If you are the kind of person who meets your caffeine needs with both Coke and coffee,
we've got some good news for you.
Coca-Cola is launching a line of juiced-up, coffee-infused sodas that come in 12-ounce
cans and deliver 69 milligrams of caffeine.
Compare that to a regular 12-ounce Coke, which has 34 milligrams, and you can see it's quite
a boost over the baseline.
Known as Coca-Cola with Coffee, the drink contains Brazilian coffee and comes in three
flavors: dark, vanilla, and caramel.
The only bad news?
It's not available nationwide until January 2021.
Jaideep Kibe, vice president for Coca-Cola's trademark, said the new beverage occupies
a new niche in Coke's line-up.
He told Business Insider,
"We think of this as a hybrid category.
We've got an opportunity to create almost a new sub-category called refreshment coffee.
As people have been in lockdown or...working from home, there's a real opportunity to get
that boost, that little pick-me-up, whether it's the slump in the afternoon or mid-morning."
This isn't the first time that Coca-Cola has stepped into the coffee lane.
Coke first came up with a hybrid cola-coffee beverage back in 2006 with Coca-Cola Blak.
If you were around at the time, you probably know that most folks didn't really like it.
"I like it!"
Roughly two years after it launched, it was discontinued.
More than a decade later, in 2019, the company rolled out the beverage that would be known
as Coca-Cola Plus Coffee or Coca-Cola With Coffee, but they didn't make their way into
U.S. markets.
During last year's launch of Coke and coffee's offspring, Coke's Chief Technical Officer
Nancy Quan told CNN Business that Coca-Cola Blak's problem was that it had been introduced
to the public prematurely.
As she put it, "That was a trend before its time."
"I don't think people were ready to have a coffee portfolio within the Coca-Cola brand."
Just to be clear, Coke isn't making the same thing with new packaging, Coca-Cola with Coffee
will have more caffeine than its predecessor did.
Since first being introduced in 2019, Coca-Cola with Coffee has already launched across more
than 25 international markets, including Australia, Italy, Spain, and Thailand.
Back then, the company wouldn't say whether it would bring the drink to the U.S.
According to the company, geographic markets are usually assessed and evaluated separately,
and products that work outside the U.S. don't always do well stateside.
But with the product already out in several markets, it doesn't take much to find out
how well, or how badly, it might have been received.
The drink appears to have come out to mixed reviews in Japan, where the beverage was presented
as "Coca Cola Plus."
The drink, which has 50 percent more caffeine, and half the number of calories, was initially
only available through the country's famed vending machines.
Kotaku quotes the Japanese language Shin-Shouhin as saying that the drink smelled, quote, "odd,"
reportedly smelling like neither Coke nor coffee.
But as the publication's reviewer diplomatically pointed out,
"I didn't think it tasted good, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
But that didn't keep another writer from Tokyo Creative from saying that she liked the beverage.
According to her assessment,
"...you can strongly taste the coffee and the cola at the same time, and it is fizzy,
which I like."
Sounds fair to us!
In Australia, the drink is marketed as part of the Coca-Cola No Sugar line of products,
and YouTube reviewer Thats Noice noted that the drink smelled like a normal Coke but with
a hint of coffee, and proclaimed that it was better than he had expected.
"It tastes like a really nice, balanced, well-rounded coffee.
It really does!"
Video critics Birdew Food Reviews, who admitted they weren't coffee drinkers, also said that
the drink was "not bad," even though they did note an overwhelming, and potentially
off-putting, smell of coffee.
Here at home, Coca-Cola Insiders Club members get a shot at trying the new beverage before
the rest of us do, and we can count on them to get on social media to tell us what they
think of the new product, which is expected to come out in January 2021.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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