I scream ?Coke?. (Vanilla Coke)

Member Name: Pozza

Product:	Vanilla Coke
Date:	23/06/04 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes fantastic ? quite a surprise.

Disadvantages: Not as thirst quenching as original coke.

When I first saw the advert for new vanilla Coke, I thought ?NOOOOO, don?t mess with my Coke?. See, being a traditionalist, I?ve never been a big fan of cherry or, more recently, lemon coke, although I can see their appeal. But vanilla, yuk!

Remember the advert... a young man walking down the street sees a hole in a wooden wall where some building work is going on. Being a curious cat he sticks his head through, only to be greeted by the arm of a beefy biceped bodyguard being wrapped round his neck. A nice man from the mafia then force-feeds him the new Coke offering, which all-in-all appears to be a pleasant surprise to the youngster, who is then allowed to go about his business.

***First encounter***

How true the advert turned out to be. I metaphorically stuck my head into the hole in the wall when my brother (far more curious than I) bought a bottle of vanilla coke on a recent visit. He took one taste, his eyes lit up and he suggested I take a taste. Boy was he persistent. I must have said no a dozen times but he got me by saying ?it?ll remind you of when we were kids?. Nostalgia wins every time, I?m afraid, so I reluctantly took the bottle from him (and prepped Anita to be stood by with her bottle of Sprite for me to swill away the taste). I was also worried that my brother, 6 years my junior and bulging with muscle, might force-feed me the stuff in the middle of Asda car-park.

?CREAM SODA!!!? I cried and we reminisced about the pop-man of our youth. He used to visit our street once a week in his van to sell bottles of pop (I don?t think ?pop-man? was his official job title, just one we made up. What a great job, though!) We used to get a bottle to have with Sunday dinner (lunch to anyone South of me) and put bottles aside for the holidays. One of our favourites was cream soda ? and that long-winded amble along memory lane brings me to the point that on first tasting, vanilla Coke tastes like cream soda.

***Full disse
ction***

Now one sip doth not an op make. So I had to buy a bottle to give my full, considered opinion. This cost me 72p for a plastic 500ml bottle from Tesco, but I imagine it costs a few pence more from newsagents.

I didn?t spot the bottle at first, as it is pretty similar to the regular coke bottle, so I will say something about it. At a glance it is probably most recognisable by the creamy yellow bottle top. ***Pettiness alert*** I do think that the colour choice for the top is awful? it looks like white plastic that has been left out in strong sunlight for too long, giving it a cheap and nasty look. I suppose it represents the vanilla flavour, but urgh! It?s horrible. The same colour is used where white or silver would normally be used on a Coke bottle and in the lettering that spells out? wait for it? v-a-n-i-l-l-a. Other than that the bottle is virtually identical.

As with most Coke products, vanilla Coke is available in the 500ml plastic bottles, cans and 2litre bottles.

It does say on the side of Coke products that they are best served chilled. My bottle was off the shelf and when I got home I put it straight in the fridge. I imagine that if it is drunk warm, it will leave little furry jackets on your teeth and tongue, like most fizzy drinks do. Unless that is just some freakish thing that only happens to me.

Next morning I settled down with my now-chilled vanilla flavoured drink and did the full monty. My wife made me get dressed again to taste the drink and I duly obliged. Ahhh, the satisfying fizz as you unscrew the cap. Ohhh, as in b**ger it, it?s all frothed over and is running down my hand, towards the keyboard. That?ll teach me to pretend I?m Roger Daltrey singing into a bottle of pop.

Once that was cleared up I took a sniff. Now I?m renowned for not having the most sensitive nose in the world, but I could just make out the smell of vanilla ice-cream? lovely. First taste ? still the pop-man! Not
that I ever? never mind.

Bottles of pop don?t last long in my hands. I tend to swig them down pretty quick and I have to say this particular pop slipped down very easily indeed. The flavour is just right ? it is there, but not overpowering and just, only just allowing you to remember that this is Coke you are drinking.

Now you must excuse me for my 10-minute burp-fest which always follows a bottle of fizzy pop.

There, all done, and on no occasion was there any unpleasant aftertaste. Not a conventional taste-testing technique, but valid nonetheless!

***Thirst-quenchability***

Not great, I?m afraid. Nowhere near as good in this respect as regular Coke. I was still pretty thirsty after this drink and went for a glass of my favourite ? good old water. It is definitely one to drink for taste rather than to re-hydrate an arid mouth.

***Info for those poor souls who diet***

Pretty high on the sugars, this stuff. Over 50g in a 500ml bottle! But then you?ll be drinking the Diet vanilla Coke anyway. The rest of us see 50g of sugar as a challenge to be tackled head on!

Fat and protein-wise? nowt. So no meat in it, then.

Oh, and of course, it has caffeine in it, so it is to be avoided if you can?t take caffeine or if you are one of the annoying kids I teach who pour this stuff down their necks at dinner-time only to come into my lesson and have to be prised down from the ceiling!

***Closing ramblings***

Another memory moment? I?ve just remembered that a friend?s mother used to make us Coke floats ? Coke with a lump of ice-cream in. Why on Earth didn?t I cash in on this idea years ago? Think of how many people have drunk a Coke float and they?ve only just brought vanilla Coke out! I now wonder why I was ever wary of trying it and I?ll definitely be sneaking it into the shopping trolley and blaming Jacob on a weekly basis.

The title of this op? Why? While drinking this stuf
f and thinking of a title for my op, Jacob asked, as do all 2 year olds, ?What?s that, Daddy??
?Ice-cream Coke?, I replied.
?COKE? he screamed!

Next time you see a hole in the wall, pop your head in and say ?Hi?. You won?t regret it!

(Price quoted refers to 500ml bottle).

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