Splenda-fied, but upon examining the label I saw our old friend phenylalanine, otherwise known and loved as Nutrasweet. I would characterize the aftertaste as somewhat mediciny, somewhat Diet Pepsi-ish. It's not a pleasant aftertaste, certainly not as pleasant as Diet Coke Classic, erego DC+ should go.
I also enjoy the lime DC, like Nate, but since my wife does not care for it I don't get much of a chance to sip it. I wouldn't trust her tastes in liquid refreshments, though, as her favorite drink is the nuclear-waste spent cooling liquid referred to as Diet Mountain Dew. Yuch!
Posted by: Marc V at May 4, 2007 10:31 AM