2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-06-06 02:02
You are Mr. Coca Cola and you have a problem: the world is increasingly skeptical of yours carbonated drinks because they are high in calories, and because you have always sweetened them with artificial sweeteners.
Well, even bad, given that the planetary mistrust has translated into steadily declining sales and revenues in recent years.
How does it come out? What can a Mr. Coke like you do?
He can invent himself Coca Cola Life, a drink green ”Less caloric and sweetened with a natural sweetener such as stevia. Provided that a Coca Cola invaded by the liquorice aftertaste typical of stevia likes it all the same.
To find out, we improvised a Tasting Test, immediately comparing the new Coca Cola Life, also available in Italy yesterday, with its red sister.
In the meantime, expect a hype worthy of the best years: TV, radio, billboards, the bulky presence on social media, supermarket shelves overflowing with bottles, perhaps a pop-up shop, perhaps baptized by the beautiful Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as a success. in London.
Moreover, the customs clearance of stevia by the health authorities (for Europe by EFSA in 1991) has eliminated doubts about the risks to human health, with important repercussions on the food industry that uses it in an increasing number of products..
To recap: stevia is the plant from whose leaves an extract with a sweetening power equal to 300 times that of white sugar is obtained, with a lower caloric intake.
As we said, in nature it has a decided aftertaste of licorice, and if consumed in quantity some laxative effect. It is therefore used in food preparations but obviously not in the same quantities as sugar.
Coca Cola LIFE - 36% fewer calories - with stevia extract
Ingredients: water, sugar, carbon dioxide, color E150d, natural flavors (including caffeine), acidifier phosphoric acid, sweetener steviol glycosides
Produced with the authorization of The Coca Cola Company, Nogara (VR) plant
Nutritional information per 100ml: energy value 113kJ / 27kcal, carbohydrates 6.7g, of which sugars 6.7g
CLASSIC Coca Cola
Ingredients: water, sugar, carbon dioxide, color E150d, phosphoric acid acidifier, natural flavors (including caffeine)
Produced with the authorization of The Coca Cola Company, Nogara (VR) plant
Nutritional information per 100ml: energy value 180kJ / 42kcal, carbohydrates 10, 6g, of which sugars 10, 6g
Judgment: at first glance, the taste of Coca Cola Life resembles the traditional version, although the sweetness is now less bold thanks to the use of stevia. Which emerges in the finish leaving a sensory memory on the palate different from the classic sucrose. If you have tasted the low-calorie versions of Coca Cola you can get an idea.
The traditional version, the one coated with the sinful red to be clear, has a more pleasant taste, but it was taken for granted: with all that sugar!
In any case, the Coca Cola Life recipe is practically the same as the classic one, from which it differs in the inclusion of stevia and in the exchange of the position of the aromas in the list of ingredients. When poured into the glass, however, it froths more.
Digestion: it remains a carbonated drink, let's say it does not make you regret the digestive power of the red sister.
Packaging: Beautiful, glamorous, green in the cap and in the refined livery with silver-colored characters.
Price: 0, 83 € - 500ml
Vote: 6 +
Conclusions: the taste test has passed, the object is beautiful, the sugar consciousness does not sting but it must be clear that with 270 calories per liter we are not talking about a low calorie drink.
Would you buy it back?
Yup.