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Comment by draw_down | Hacker News Reader

Too bad it tastes weird.

I don't really understand the popularity of artificial sweeteners. They all taste totally teh ick to me. I would much rather have something that is not sweet than something that is artificially sweet.

But judging from the beverage selection available at just about any convenience store, I'm possibly the only person in the USA who would rather drink something that isn't sweet than something that contains 0 calorie sweeteners.

Maybe I'm just really picky.

I think that a lot of it is what you're accustomed to drinking. I used to only drink regular colas and hated the taste of diet. I now drink only diet, and regular tastes too sweet to me.

I'll admit that I do enjoy the occasional sugary soda, but I try to keep that to a minimum. I find that I prefer flavored sparkling water like La Croix (which does not contain any sweetener) over diet soda. I still don't find La Croix in restaurants hardly ever, but it's becoming more and more common in grocery stores.

Discovering La Croix has changed my life. The Cherry Lemon one (which seems to only be available at Target?) is incredible.

Sacrilege! Pamplemousse forever.

I used to feel that way too, but years ago I dated someone who only ever drank Diet Coke, and I started to like it after repeated exposure. For a long time after that, real sugar drinks were way too sweet tasting and gross to me, though now I can enjoy a regular Coke now and then.

Yeah, that's the conclusion in the article too:

But I still don’t use it; not due to safety concerns, but because I think it tastes icky.

Have you tried aspartame? I've found that Coke Zero tastes much closer to real sugar than Diet Coke.

The difference between Coke Zero and Diet Coke is that one uses the Coca Cola Classic formula, and the other one is Coke. The name difference is to signify the flavor profile.

Yes, I prefer it. Coke Zero does taste closer to Coke but in an "uncanny valley" sort of way. I drink Diet Coke often, I like it. It isn't really supposed to taste like Coke.

Strangely enough, I'd rather have Coke Zero than regular Coke now. After getting used to Coke Zero, if I pick up a regular Coke and drink it, it tastes wrong.

For me aspartame depends on the thing it's in. In jelly it's super nice, in drinks? Nope. Coke Zero is gross imo.

Diet Coke uses aspartame also.

I figured the difference between Coke Zero and Diet Coke was branding for people who don't want to drink something labeled as diet.

EDIT: I drink both regularly (including today), and I personally do not perceive difference in taste. YMMV.

Coke Light => Women

Coke Zero => Men

Not sure about the downvotes on this one. My recollection is that Coke Zero was introduced to compete with Pepsi Max, and that the primary reason was that men were reluctant to buy things marked as "Diet" (plus there was a long history of Diet Coke being marketed almost exclusively to women [eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Sre-wpGHE ]).

Not saying any of this is a good thing... but it's a thing.

Thanks, that's the comment I wanted to write but I'm out of neurons right now...

Zero also has less caffeine.

Thanks for this! This was a huge shocker and I immediately had to go confirm it. Because of the way the branding is, I had assumed that Zero would have more caffeine.

Yep, if I have a coke at lunch I'll pick zero if I got a large amount of caffeine in the morning, otherwise diet.

Oh absolutely not

They taste extremely different

Which doesn't help because most places only serve Diet Coke (which I hate) instead of Coke Zero (which at least is available in most supermarkets)

Coke Zero has a much better taste profile than diet coke IMO. That said it's a bit biased since I drink way too much coke zero.

Coke Zero uses a combination of aspartame and ace-K. The two have a synergistic effect which results in lower amounts being used and less of the artificial sweetener taste.

Diet Coke (last time I checked) just uses aspartame.

I'm not sure because both give me heart burn.

In many countries (such as Germany), Coke adds sodium cyclamate to the usual aspartame + acesulfame-K. I find that cyclamate improves it immensely, and eliminates the bitter aftertaste of aspartame. Unfortunately, in the US it's still banned, even though the consensus is that it's harmless.

You get used to it. Not in a bad way, like getting used to nasty medicine. After about a week it just tastes like normal sweet and it's no big deal.

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