Tuesday 27 January 2009

The Coca-Cola Hypothesis

I was chatting away to my fellow homeys on the Weightwatchers forum when a conversation arose about Coke Zero & it escalated, much so that it divided people into categories that went beyond normal chat..

One such discussion arose was that someone could not believe people preferred the taste of Diet Coke to that of 'normal' Coke, & then onto Coke Zero.

My mind doth wandered into the realm of thought I call 'Brain Fart Territory' & once again, this got me thinking.. So let me ramble through this territory.

I prefer the taste of Diet Coke, I don't know why, you could tie me to a chair & rub my nipples with lemon juice & I would not be able to tell you; the only thing I could say is I don't like the taste of Coke, it is too 'sticky' (Interestingly enough, most Coke drinkers say the same thing, that it makes their teeth go 'fuzzy').

Now, if you ask a Diet Coke drinker why they drink it, they say Coke is too sticky; & here is the fun part, the same is said by Coke drinkers about Diet Coke (Whoops! I think I have just created a black hole).

Why is that? Why are people divided about the 2 drinks? I may come back to that one..

Now another interesting discussion arose about 'Zero' drinks.

First & foremost, Coke Zero. People are divided on this also, so a further split.. Even Coke drinkers are divided on whether or not this is nice as Coke. I can say that I don't mind Coke Zero for 2 reasons:

1. It is £1 a bottle at my Tesco, which means I can buy 3 bottles, whereas Diet Coke is 2 for £2.70p, so in the interest of economy, I will buy Coke Zero.

& 2. It doesn't taste as sticky as Coke. Don't know why, genuinely don't care. I can take it or leave it.

Now, onto another interesting part about Zero; It was mentioned that the reason they brought out Zero is Diet Coke was shown to be 'girly' & were finding that not many blokes bought it. So they brought out Coke Zero and because of the taste difference, have kept both.
Now the issue with this is it doesn't account for all the other brands bringing out Zero.

So this is what I think..

I believe that Zero was brought out as there was a gap in the market. Diet Coke was selling well, & it was shown to be linked with many diets, therefore they needed something that could appeal to men & women & be shown to be 'healthier', hence Zero. So the people who diet like us can be said to have helped corporations bring out better drinks for us.

& I don't mind this happening, because it means I get to drink the soft drink I like, without having to worry about what is in it & how many points etc

But I like my Diet Coke, it's refreshing.

3 comments:

  1. The Zero thing is the same reason we now have Pepsi Max.

    Regarding taste, I can discern a difference between diet Pepsi and Max, but not between diet Coke and Zero! I prefer Coke to Pepsi - I find even the cal-free Pepsi overly sweet compared to cal-free Coke.

    That whole thing about diet v non-diet drinks - I'm with you. The fully-leaded versions are just too much of everything IMO. I'd never even tasted a non-diet Coke or Pepsi until recently, and when I did, I was actually very surprised at the difference. Both of them were quite icky. By that I mean I got that whole fuzzy teeth thing, and the overt sugariness, but there was something more.

    There was an aftertaste too, not unlike glycerine actually. In fact, the whole mouthfeel experience was rather like swallowing a teaspoon of glycerine.

    It's not something I'm keen to repeat.

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  2. i love diet coke. when we were younger my siblings and i would beg to have some of my dad's diet coke. and i agree that regular coke is sticky, syrupy. i'm known by friends and family for saying that coke in plastic bottles "tastes like poison". i think i do prefer zero over regular too.

    there will always be the coke controversy, lol.

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  3. Coke is our soft drink supplier at work and they told us... Yes zero coke was brought out to appeal to men and to those who don't like diet coke. (I admit i hated it at first when i switched, but now i get furry teeth from regular coke) I do prefer the taste of zero to diet. With the other zero ranges.. diet was disgusting.. everyone knows it! So they used the same method as with coke zero to remove the sugar and re-branded it at zero becasue no one would buy the diet drinks with a promise of "improved flavour". Diet coke won't be removed as it is now a brand in itself!

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