It was, TIME declared, “like putting a miniskirt on the refurbished Statue of Liberty.”
Thirty years ago, on April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola announced that the company would take an unprecedented step in the ongoing cola wars: changing their formula. The secret formula for the classic soft drink would be locked away in a vault, forever, replaced that May with a sweeter pop designed to appeal to changing American tastes.
Prior to the roll-out, the company boasted that the new flavor beat out the classic (and also rival Pepsi) in taste tests. TIME’s food critic Mimi Sheraton weighed in on the taste too, deciding that the new soda wasn’t all that different:
New co*ke seems to retain the essential character of the original version in that it, too, imparts faint cocoa-cinnamon overtones and has a balanced, smooth body with no sharpness or overpowering flavor. However, it is sweeter than the original formula and also has a body that could best be described as lighter. It tastes a little like classic Coca-Cola that has been diluted by melting ice. I have always preferred Coca-Cola to Pepsi, finding the latter much too sweet and thin. Most of all, I dislike the citrus-oil flavor I seem to detect in Pepsi. And though the new co*ke approaches the sweetness and thinness of Pepsi, it does not have the lemony aftertaste. Therefore, I still prefer co*ke. I suspect that those who have preferred Pepsi will continue to do so.
The change was billed as the first in nearly a century of co*ke-making (not including the switch from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup, which wasn’t meant to affect the taste). And, as in natural when such a big change comes along, fans were nervous. Even before the New co*ke went on sale, consumers told TIME they were nervous that the company would “ruin a good thing.”
See Photos of Vintage Coca-Cola Signs from New York City to Bangkok
Judging by the world’s reaction to the New co*ke, those consumers were right: it was only three months before Coca-Cola gave in and brought back Coca-Cola Classic, bowing to pressure from people who were outraged that an American institution had been altered.
But, though the New co*ke story has gone down in history as a business and marketing debacle — the president of Pepsi-Cola was quoted in TIME calling it “the Edsel of the ’80s” — that’s not the whole story.
In fact, New co*ke wasn’t actually all bad for the company. Coca-Cola denied that New co*ke was an elaborate marketing stunt, though that was a popular theory. Still, even accidentally, it worked. co*ke’s stock soared when the classic formula came back and even in those anger-filled months between April and July, sales were good: “In May, co*ke sales shot up a sparkling 8% over the same month in 1984, double the normal growth rate,” TIME reported. “Some of the increase included sales of old co*ke still on store shelves, but most of it was the new drink.” The following year, when the company celebrated its hundredth birthday, it was with reports of sales that continued to climb.
Still, that didn’t keep New co*ke (later called co*ke II) from one last bit of infamy before it faded into the supermarket shelf sunset: the drink made it to TIME’s list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century — right alongside Crystal Pepsi.
The soda's supposed to be inspired by an "optimistic future" and was created with the help of AI. The flavor tastes like a mixture of a bunch of different sodas but has a sweet, vanilla aftertaste.
co*ke Spiced includes notes of raspberry and an aromatic blend of spices, as per co*ke. In the regular co*ke variant, the raspberry flavor takes dominance while the spices go undetected in the first few sips. You really have to focus on each sip to pick up the spicy notes.
"Coca-Cola Spiced features "a unique alchemy of our iconic cola, raspberry and spiced flavors," the Coca-Cola company said in a release. Coca-Cola said despite being called "spiced," the new beverage doesn't pack any heat. Drinkers will taste a "burst of refreshing raspberry flavors and spiced notes."
It's a little like the liquid from maraschino cherries mixed with grape cough syrup—it even has a little of that medicinal burn. If someone offers you a sip of Coca-Cola Creations Y3000, go ahead and take it, just to experience what AI thinks the future tastes like. But you'll never make it through a full 12-pack.
The drink will come in both regular and zero-sugar variations. “It's Coca-Cola, only spiced,” says co*ke about the new flavor. “Coca-Cola Spiced transforms the familiar into the extraordinary, blending the iconic taste of Coca-Cola with a burst of refreshing notes from raspberry and spiced flavors.”
The co*ke Ultimate flavor, though, is all tropical. It tastes like co*ke mixed with Hawaiian Punch. But then there's a hint of artificial bitterness on the end, which is reminiscent of grenadine, making it taste like a canned Roy Rogers (they should make those).
It is a “space-inspired Coca-Cola product” that is supposed to recreate the taste and feel of space. However, it's hard to say what space is supposed to taste like. But, if you go by this beverage, space tastes kind of like minty cotton candy sprinkled with vanilla, and has a sort of red tint.
Blind taste tests suggested that consumers preferred the sweeter taste of the competing product Pepsi-Cola, and so the Coca-Cola recipe was reformulated. The American public reacted negatively, and New co*ke was considered a major failure.
How much choice is too much? Apparently for Coca-Cola, it's about 400 different types of drinks. That's why the beverage company recently decided to discontinue half of them, shedding brands like Tab, Zico coconut water, Diet co*ke Fiesty Cherry and Odwalla juices but still leaving about 200 others to choose from.
All they can do is defend the heritage they nearly abandoned in 1985.” Despite its poor reception, New co*ke continued to be sold for a number of years. In 1992 it was renamed co*ke II. However, its market share was miniscule, and the beverage was discontinued in 2002.
So, what exactly was different with the new flavor? "Smoother, rounder, yet bolder." It's never been publicized, and taste testers at the time had as much difficulty putting it into words as did Coca-Cola's chairman Goizueta at New co*ke's official press conference: "Uh, smoother, uh, rounder, yet bolder," he said.
the whole formulation of New co*ke was based on initial taste tests that Coca Cola did and they took the tests that had the best responses and the formulation was based on that; many people said it was a sweeter version of co*ke meant to compete with Pepsi.
Sipping Coca-Cola Y3000 only confirmed that mishmash flavor. I was kind of surprised the drink poured out with the traditional cola color, because it tasted like all the red soda flavors got together and threw a party. Cherry, strawberry, raspberry, generic “fruit punch” – those were the tastes I sensed most.
Coca-Cola Spiced is officially on shelves. The new beverage, described as “a burst of refreshing notes from raspberry and spiced flavors,” is the first new Coca-Cola flavor to be added to the brand's permanent drink portfolio in years. Coca-Cola Spiced will come in both regular and zero-sugar variations.
It's artificially fruity, like a gummy bear or a lollipop. The aftertaste is more of a caramel, vanilla flavor. One thing that surprised me is that I enjoyed the Zero Sugar version more.
Introduction: My name is Velia Krajcik, I am a handsome, clean, lucky, gleaming, magnificent, proud, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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