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Comment by personjerry | Hacker News Reader

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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