First of all, I know that’s a clickbaity title but this is not a sponsored post. I’m just a Coke Zero aficionado who was not looking forward to the formula switch. Coke announced about two months ago that they were going to change the formula for Coke Zero so that it would taste more like regular Coke. As someone who used to drink Diet Pepsi, I’ve been through this before and was not looking forward to it. Unlike Coca Cola’s latest formula change, Diet Pepsi changed their formula from the sweetener aspartame (Equal) to sucralose (Splenda) in 2015 without warning consumers. I hate the taste of Splenda and found the new Diet Pepsi unpalatable, making me switch to Coke Zero. Thankfully Coke announced that they weren’t changing any of the ingredients in Coke Zero, they were just going to tweak it so it would supposedly taste better.
Although the new Coke Zero hit stores in Europe shortly after the announcement, it did not reach my local store until this week. I almost forgot about the formula change and had used up my initial stockpile of Coke Zero. The packaging is different on the new Coke Zero, it looks more like regular Coke but with a black font for the name instead of a white font. It also tastes more like regular Coke and it’s good! I was surprised to find that I truly like it. It’s got the nice taste of Coke Zero without the slight chemical aftertaste it used to have. Plus it’s not too sweet either, although I have a sweet tooth and your reaction may vary.
The Coca Cola company must have put a lot of research and testing into putting out Coke Zero and it shows. I’m a jaded consumer who is used to having my favorite products changed and discontinued, but Coke got this right. Credit where credit is due!
Not everyone agrees with me. Here are some reactions to the new Coke Zero Sugar.
@CocaCola I’m very upset. Coke Zero was perfectly fine the way it was… now it tastes overly sweet and it’s not good anymore :/
Why did you guys try to fix something that was already perfect? Smh— Mari (@TheMariGT) September 21, 2021
Really hate that @CocaCola ruined Coke Zero. It tastes more like Diet Coke now, maybe with a little tinge of Dr Pepper. It was great the way it was. The only positive now is it makes it that much easier to stop drinking soda again.
— Thomas Raia (@mocharaia) September 20, 2021
New Coke Zero review – it tastes pretty much the same thank god. Lucky for us, I think they added a dash more phosphoric acid for sweetness😊 @CocaCola pic.twitter.com/vdgg9Fb511
— dean (@hingehuman) September 8, 2021
It’s trash. Disgusting. Absolute abomination. Also, stop putting new Coke Zero cans in old Coke Zero cases… it’s false advertising and wrong. Bring back the old formula.
— Evan McMullen (@emick08) September 20, 2021
Keep trying Pepsi, maybe you’ll get it right eventually.
Hey @CocaCola IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME
While you keep changing New Coke Zero, we’ll always be in good “taste”. #MyCokeBreakUp #NewCokeZero pic.twitter.com/awGXMTDMST
— Pepsi (@pepsi) August 18, 2021
I rarely drink soda so when I do I just go for regular coke, sometimes root beer. I’m very sensitive to caffeine these days (so I can’t have any caffeine after 1 or 2) and decaf coke is just gross, sorry, lol. So since I have it so rarely I just stick with coke.
But I used to love diet coke, never really got into coke zero. But maybe I’ll try this new formula in a few months when I’m having another one ha and see what I think.
Same here, I generally drink the regular stuff primarily because I don’t like the taste of most artificial sweeteners.
That said, Coke Zero was one of the only ones I could tolerate as long as it was really cold. Once it warmed up, forget it. I’ll probably try the new formulation because I am curious about it, but it probably won’t be a regular thing unless it really is spectacular lol.
Same.
Same here too….I quit diet soda about 20 years ago. I would get a big fountain diet soda and two Krispy Kremes on my way to work (I was a fatty…lol, well, I was unhealthy, let’s put it that way). I switched to black coffee (good coffee, I’m a snob) and a healthy breakfast and never looked back. Now if I want a soda (and I do about once or twice a week), I just keep those small bottles or cans of straight up Coke and Ginger Ale on hand. It hits the spot and it’s just enough.
When we got Coke Zero on Australia, i truss it,even though I rarely drank fizzy bevs. I don’t like Cole or Diet Coke, but loved Zero. They discontinued it 3 or 4 tears ago, replacing it with “Coke No Sugar”, telling us it’s the same as Zero. It’s not! It’s even less nice than Diet Coke. Whatever. I only drink water or tea once again.
I was worried with the switch, but don’t mind the new one either! A bit sweeter, but overall still tasty, thank goodness
It changed over here in Australia about 12-18 months ago (we seemed to be a testing ground). People were going to supermarkets and hoarding the old formula as we’d been down this road before. I worked with someone who got 90 x 1.25lt bottles of the old formula.
Hard pass. I tried the new one and hated it. So I am slowly drinking my Coke Zero stash.
Same. NOT loving the new taste. The OG Coke Zero tasted closer to “real” Coke to me. When I was drinking it daily, I did have to cut back though, as I could go through 6 cans a day! All that Aspartame!!!
I changed to drinking mostly water all day, and I started drinking Hansen’s Diet Root Beer (1a day max); it does have Sucralose (which is said to be better than Aspartame, but of course too much of anything isn’t good for you!) It also doesn’t have *any* sodium, or artificial flavors/colors. Doesn’t taste as sweet, but I got used to it. Feels “healthier”, or as healthy as soda can be lol.
But when I’d go out to lunch with friends, my “guilty pleasure was ordering a Coke Zero. Now, alas… that’s gone! *sob*
Same. I hate the new taste. I hate them for doing this.
I stopped drinking soda about two months ago because I felt like it was affecting my eating habits overall (even though I only drank diet soda, I often required a sugary or salty snack to go along with it). Every now and then, I miss it, but it’s mostly been a great change.
That’s what sweeteners do, trick your brain, and you end up feeling hungrier. They’re not any good sadly.
For a while here in my wee part of France there seemed to be a shortage over the summer and I then found out they were changing the recipe. Its now plentiful in the shops again and tbh it doesnt really taste that much different imo, its just as palatable as its always been.
Sorry I don’t understand, what is the sweetener used in the new product?
I love Coke Zero. I don’t even notice a difference, but every now and again I taste regular Coke, and that is SWEET! So I don’t quite understand why people think Coke Zero is too sweet. There are a lot of alternatives out there to Coke Zero, so everyone can hopefully find something they prefer. I had been drinking the odd Diet Pepsi, and that stuff is awful! Bitter, hardly any flavour, like drinking acidic carbonated water… so I don’t know what Pepsi is talking about with their counter ads.
How nostalgic during these difficult times, to banter over the cola wars. I didn’t use to care, partly because as a young person I drank whatever my folks bought, and then 20 years later I’m my mom and I control what I drink. And I choose Coke Zero now. Circle of life I guess…
I haven’t seen Coke “Life” in about a year. It was the only low-sugar Coke made with a blend of sugar and stevia. I loved it. What happened to it!? They need to bring it back.
Idk why either but it’s gone where I live too. I miss it. Not interested in Splenda or aspartame so unless I splurge on a regular soda my trick is to keep cans of club soda in the house and add some lemon juice or other juice (peach nectar, mango, grape) when I am craving bubbles. I don’t need it to be that sweet honestly.
I loved Coke Life too and haven’t seen it in ages.
I really really really really really really really like the new formula.
I do too, and the new Dr Pepper Zero is delightful as well. I’ve been off soda for over a decade, but I’ve got a can of each in my fridge for the next time an overwhelming urge for fizz hits. It’s one of my pandemic survival items, life is too short not to get a solid fizzy drink fix ever again!
I’m a diet coke girl. I find Coke Zero to be too sweet tasting.
I thought I was going to hate it also, my family is diehard Coke Zero. Surprisingly we all loved it. It does give me that mouth feel of regular Coke. Maybe it was just the right setup, it was very cold and gave me a burn that I enjoy from Coke.
Interesting. I am a hardcore regular Coke drinker so I’m scared to give this a try. I dont think I ever had any kind of Coke Zero. But if it sort of tastes like regular Coke then maybe I should!
Awkwardly my work has a Pepsi meeting in house this weekend. Im going to have to stay far away from them. They got so angry at me the time I did the Pepsi challenge and said “this one sucks it’s Pepsi” and I was right haha.
If you haven’t tried Mexican diet coke in the tiny glass bottles, you are missing out, it’s my favorite of all the versions.
Yes, the Mexican cokes are the absolutely best -> the ones made with real sugar.
I can’t stand any of the diet drinks because they all taste like chemicals. I must be really sensitive to the artificial sweeteners since I can’t really stand it in any food really. It gives food a weird slightly-off aftertaste. I don’t even really like high fructose corn syrup in many recipes as I find it also tastes too sweet for my liking.
And living in America, so many American foods have sugar in that it shocks me how much we consume even in foods that we’d normally not think include sugar.
You’re killing me! I thought you meant Coke Zero- not Coke Zero Sugar. Coke Zero was replaced by Coke Zero Sugar years ago. So I thought that it had made a comeback. But it looks like Coke Zero Sugar has a new recipe and a design facelift but that’s it. I swear I’m not being pedantic I just loved Coke Zero and when it was changed to Coke Zero Sugar I slowly learned to accept Diet Coke because it was way better (but vastly inferior to Coke Zero).
No I appreciate it because in my mind I was thinking they were the same. I didn’t realize this happened!
I don’t drink soda often, so when I do, I just go for regular ol’ Coke. But maybe I’ll try this if it tastes more similar to classic Coke!
Not much of a pop drinker but the Coke Zero
In Mexico is sooooo good
I wonder if they based the taste on the Mexican version
Mexican Fresca is delicious
We stumbled upon Zevia sodas some time ago… really enjoy their cola, ginger-root beer and creamy root beer. Sweetened with stevia and no caramel coloring, so if you spill it, NBD! It’s like spilling water. Zero calories, and no effect on hunger or metabolism like artificial sweeteners.
We also drink Zevia! Not a lot, but when the urge hits for something fizzy, it’s perfect.
The two root beers are soooooo good.
Nope. Not the same. Loved coke zero. This isnt bad tasting but it’s not as good as the old formulation. Something is just missing. Returned it to the store. A good review tweet shows the plastic bottle. I’ll have to try that and see. I know the can vs bottle tastes different. Sad:(
I bought the dr. Pepper zero instead which I tried before and liked, but miss coke zero option already. Coke Zero doesnt cause food cravings for me. In fact it might have been the only one that doesn’t kick in cravings. Can’t drink any of the ones with flavors they do make me hungry.
I agree. Coke Zero is my only vice, I drink 1 or maybe 2 a day… I liked the — I don’t know how to write the feeling, something with the citric acid, of Coke Zero. But this new version is missing it, it tastes a little … sweeter?… gentler?… and I’m so sad. I would hoard some cases if I could find them. Kind of feels like I might as well go back to drinking Diet Pepsi, or just, I guess, give it up.
As long as they don’t change Diet Coke , I’m fine. Never liked Coke Zero and love diet coke.
Not sure if there’s a difference, but for me I like better diet coke. Though I read they use the same formula and it’s just directed to different markets.
I don’t think it’s the same formula now, but it may well have been at the outset. As for “different markets,” yes, all the “Zero Sugar” beverages first came about because market research confirmed that many men associate “diet” colas with being emasculated. (Ten years ago there was major controversy over the “Dr Pepper Ten: Not for Women” commercial, which tried to lean all the way into the “it’s not a diet cola” thing.)
They had better not touch Diet Coke! I drink so much that I swear if I bleed it will be Diet Coke that runs out!
Coke Zero always tasted to me like flat regular Coke. Yuck.
I’ll check it out. I absolutely hate Coke Zero because it’s sickly sweet and totally lacks that bit of tang that regular Coke has. It tastes like bubble gum to me. So I’ll give this new formula a try.
Uhhh I’d noticed the new can design, but I had NOT noticed the change in formula?? And I drink Coke Zero every day! A lot of it. (It’s a… gastroparesis thing.)
I *will* say, I recently tried a Diet Coke, which used to be my favorite, and I asked my husband to taste it and confirm it tastes like nothing?? “Phew, I thought I had Covid for a second.” It tasted like coca-cardboard to me. So I’m probably already used to the sweetness of New Coke Zero and had not realized it. Hmmmm. It tastes very smooth to me, if that makes sense, almost flat, fizz-wise, but not in an unpleasant way. Okay, no, yeah, it tastes a lot like Regular Coke (“restaurant cola”).
OMG I had one the other day and a Pepsi Loyalist but bayyyybayyyy I am a convert. So good and tasted just like soda so now I can finally quit Pepsi and all that sugar!!!
Not a soda drinker but tried the new formula at someone’s house and surprisingly liked it. Bought some for home so they must have done something right