Actually I am willing to bet that if C2 has *any* sucess at all that we will be flooded with half-calorie versions of most sodas. Recent years and the new focus on lowering carb intake has driven sweetener R&D through the roof.

I'm quite worried about that. I mean how would we know that it isn't just the same coke in a different can. Corporate peeps can do what they like, or can they? i have no idea but the whole thing is strange. Thanks for letting me know about the coke though, I'll definately try some.

-Scarlett x

Does it still have aspertame or other sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, etc.?

I have just seen my first web-ad for "Pepsi Edge" -- http://www.pepsiedge.com/home.php

Coming soon - 8 oz, 50 calories, 13g carbs, 13g sugar, 25 mg sodium. -- Now, let's multiply by 50% for a fair analysis against C2. 12 oz - 75 calories, 19.5g carbs, 19.5g sugar, 37.5 mg sodium. Hmmm... Only wins out in the sodium arena.

Not much at the website for the nonce.

Kayles, the following is a list of the ingredients as listed on the can (and yes, there are some odd sweeteners)...

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sucrose, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, potassium benzoate (to protect taste), potasium citrate, caffeine, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose.

Pepsi Edge is listed as having sucralose as well. This must be the magic ingredient.

Sucralose - http://www.ific.org/publications/brochures/sucralosebroch.cfm
"Everything You Need to Know About Sucralose"

From the article...

"Sucralose is the only low-calorie sweetener made from sugar. It is about 600 times sweeter than sugar and can be used like sugar in a broad range of foods. Sucralose can be used in place of sugar to eliminate or reduce calories in a wide variety of products, including beverages, baked goods, desserts, dairy products, canned fruits, syrups and condiments."

Sucralose = Splenda.  Well, Splenda is Dextrose, Maltodextrin and sucralose.

C2 ISN'T exactly the same as regular coke in taste. There is a bit of that diety after taste. Just not nearly as much. Drinking one right now actually. It's "good enough" that the gut reducing aspects overcome the slight decline in taste.

Draginol, I really felt as though the taste difference was very tiny, it at all, although I didn't drink them side by side. I'll take a blind taste test tomorrow and let you know if I can tell a difference. Normally, for the "gut reducing" ( *grin* ) aspects, I've switched over to diet pepsi, caffeine free. The caffeine is bad for the blood pressure and the lower sodium helps there too. However, being ADHD means that the caffeine doesn't do much as a stimulant for me. However, it's just so darn easy to get a soft drink or coffee instead of water.

http://www.beverageworld.com/beverageworld/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000535399

Food and beverage makers should deal with the world's growing obesity problem by offering more choices in products and better information for consumers, while also fighting those who characterize certain foods as "good or bad," Coca-Cola's new chairman and chief executive said Thursday.

Welll..... kinda

Sucralose is very cool.

High fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and sucralose??? I wish they would just cut the high fructose corn syrup and go to plain fructose corn syrup... oh wait that'd be too expensive. Actually I don't know the history of Coca-Cola, did they always use high fructose corn syrup?

High fructose corn syrup is why Gator-Ade is better than Power-Ade. Gator-Ade doesn't have it. You even find high fructose corn syrup in Ocean Spray juice these days. Why? It's cheaper than 100% fruit juice; just don't mention the added insulin effect high fructose corn syrup has. I think Juicy-Juice is the only big name fruit juice that's still 100% (not counting orange juice).

Mix in aspartame and sucralose? There's some people on the net that'll tell you all three is a recipe for disaster. Google the dangers of aspartame, dangers of sucralose (Splenda), and the dangers of high fructose corn syrup.

The only reason aspartame is still in there is probably due to the contract the aspartame people have with Coca-Cola. Go try Diet Rite or Waist Watchers (Diet Adirondack) and see how they taste. They're sweetened with just Splenda (the sweetener of choice these days).

Even after drinking Diet Rite (and I prefer it) I went back to caffeine diet Coke. It's cheaper. More two 12 packs for $5 sales.

"So, why is Coke still feeding us the inferior "straight" Coke?"

Because the product matters more to some consumers than the "goodness" or "badness" of the contents of the product. Coke found this out when they tried to improve the taste of Coke to make it better compete with the "Pepsi challenge". Even though consumers generally preferred the new Coke over the old in blind taste tests, they created a great backlash against the new formula when Coke tried to market it.

>>when they tried to improve the taste

Emoticon Man, see, there's the problem. They tried to improve the taste. In C2 they haven't messed with the taste (as far as my palate can tell). I wouldn't have had a problem if they had merely changed the taste. It would have been a new product and might have failed or might not have.

My beef is this. They are (essentially) giving us the same Coke with reduced calories, carbs, and sodium. My big question is why haven't they done this before? And also have they gone far enough? i.e., can they give us the same product with 35 calories? Further, can Pepsi accomplish the same task (it appears they are working on it)?

The new product implies that Coke hasn't had the health of the consumers in mind. This is a big problem and should have been addressed by Coca-Cola years ago.

"So, why is Coke still feeding us the inferior "straight" Coke?"

I hope it's because some of us are alergic to aspartame, and don't want tumors caused by artificial sweetners!

I tried it, and I didn't care for it too much....aspartame and I don't *do* well together.  Draginol's right, there is a bit of the diety aftertaste...enough to put me off of it.  Having said that...if it were a choice between diet soda and water, I'd take water.  If it were a choice between C2 and water, I'd take C2.  (I really don't like water much, btw)