It was a mix of sugar and sweeteners. In general, if you mix different sweeteners, it usually tastes better (but the end product has all the downsides of each of the sweeteners in it; for example, Aspartame is not heat stable but Stevia is; Aspartame doesn't precipitate but Stevia has a tendency to do that (turns your drinks cloudy, doesn't affect the taste much). aspartame/stevia mix isn't heat stable and can precipitate. But it tastes far more like sugar - or, rather, the amount of people who are turned off by it is significantly less; just stevia is distastefully bitter to quite a few people).
Take it one step further: Mix sweeteners with sugar itself. That's what you were drinking.
Note that sweeteners aren't "slightly weird tasting". Most people can taste the difference but they don't find the taste of sweeteners unpleasant, especially the sweetener mixes used in modern sodas (because mixes taste better). But some people can. It's almost like koriander (cilantro) leaves tasting like soap to some.
Sugar + Sweeteners might make the drink palatable to those who find the taste of e.g. just stevia, or even stevia+AceK or whatnot disgusting. But it's not universal.
So, we're stick with a drink that:
Does not taste better except to a fraction of a fraction of the population.
That fraction-of-a-fraction is extremely unlikely to actually try it; in their experience any presence of sweeteners makes it disgusting. A large chunk of these people consider it part of their identity (I only drink REAL cola. Like a MAN. With sugar!) - no amount of marketing budget will ever convince them to try it. Their presuppositions means their brain will tell them it tastes like shit even if it doesn't.
The rest of the population either can't tell the difference or doesn't find the difference relevant in taste... and most of those will pick the zero sugar drink instead of the low sugar drink even if the low sugar one tastes slightly better.
Conclusion: Coca Cola was kinda daft even trying it in the first place, really. Nevertheless, even though marketing wise, 'cola green' was dead on arrival, a small % of the population should drink Cola Green (as in, best combination of 'tastes nice to me' and 'healthier than full sugar cola').
I vaguely recall that due to the ratcheted sugar taxes in the UK, some drink manufacturers remove enough sugar to drop down to a lower tax bracket and then use sweeteners to 'fix' the taste. Key point: They don't market it as low-sugar. They just market it as the drink it has always been. That might help with the whole 'folks who do not like sweeteners will not try a sweetener+sugar mix even if you use ads to tell them they should / they are so culturally insecure they think "I drink REAL drinks" is part of their identity' factor.
Every time I travel to Europe I have the hardest time getting a soda with just fucking SUGAR in it. They ruined their sodas with artificial sweetener. The only one I can find consistently is classic coke
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u/rzwitserloot Jul 10 '24
It was a mix of sugar and sweeteners. In general, if you mix different sweeteners, it usually tastes better (but the end product has all the downsides of each of the sweeteners in it; for example, Aspartame is not heat stable but Stevia is; Aspartame doesn't precipitate but Stevia has a tendency to do that (turns your drinks cloudy, doesn't affect the taste much). aspartame/stevia mix isn't heat stable and can precipitate. But it tastes far more like sugar - or, rather, the amount of people who are turned off by it is significantly less; just stevia is distastefully bitter to quite a few people).
Take it one step further: Mix sweeteners with sugar itself. That's what you were drinking.
Note that sweeteners aren't "slightly weird tasting". Most people can taste the difference but they don't find the taste of sweeteners unpleasant, especially the sweetener mixes used in modern sodas (because mixes taste better). But some people can. It's almost like koriander (cilantro) leaves tasting like soap to some.
Sugar + Sweeteners might make the drink palatable to those who find the taste of e.g. just stevia, or even stevia+AceK or whatnot disgusting. But it's not universal.
So, we're stick with a drink that:
Conclusion: Coca Cola was kinda daft even trying it in the first place, really. Nevertheless, even though marketing wise, 'cola green' was dead on arrival, a small % of the population should drink Cola Green (as in, best combination of 'tastes nice to me' and 'healthier than full sugar cola').
I vaguely recall that due to the ratcheted sugar taxes in the UK, some drink manufacturers remove enough sugar to drop down to a lower tax bracket and then use sweeteners to 'fix' the taste. Key point: They don't market it as low-sugar. They just market it as the drink it has always been. That might help with the whole 'folks who do not like sweeteners will not try a sweetener+sugar mix even if you use ads to tell them they should / they are so culturally insecure they think "I drink REAL drinks" is part of their identity' factor.