A (Diet) Coke & A Smile... (Diet Coke)

Member Name: mattygroves10

Product:	Diet Coke
Date:	11/08/05 (305 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lo - cal . Sweet . Fizzy . Tasty .

Disadvantages: No redeeming nutritional value whatsoever.

I can see it now. You're getting ready to go out to get your lunch. However, you are indecisive. That's right, you are. "Which drink shall I have," you think to yourself. Do you fancy water, or something sweeter? Do you fancy fruit juice, or something...well...'junkier?' Then you see the ads. You know the ones I mean - you need a Diet Coke break.

"Oh no", thinks you, "I've never tried it before" (yeah, right - but go with me here). "What ever shall I do?" (insert sounds of violins here...).

Well, folks, that's what I'm here to tell you *grin*. After all, I drink loads of the stuff.

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The Packaging
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Diet Coke comes in a number of guises. You can have 330ml cans, 500ml bottles, even 2 litre bottle (oh, the choices we have to make). Normally, I drink it by the canful, although the bottle in front of me ('I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me...') is of the 500ml variety.

All the styles of packaging share a few features in common - silver is the main colour (to distinguish it from regular Coke, which is red), the Diet Coke logo features prominently, the freephone number and nutritional information appear somewhere on the package.

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The Product
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The Texture
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This stuff is fizzy. I mean REALLY fizzy. It's REALLY embarrassing when I'm on the phone, and a giant belch is just aching to be released. I find that I like to let my Diet Coke settle a bit before drinking, if I don't want large, gassy and unpleasant sounding explosions emanating from my insides.

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The Smell
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I find Diet Coke doesn't really smell of much. It's sweet, certainly (and by the way, Diet Coke, like many other diet drinks, contains what used to be known as Nutra-Sweet, now more commonly known by its generic name, aspartame). This means it contains a source of phenylalanine. There is a condition that makes a few people intolerant to phenylalanine - so please note!)

It's not surprising that the first impression is sweet - after carbonated water and colours, the next ingredient is the sweeteners. There is, however, a slight caramel aroma.

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The Taste
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OK, this is going to be the bit I will struggle with the most. It tastes of...well...Diet Coke. Cola. You know, that sweet, slightly caramel, slightly vanilla flavour we all know, and many of us love. Served cold, the fizz and the temperature tend to overwhelm the sickly sweetness of Coke and, indeed Diet Coke; warm, the caramel/vanilla/sugar flavour is much stronger.

Personally, I much prefer Diet Coke to fully-leaded Coke. I find Coke too sweet, and Diet Coke a bit less so - although Coke drinkers will swear the opposite.

There is a slight aftertaste with Diet Coke (although this is nowhere near so prominent as it was with Tab, Diet Coke's predecessor. Anyone remember Tab - sweetened with saccharine with an aftertaste that could leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth for hours?). However, the aftertaste is not too overwhelming nor too unpleasant. It's a slightly dry (I don't really know how to describe this) on the back of the tongue taste - not quite bitter nor sour, but not quite sweet either. A kind of artificial tinny taste. But really, it's very mild. If you are a Coke drinker, you might find the taste objectionable, but you'd soon get used to it if you had to. I think.

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Price and Availability
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Available - well, anywhere really - from supermarkets (Sainsbury's, Asda, Tesco etc etc...), to corner shops, to pubs (comes in hideously expensive cute little glass bottles - and a bit of free advice here - get the bottle - avoid the draught!), to restaurants... need I go on.

Price varies - as mentioned, at pubs, those little tiny bottles will likely cost around £1.00 in London. I buy the cans in a multipack, and these usually work out at around 30p per can (ish, depending on offers). My bottle in front of me was 68p at Asda for 500ml.

Unsurprisingly, the bigger the quantity you buy in one container or box (in the case of multipacks), the less you'll pay per 100ml (usually).

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Random Facts from the Packaging
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Apparently, Diet Cokes contains 'Vegetable Extracts.' Well, that's nice to know - but why do I need to know it?

'Best Served Ice Cold' - umm....yeah - I knew that. Didn't you?

Should you be so inclined, you can call their careline on 0800 227711. Does anyone ever call these? What do they say? Answers on a comment, please!

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My Final Thoughts
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I drink a fair amount of Diet Coke. It doesn't make me fat (well, I suppose it would were I to drink enough of it, but I think the caffeine would kill me first in those kind of quantities), I can fool myself that it's better for me teeth, and, most importantly, I like the flavour. I just find it hard to describe!

I'm a Diet Coke gal - always have been, always will be. Go on - reach for the Diet Coke, you know you want to :)

Summary: Lo-cal fizzy drink. Bad for you, but ever so tasty.