Coke launched Coca Cola C2 here in Japan last month. It’s a “half-diet” cola that has half the calories of regular Coke, with supposedly all of the taste.
The marketing push has been fairly strong. Advertising is on every vending machine (which, in Tokyo, means you see a C2 ad every 5 feet or so). Many vending machines have had Coke Classic removed and replaced with with C2 to try and push the product.
I finally got around to trying it today after lunch today. It’s less sweet. A lot less sweet. This is in stark contrast to Diet Coke, which has always seemed sweeter than normal Coke to me.
The initial taste is just bubbles and a little bit of artificial something. In the middle, it actually comes very close to the taste of Classic Coke. But once the bubbles have died off and the initial rush of real sugar (well, corn syrup) has disappeared, you’re left with a mouthful of sweet/bitter aspartame.
The mouthfeel of the whole thing is definitely diet. Full calorie sodas have a slightly thick/syrupy mouthfeel that aspartame (or a little sugar + aspartame) just can’t seem to match.
While not a total disappointment like New Coke or (for me) Vanilla Coke was, C2 seems to be a product looking for a market niche. If I really care about calories, I’m going to be drinking Diet Coke. If I want the taste of Classic Coke, I’ll probably just drink that. Something that tastes sort of like real Coke, but also has 60 calories per (dimunitive, Japanese-sized) serving, just doesn’t seem like a big win to me.
Posted by pmk at June 15, 2004 12:02 AM | TrackBack