Diet Coke or Diet Coca-Cola is a sugar-free soft drink produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. It was introduced in the United States in July 1982 as Diet Coca-Cola, and was the first new brand since 1886 to use the Coca-Cola trademark. The product quickly overtook Tab in sales. In some countries outside Northern America and U.S. territories, Diet Coke is called Coca-Cola Light or Coke Light.
| A can of Diet Coke | |
| Type | Diet Cola |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | The Coca-Cola Company |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Introduced | 1982 |
| Variants | Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Lemon, Diet Coke with Lime, Diet Raspberry Coke, Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke, Diet Coke sweetened with Splenda |
| Related products | Coca-Cola Coca-Cola C2 Coca-Cola Zero |
| Website | www |
Overview
Diet Coke was sweetened with aspartame as soon as it became available in the U.S., 1983; however, to save money, this was originally in a blend with saccharin. After Diet Rite cola advertised its 100 percent use of aspartame, and the manufacturer of NutraSweet (then, G.D. Searle & Company) warned that the NutraSweet trademark would not be made available to a blend of sweeteners, Coca-Cola switched the formula to 100 percent NutraSweet, later switching back and doing without the NutraSweet trademark. Diet Coke from fountain dispensers still contains some saccharin (to extend shelf life)[1].
In other countries, where cyclamates were not banned, as they were in the U.S. and the United Kingdom in 1970, Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Light may be sweetened with a blend containing cyclamates, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium.
In 2005, under pressure from retailer Wal-Mart (which was impressed with the popularity of Splenda sweetener), and despite their previous blunder with New Coke, the company released a new formulation called "Diet Coke sweetened with Splenda". Sucralose replaces aspartame in this version. Early sales reports for this version were not quite as strong as anticipated; however, Coca-Cola did little advertising for the brand, investing money and advertising in Coca-Cola Zero instead. The introduction of the Splenda sweetened version of Diet Coke saw complaints to bottlers, as store shelves would often go with very little of the normal version of Diet Coke.
Diet Coke does not utilize a modified form of the Coca-Cola recipe but is instead an entirely different formula. The controversial New Coke, introduced in 1985, used a version of the Diet Coke recipe that contained high fructose corn syrup and had a slightly different balance of ingredients. In 2004 Coca-Cola introduced Coca-Cola C2, which it claims tastes much closer to Coca-Cola but contains half the carbohydrates. In 2006, The Coca-Cola Co. introduced Coca-Cola Zero, a sugar-free variation of regular Coca-Cola.
When Tab was released in 1963, the Coca-Cola Company refused to use the Coca-Cola brandname, fearing that its flagship brand might suffer by being used on another product, the long-term viability of which was uncertain. (Ironically, Tab is still available today, even though vastly outweighed by Diet Coke.) Its rival Pepsi had no such qualms, and after the long-term success of its sugar-free brand Diet Pepsi, launched in 1964, became clear, Coca-Cola decided to launch a new sugar-free brand under the Coca-Cola name to compete with Diet Pepsi. With the well-known name, it could be marketed more extensively than the more anonymously dubbed Tab.
Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have capitalized on the markets of people who require low sugar regimens, such as diabetics and people with other health conditions, athletes, and people who want to lose weight. In the UK, a 330 ml can of Diet Coke contains around 1.3 Calories (5 kilojoules) compared to 142 Calories (595 kJ) for a regular can of Coca-Cola.
According to the company's UK website as of 2004:
- Diet Coke is the #1 selling sugar-free soda in the world;
- Diet Coke is the third-largest brand at the company, and the fourth most-popular carbonated soft drink in the world;
- Diet Coke is sold in 149 countries; in 46 of them, where diet has undesirable connotations, it is known as Coca-Cola Light;
- The top five markets for the brand are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Brazil.
- Some predict that Diet Coke will soon overtake Pepsi and Coca-Cola as the #1 soft drink in the USA because, over the last decade, both Pepsi and Coca-Cola Classic had lost market share and Diet Coke has gained market share (up to 9.8% in 2005)
Brand portfolio
| Name | Launched | Discontinued | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diet Coke | 1982 | |||
| Caffeine Free Diet Coke | 1983 | |||
| Diet Cherry Coke/Diet Coke Cherry | 1986 | Available in USA and United Kingdom. Discontinued in Australia and Israel. | ||
| Diet Coke with Lemon | 2001 | 2005 (USA) | Still available in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, Spain and the United Kingdom. The version sold in Continental Europe utilizes the Coca-Cola Light formula and is generally thought to match much better with the lemon flavoring than the Diet Coke formula. | |
| Diet Vanilla Coke/Diet Coke Vanilla | 2002 | 2006 | Still available in Hong Kong and also Australia. | |
| Diet Coke with Lime | 2004 | |||
| Diet Raspberry Coke | June 1, 2005 | 2006 | Available in New Zealand. | |
| Diet Coke sweetened with Splenda | 2005 | Available in Norway. | ||
| Coca-Cola Zero | 2005 | In Austria Coca-Cola Zero is the succesor of Coca-Cola's Diet Coke. Coca-Cola Zero has an additional label "Neuer Geschmack" ("new taste") and a "0 kcal" symbol to differentiate it from the old diet coke. | ||
| Diet Coke Black Cherry Vanilla | 2006 | |||
| Coca-Cola Light Sango | Mid-2006 | Only available in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. | ||
| Coca-Cola Cherry Zero | Early-2007 |
- In most of Europe, including Germany and Italy, the drink is marketed as Coca-Cola Light. But often referred to with 'Cola', a usage the Coca-Cola Company has tried hard to discourage, as cola is a generic word that refers to any such drink; likewise, the company has fought a long battle against the use of Cola instead of Coke. Commercials refer only to Coke Light or Coca-Cola Light.
- In France, it is referred as Coca light
- In French-speaking Canada it is called Coke Diète.
- In Puerto Rico and Spanish-speaking United States it is called Coke Dieta (a literal translation of Diet Coke).
- In the United Kingdom, the name Diet Coke is used.
- In Italy, the name Diet Coke was used until the late 1990s.
- In Russia, it is called Koka-Kola Layt.
- In Latin America, it is called Coca-Cola Light.
- In many English-influenced non-English markets including Scandinavia, Israel and Japan, it is called Diet Coke.
Advertising slogans
- "The time is right" (1982)
- "Just for the taste of it!" (1983, 1985-1991)
- "The one of a kind" (1984)
- "Just for the taste" (1991)
- "Taste it all!" (1993)
- "This is refreshment" (1995)
- "You are what you drink" (1997)
- "Get the taste of it" (2000)
- "Do what feels good" (2002)
- "It's a Diet Coke thing" (2004)
- "Life is how you take it" (2005)
- "Light it up!" (2006)
- "The Diet Coke side of life" (used in the UK and Australia)
Debate over health issues
One version of Diet Coke (and majority of beverages using artificial sweeteners) relies on Aspartame, which has been blamed by some scientists and medical professionals for possibly causing serious illnesses (such as brain tumors, brain lesions, and lymphoma) when consumed in large quantities. Other researchers have found no such link, or believe that the quantities in sodas such as Diet Coke are much too small to cause adverse effects. It should be noted that Coca-Cola has now released Diet Coke sweetened with sucralose (also known as Splenda)
Ingredients
The following ingredients for Diet Coke are in order of the greatest to least amount in a single serving:
- carbonated water
- caramel color
- aspartame
- phosphoric acid
- potassium benzoate (to protect taste)
- natural flavors
- citric acid
- caffeine
Trivia
- It is possible to cause a sudden high-pressure release of carbon dioxide known as a Mentos eruption by inserting multiple Mentos into a container of Diet Coke. Mythbusters found this is caused because of nucleation as well as certain catalysts in the Diet Coke and Mentos themselves. The phenomenon is described in some detail by the General Chemistry Online! FAQ, which also attributes it to nucleation.[2]
- In an episode of Doctor Who, the fictional Diet Coke Light (blend of Diet Coke and Coke Light names) is sold.
- Often referred to as a "DC Special" when ordering in Delaware taverns.