Coca-Cola Zero newly released in Germany

Okay, so am falling asleep at work and went to our canteen to get a cola or chocolate or both to get some blood flowing until my date tonight and this weird 0,5 l black and white plastic bottle caught my eye. Huh? It was cola lemon or even diet coke, it was Coke Zero. So curious, I came back to my desk and did some Googling.

Well, I was surprised at the furor over this drink (which was released in the USA last year) and these weird terms like ACE-K and Splenda. Now, I do not drink diet drinks because I never got friendly with the taste, so I didn't buy it. Besides, I wasn't sure either. There was no "diet" scrawled on the bottle anywhere, I didn't know what the heck it was, so I grabbed my old trusty normal coke.

Also, I've never tried any of these drinks that have ACE-K (acesulfame potassium) or Splenda not knowing if they're manufactured by naked workers in caves in south america or are synthetic and potentially cancer-causing.

Has anyone out there tried it?

Relevant links:

• Coca-Cola Zero - official website
• Coca-Cola Zero - Wikipedia

Coke Zero is pretty damn good. Splenda in packets is great too (brought a big box back from the US). It beats the hell out of aspartame, etc.

Something tells me your officemate wouldn't like it though.

I hate diet coke, it tastes shite.

But Coke Zero is quite acceptable. I will drink that now in place of normal coke quite happily.

Good stuff!

Never had it but if it has no sugar or calories does it not taste just like coloured water ?

Whatever happened to Tab Clear?

I actually think you're right. Splenda is manufactured by hot naked Peruvian chicks.
At least, that's what I think each time I put some in my coffee.

Coke Zero seemed to have totally replace Diet Coke in the UK last week.
Is it just a re-branding og Diet Coke / Coke Light into one marketable brand?

Not the same thing.

google is your friend

funny that Splenda was originally developed to be an insecticide

Can somebody please explain the point of "Caffeine Free Diet Coke"?

Surely the only reason people drink Coke is for the sugar and caffeine kick.

Sad (soooo sad) fact about coke, diet coke et al.

I drink diet coke to a level bording on obsession. Now I've noticed that German diet coke tastes like crap, whereas the UK stuff is great.

The differing mineral content in the local water (apparently) makes the stuff taste differently where ever it's brewed. For example, diet coke in Corfu tastes like pepsi.

On a bit of a rant, when I lived in Sidcup, which is where they make the stuff in the UK, why oh why do all the shops only sell stuff from bloody Poland??

Personally, I'm not a big lover of coke zero.

He's been awfully sneaky about his sugar intake lately.

Okay, so I'll give it a try!

Mixed.

no

I dont' know about diet coke, that stuff tastes like shit no matter where I drink it, however I have found the same thing with normal coke here.

It tastes nothing like the coke I have tasted anywhere else. I would say the Coke in the UK/Australia/US tastes pretty similar, but this stuff in Germany is just crap. I've been finding it quite disappointing lately and find myself craving real Coke. What is the deal? The stuff here tastes more sugary, seems to fizz a lot more (like warm coke, but it does it when its cold) and to me tastes closer to Pepsi than real Coke.

Love Coke Zero! And also don't get the point of caffeine free coke- I drink it primarily for the caffeine!!

Yes and no. It is diet coke with with less aspartame and more ace-k. It is similar to the trick they played when they reformulated coke to have less phosphoric acid and more fructose and sucrose instead of glucose. They brought New Coke on the market which tasted more like that awful Pepsi and after you forgot what real coke tasted like, they brought back the reformulated coke and called it classic which they have since dropped off the labels. It was no where near the same. I suspect some similar marketing strategies at work here like not using the word diet and some other gimmicks like starting a fake blog and calling it a Zero Movement.
Man are people gullible.
The wife got one the other day and it tasted just like a diet coke only a little less chemically sweet.

Splenda is sucralose. If you read it in an ingredient list, it is the Splenda brand.
Recently "Splenda Brown Sugar" and "Splenda for Baking" have been introduced
in the US. They are 50/50 mixes of Splenda and real sugar (or brown sugar).
These are great for baking as they can be measured the same as sugar.

It's being manufactued in Singapore and somebody's making a lot of cash.

As far as I know, it's made from sugar, but altered so it doesn't attach itself to
red blood cells like sugar. It supposedly passes through the body.

I don't care for other sugar replacements so I tend to buy products with Splenda.
Good for Coke that they are using Splenda. As I am diabetic, I'll look for Zero when
in Munich.

tried zero today. tastes better than diet, but still not like the original. Don't know if its me, but i can really taste the sweetner in it

I also bought some today to try.
Reached the same conclusions as you; plus it seemed to be fizzier than the original, almost too much so.
Hmm... I think I'll stick to mineral water after all.

Can't drink caffeine anymore (it sent me to the hospital 2 yrs. ago) how much does that suck to be in the 'cafe' capital of the world this past weekend - Vienna - and not have a coffee? I digress...

I can only say that Sprite tastes like shiite here, it has alot of sugar, it's digusting. Maybe it is the mineral contentin the water that they are compensating for? I find Apfelschorle the best alternative to soft drinks. Or a radler

Splenda, also known as sucralose, is artificial sweetener which is a chlorinated sucrose derivative. Facts about this artificial chemical follows:

Pre-approval research showed that sucralose caused shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage) and enlarged liver and kidneys. The manufacturer put forth two arguments in an attempt to claim that sucralose is not toxic:

http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/

I think that I shall wait for this to hit the market.

ugh - thanks Eurovol. I broke down and bought coke zero today and it really does taste a lot like I remember coke normal tasting.

I have the splenda packs and only used them for my tea - but I might rethink my tea consumption now...

I've also read that the purity of Sucralose is only 98%, that means 2% are other substances, like methanol, or traces of lead, arsenic etc.
Some of these impurities can (in larger quantities) cause damage to the human organism.
Also Sucralose and its degradation products are being excreted with urine and faeces, the impact on the environment and animals are not known yet.

And: first studies show an appetising effect, which would not really be convenient during a diet...

I tried this Coke Zero the other day. It doesn't taste at all like normal coke, and if you think it does you need to hone your Cola tasting skills. It does however taste better than Diet Coke. I can still taste the sweetener big time.

I agree with Hutcho, it doesn't taste like normal Coke, the artificial sweetner is too obvious, it's basically a revamped, improved Diet Coke.

Only stuff we allow in our house. No caffeine or the kids would go bonkers and never sleep. No calories 'cos we get quite enough calories elsewhere.

I drink MUCH less coffee and so caffeine than a few years ago. I dont think the buzz and lows are good for you really. Exception is that I take a caffeine hit just before the gym with strong black coffee.

I prefer diet Coke for taste - not as sickly sweet as the real stuff.

No, the other 2% are inert substances which would also have to pass FDA approval. No copmpany would say, him why not make it 98% what we want and then add this 2% poison just for kicks.

I used to drink gallons of pepsi max, because it was much nicer than dietcoke. Haven't been bothered to try coke zero yet, because I only drink beer in hot weather, but will be interested to see how it compares to pepsi max more than how it compares to normal coke.

exactly what i'm afraid of, but will try it too. i just love the straight up coca-cola sort.

Its marketed as the diet coke for men... more macho, black packaging etc, strong male orientated advertising, fits in with the zero range...unfortunately they seem to have ballsed up on one minor detail - the taste!

Yeah, make it taste like beer, and men will LOVE it!

Ok, I was never allowed to drink coke as a child due to my father working for Pepsi, but he got a new job so i can do what i like now!

I think the reason for coke zero is to copy Pepsi max as its the first coke drink to have no sugar, only about 15yrs behind pepsi. but taking the sugar out of pepsi only made it sweeter due to sweetners and extra fizzy!

On the plus side to the new zero i get to drink lots as the dr told me to drink coke for the minerals yesterday! YES i do think these german drs are mad!

Okay, I usually drink Diet Coke without Caffeine (yes I am weird) but I thought, lets try this new Cola product, and I like the taste better than Diet Coke- but can they make is caffeine free?

I must say that I totally and utterly despise diet coke. It just tastes absolutely revolting and overly sweet due to these disgusting articial sweetener stuff. I guess this Coke Zero stuff is the same as Coke C2 over here in the states. If so, then it tastes OK and would be the exact equivalent of Pepsi Max...

Yeh, I would say its the equivilant of Pepsi Max..

no, it's a different brand (according to the Coca-Cola website) marketed, some think, to compete with PepsiMax.

Spenda tends to taste "sweeter" than sugar, I think. I prefer drinks with no sugar, sweetener, or fizz.

There is a restaurant in California called "The Cheesecake Factory" that makes all their cheesecakes
with Splenda, then adds toppings that have sugar in them.

I just tried a bottle of this, tastes much the same as Diet Coke, marginally better.

Did anyone check the ingredients on the back of the bottle? I can see quite clearly that "Aspartam" is mentioned as one of the ingredients, I thought that Splenda was supposed to replace this?

You know, I drank the rest of the bottle of this Coke Zero that I bought the other day, but while eating dinner.

If you don't think about it too much, and you make sure you eat straight after drinking, you could almost be fooled into thinking its Coke. As I said, the trick is to ensure that you eat quickly after drinking so that foul artificial sugar taste doesn't hit you.

The most important question is: does it clean coins as well as real Coke ?

While driving through France last month I came across a new Coke that isnt on the list I saw of the coke flavors. This is a bit different. Name is Coke Black or Coke Blak, etc based on where you are at. Basically it is Coke mixed with Coffee. It is absolutely disgusting in my opinion. But does give you a kick from the coffee and the sugar of coke but yuck. Was reading some stuff on it and supposedly not good for children.

or clean blood of streets, or white wall tires and all the other things Coke can do for you.

That Coke Blak sounds gross (I don't drink coffee) but still! Its like what triple the caffiene then?

Ahh I want to try some of that coke blak, could be interesting.

Coke Black tastes like coffee filtered with coke and not water. it is horrible.

I've tried it, my kids tried it thinking it's good as zero sugar. I actually thought it tasted really bad. My suggestion: go for the real stuff, a glass or two can't hurt if followed by 2-4 glasses of water and possibly brushing your teeth straight after

I only drink coke if it has whisky in it.

I think by that time most people's bladders would be ready to burst.

All this fuss about one stupid calorie (less) ?

Ditto, furthermore Coke light or Coke zero tastes like crap on it´s own!