Review: Coca-Cola Life

As a member of BzzAgent, I am periodically elected to 'campaigns' to test new products.  It's really awesome!  You can sign up using the link over there on your right, then answer a few surveys so the folks at BzzAgent know what you like and what you don't, then they match you with campaigns that align with your likes.  When you are elected to play along, you receive a package with either a sample of the product you are trying out and some coupons to buy additional or share with friends, or, in the case of perishable items, it's usually coupons to go get the product to test (for free) as well as additional money off coupons for more and to share with friends.  All you do is try the product out and review it.  That's it.  No strings.  No catches.  They send you free stuff to try out and all you have to do it tell whether you liked it or not. 

This month, I was chosen for the Coca-Cola Life campaign.  This is a new product put out by Coca-Cola.  It is sweeted with pure cane sugar and Stevia rather than processed sugar.

Many of you know I have recently stopped drinking Diet Coke entirely.  From a 12 pack every 2 days habit to zero.  It was rough (and yes, I cheated just once) but I'm now off the stuff entirely.  Scott?  Not so much.  He's a soda fiend!  We both had a few sips of this product to test it out.  Here's our pros and cons:

PROS
It's not as cloyingly sweet as regular Coca-Cola.  People often wondered why I drank Diet Coke rather than regular.  It's the overly disgusting sweet flavor of a regular Coke.  One can literally makes my teeth feel like they are covered in fuzz.  *squick*  This new Coke product is considerably less sweet tasting, without tasting like a diet soda at all.  It also has a really good flavor, at first....here comes the cons....

CONS
The soda has a really strange aftertaste.  I believe it is probably the Stevia that is causing this weirdness.  And it could be entirely my tastes, as I am not a fan of Stevia as a sweetner in most things.  However, Scott thought the same thing.  Strange aftertaste.  I never noticed the aftertaste most people complain about with diet sodas, but with this one, I sure did.  It's strange enough that I will not buy this product.  However, I know plenty of friends of mine that may like it very much. 

At first I thought that issue was that I drink unsweetened ice tea all the time now, so ANYTHING sweet seems to be a bit too much to me and since I don't sweeten my tea with artifical sweetner I've lost the tolerance to that strange aftertaste, but then Scott, who takes in all the sugar, had the same issues with after taste.

Disclaimer:  I received a sample of this product for free from BzzAgent.com, in return for my honest review.  You can too!  Click the link in the side bar and sign up today!