06 August, 2012

Review: Polar Diet Cola

I enjoy soft drinks, but I don't enjoy the hundreds of empty calories in sugar-sweetened beverages. And because I also like the taste of cola, I'm always trying sugarless colas to find something I like.

Now, I want to be totally upfront with you all and say this right away: I hate Diet Coke. I know that it is probably the most popular diet cola on the market, and I accept that plenty of you out there have made it your diet soft drink of choice. But accepting that and understanding it are two very different things. To me, Diet Coke tastes thin, weak, and acidic - and nothing at all like a sugarless version of Coca-Cola.  I was so happy when Coke Zero came out, because it actually tastes like Coca-Cola. Coke Zero is what I think a "diet Coke" should be.

Anyway, because I won't drink sucky Diet Coke, my two favorite diet colas have been Polar Diet Cola and Coke Zero, in that order. Yes - I have always loved Polar Diet Colal, and even Zero could not knock it out of its first place standing. 

Imagine my horror, then, to find that apparently Polar has changed the formula for Polar Diet Cola!

In the past week, I've had twelve cans of Polar Diet Cola, and every single one of them has tasted like a copy of Diet Coke: thin, watery-weak, and acidic, with very little cola flavor. Hence this review.

If you are looking for a less-expensive alternative to Diet Coke, try a can of Polar Diet Cola. I think you'll be amazed by the flavor profile similarity.

If you hate Diet Coke and want something that tastes like cola...I think you might have to scratch Polar Diet Cola off your list. Too bad.

5 comments:

Alan said...

The problem here, as I see it, is you should be drinking Polar Birch Beer soda. Now that's a New England staple.

Dave said...

I used to drink Pepsi One - when it was first introduced - because it tasted so much like "Real" Coca Cola (the one with sugar not HFCS). But, it was hard to find and I couldn't get the Burpsie-Cola route guy to leave any where I worked. Then Pepsi began promoting it and changed the formula to something that is so cloyingly sweet as to gag a maggot out of a milkshake. So, I was at a loss - Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi pretty much suck the bitter carrot. Diet-Rite and Tab - yukko.

Then came Coke Zero - and I've never looked back. I can't get Polar drinks in the Great American Outback - so, I'm safe from that.

grey74 said...

Another Coke zero fan. Yay! Why it hasn't been more widely adopted I don't understand. You go to restaurants and you can never find it. Diet coke even at the stores still takes up most of the shelf space. Often times the shelf is empty and I have to ask for them to bring it from the back. I guess millions of people like that sucky diet coke. I was a huge classic coke drinker, but like you decided at one point to switch to diet. I never could stand the diet coke. About the only diet soda I could drink was diet mt dew. Now with the full line of zero soda's I'm in heaven. Pibb zero, sprite zero, and mellow yellow zero are all great alternatives to the real thing

Dave said...

Grey - the Hardee's fats food chain does Coke Zero from their post-mix dispensers. No Diet Coke there at all. And all the Auto Zones in the Great American Outback (my employer, shameless plug) have Zero in their soda boxes.

Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste like the real thing, too. Bv)=

But, the BEST diet root beer is A&W

Ace Hamilton said...

I couldn't agree more about Diet Coke. Normally when something I abhor is that popular, I just chalk it up to different tastes, but I am convinced the only explanation for Diet Coke is mass hypnotism.