Coke Zero SCRAPPED by Coca Cola as it launches a brand new drink that took 5 YEARS to develop
Two million free samples of Coke No Sugar will be given out over the next few months to help launch the product
COCA-COLA has dumped Coke Zero and launched a new sugar-free soft drink it claims took FIVE YEARS to develop.
Amid continually-plummeting sales, it is the fourth sugar-free or low sugar version of its staple beverage to be released as it desperately tries to tap into the healthy eating market.
It joins 1982's Diet Coke, 2006’s Coke Zero and this year’s rebranded Coke with Stevia, on the increasingly crowded sugar-free cola shelves.
Initially, both Coke No Sugar and Coke Zero will be available on shelves but the plan is to eventually phase out the older product.
Some two million free samples of Coke No Sugar will be given out over the next few months to help its marketing launch.
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But unlike its predecessors, the company promises that this time Coke No Sugar tastes just like Coke should, a heavily sugar-laden version based on a 130-year-old recipe.
The hugely popular taste has, thus far, never been able to be replicated without the generous helping of the sweet, white, calorie-dense stuff.
"We think it’s the closest we have ever come to the classic taste of Coca-Cola," Roberto Mercadé, the President of Coca-Cola in Australia, said pre-launch.
"We wanted the experience of drinking Coca-Cola No Sugar to be as close as possible to 'The Real Thing'," he said in reference to the successful 1970s advertising slogan invented when it was at war with Pepsi.
"That’s no small task when you consider the original has been cherished by consumers for more than a century."
Australians and New Zealanders will be among the first in the world to sample the new beverage, and consequently among the first to determine whether the new product lives up to the “classic taste” hype.
The only other country to have tried it en masse so far has been Mexico, a country whose residents are the largest consumers of Coca-Cola in the world.
The drink remains popular in the developing world, but the sugar-free juggernaut in the west has made a huge dent in sales of the original beverage worldwide. Global sales have been on a downward trajectory for more than a decade.
- A version of this story originally appeared on
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