It’s here! It’s finally here! No, it’s not a new Kendrick Lamar album. It’s not the ZPM Espresso machine you backed on Kickstarter all those years ago. It’s Coca-Cola With Coffee, and it’s finally made its way to America.
We first learned of Coca-Cola With Coffee back in July of 2018. (Remember those days? We all thought we were in Hell, and we were, but only like, the 6th circle, which is not too shabby in hindsight.) As we reported in the Good Ole Bad Days, Coke With Coffee isn’t an entirely new product; it had already been released in Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. But with growing concerns over sugar consumption and a host of US cities implementing a “sugar tax,” the Atlanta-based soft drink maker was looking to bring an alternative beverage to the US market.
Enter Coke With Coffee. Per the Washington Post, the new drink line will debut this week across the country. Coke With Coffee will debut with three flavors: dark blend, vanilla, and caramel—technically five if you include Coke Zero versions of the dark blend and vanilla as distinct flavors. Each 12-ounce can of Coke With Coffee will contain 69mg of caffeine, over double that of a regular Coke, but almost half the caffeine content of an equally-sized cup of coffee.
So how does the new offering that “Sips like a Coke, finishes like a coffee,” per the slogan taste? Per WaPo:
Upon tasting a sample, I’m inclined to vouch for the slogan. For the first millisecond or so after raising the dark blend can to your lips, you’d think you were drinking a regular soda, with its recognizable caramel notes and almost-stinging effervescence hitting your palate. The taste of coffee kicks in at the back end, offering a dry, powdery jolt that brings to mind a bracing cup of joe at a diner… “It tastes like a Coke—until it doesn’t.”
I gotta be honest, of all the many ways brands have tried to ride coffee’s wave of popularity with some buzzy tie-in, this is the one I’m most likely to actually try, save for the Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, which I maintain deserves to be considered amongst the coffee pantheon. You can miss me with the Cold Brew Jager, the n/a Bailey’s coffee cans, and the weird Pabst coffee Yoohoo beer. But Coca-Cola With Coffee, I’m in. Used as a mixer, it may be the only way the Jameson Cold Brew is drinkable.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
