Random late night question: Was the New Coca-Cola in 1985 really all that bad?

[bluestateguy]

I'm bored.

I remember the Coke controversy in 1985. I was 9 years old. I remember how hysterical many Americans became over the pending loss of the old Coke formula. But I also remember as a boy tasting the New Coke formula and thinking that it did not taste that bad.

Why were people so up in arms over the whole thing? Was the New Coke really all that bad? I seem to remember that the New Coke was just fine with me (though the old Coke was also just fine with me too).

[Heidi]

1. I don't think it was horrible, but I'm a Coke person

and other colas don't taste good to me. :shrug:

[allalone]

2. I thought it didn't have much body

sort of a non-thing.

[Qanisqineq]

3. I was about 12 at the time

I thought it was horrible. It seems to me, I thought it tasted like Pepsi. I could be remembering wrong though. I'm a Coke person.

I remember all the Pepsi-Coke taste tests at the time, too. The Coke was always warm and flat. Must've been run by Pepsi.

[hfojvt]

5. The "Doctor's book of home remedies"

recommends Coke, warm and flat, for an upset stomach. Coke has also been used to treat people with seasickness. And yes, Pepsi was doing the taste-tests.

[Left Is Write]

44. Pepsi is much better than New Coke was.

[hfojvt]

4. new coke tasted more like Pepsi

Coke drinkers wanted their old Coke back. I was surprised, however, that new coke did not survive too and capture part of the market. It did not taste any worse than pepsi, but I am not even sure THAT is possible.


Which is a funny thing for me to write. In 1979 I was a Pepsi drinker who hated Coke. Truthfully, I still think Coke is pretty bad if there is no pizza to go with it. Pepsi and pizza, otoh, is kinda like getting dysentery. I got converted to Coke products because the dorm that I lived in for five years served Fanta drinks in their cafeteria. Fanta being Coke-affiliated, I drank alot of Fanta orange and rootbeer and got used to the harsher carbonation of Coke.

[Vidar]

6. Not horrible but too syrupy.

[sanguinivorous]

7. Just different enough to be off-putting...

Some people take a bit of comfort in the familiarity of various little things.

[DarkTirade]

8. I don't really remember it, I was too young.

But I do remember how much I loved clear pepsi. And I've never been a big soda drinker. :)

[Skittles]

9. no

as I remember it, the outrage was more over the idea that it would replace the classic Coke

[conscious evolution]

10. it was a disinformation campaign

The whole new/old coke thing was created to hide the switch from cane sugar to high fructose corn syrup.

[Sock Puppet]

16. yep

x(

[jobycom]

20. That's a myth

High Fructose Corn Syrup had been used for years before the split in many markets (the bottlers were allowed to make the choice), and nobody even realized the difference.

It's clear from the actions of Coca Cola recorded in their board meetings and PR efforts that they meant this change to be permanent.

The company had hired a new CEO, and he was all hair-on-fire to make major changes to reclaim the eroding market. The corporation got involved in other businesses, rather than just soda, and introduced Diet Coke--the company had refused previously to use the Coke name on any other product. Diet Pepsi was formulated to be sweeter, like Pepsi, and its sales skyrocketed. So the new CEO became convinced that Americans just liked sweeter better, and that the hundred year old formula was outdated. Remember, this was when the top marketing buzz phrase was "new and improved."

All the pre-marketing taste tests indicated that people would like New Coke better, but they also raised questions. After the test, people would be asked if they'd drink the new product instead of the old, and many people who had chosen the new product still said "no." This is exactly what happened after the switch. It became trendy to refuse to drink the new Coke, even amongst people who prefered the new taste. Especially in the South, where the change took on a regional pride aspect, and southerners would buy up cases to dump in the streets.

A lot of that reaction, ironically, was because of Pepsi's marketing. Pepsi ran taste tests comparing Coke to Pepsi, and concluded that Pepsi was the "choice of a new generation." That drew lines between Coke and Pepsi drinkers, so when Coke became more like Pepsi, Coke drinkers felt betrayed.

It wasn't a marketing ploy or reverse psychology. It was the result of a CEO wanting to make a name by shaking things up, and not understanding the fierce product loyalty people had. All the internal Coca Cola memoes and discussions show how serious this change was. They expected it to succeed.

After they switched back, a lot of people speculated that it had been a marketing ploy, but the evidence says otherwise.

I did a report on this once, long ago. :)

[ashling]

11. It was disgusting ! ! !

a pepsi wanna'be, but worse. I always disliked pepsi and could always tell the difference in those taste tests. I can identify it just by the smell.

New Coke was their attempt to take on pepsi. I went out and bought up all the old coke I could afford (which was not a lot in 1985 . . . the more things change, the more they stay the same:) )

But let me reiterate: New Coke was disgusting! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

[Sequoia]

35. I have to agree...it was bland and flat!

That's why it's now called Coca-Cola Classic. Even when it came back it didn't taste the way it was before.

[Generic Brad]

47. You've got that right

Coke was like an elixir to me. I used to live on the stuff. Coke Classic has never tasted like the original to me. The bite is missing.

[Sequoia]

49. You know what I miss.....?

When I was a kid drinking it fast out of glass bottles how it would sting my nose and make my eyes watery. Weird.

[Deep13]

12. No worse than any other cola. nt

[Felix Mala]

13. It wasn't bad. It just tasted like Pepsi....

[libnnc]

14. I thought it tasted kinda flat

too sweet as well.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Nah, not that bad. The whole thing was a marketing...

campaign that backfired. They wanted something new to kick ass in the cola wars.

I have no idea why everyone got so fired up about it-- the old Coke wasn't really all that hot either.

[jobycom]

17. Nah, it was just a spiritual thing.

People were either Coke or Pepsi drinkers, and New Coke tasted like Pepsi. There were revolts in the South especially, where Coke was seen as part of its positive heritage. The whole thing was a PR nightmare, and Coke had to back down.

[Robb]

18. ...

http://www.zippyvideos.com/3298308606633746/snl_gravy/

[Aristus]

19. I agree that it wasn't too bad, but it was very similar to Pepsi, and if I wanted Pepsi

to drink, I'd buy that. The reason I hated the New Coke campaign was because Coca-Cola came right out and announced that old Coke and New Coke would NOT be marketed side-by-side; that old Coke would be discontinued. I remember even then thinking what arrogance on their part; to completely ignore the wishes of their market. "This is what we're gonna do, and who cares what you think"?

The grass-roots effort to get New Coke canned (sorry :silly: ) and replaced with Classic Coke was one of the last times that consumers would stand up to a corporation on a national basis and win. We've become too complacent now.

I also remember Bill Cosby having to go out there like Colin Powell and smilingly announce that he liked New Coke better. What horseshit. He wanted to protect his lucrative sponsorship rather than tell the truth. The man has sadly gone downhill...

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Summed it up nicely. The problem was that they intended to get rid of the real Coke

and all of my Coke drinking friends thought New Coke tasted too much like Pepsi too.

[DS1]

21. They'd taken the bite out of coke. Like a lot of people have said, it was more pepsi than coke

sweeter, but too smooth. The bite is why you hear someone ordering a 'jack and coke' or 'captains and coke' and not pepsi.

[DeepBlueC]

36. that's it...the bite

I love that first hit of the astringent bite and bubbles that sear the throat, kind of a cleansing feel, before the sweetness. Apparently that slight bitterness came from the cocaine that was an original ingredient and which they went to a lot of effort
to mask. Now it is part of Coke's distinctive character and one which I missed immediately when I tasted the New Coke. I really was disposed to find an improvement of some kind and I was just shocked by its insipidness. I couldn't believe that they had eliminated what I particularly enjoyed about Coke.

I read years ago in The Cola Wars that Coke is still the world's biggest purchaser of denatured coca leaves.

[NaturalHigh]

22. I kind of liked it.

[trackfan]

23. It didn't taste bad per se - just another cola.

It was totally unnecessary though. It was a bonehead business move more than anything. Maybe Kleenex deciding to rename itself the National Tissue Company would be something comparably dumb.

[Maine-ah]

24. yes.

[skygazer]

26. Yes

[Dukkha]

27. I did the Coca Cola factory tour in Atlanta

a mini museum and sample room from coke products around the world (South Africa ginseng coke! :puke:) a lot of their history shown in great detail and yet not ONE mention of the "new Coke" era, like it never happened. I bet if you ask about it the Coke security bags you and tosses you out.

[ElboRuum]

28. Yes it was...

But only in the sense that it now tasted like Pepsi. Now, as a fan of Coca-Cola, with its slightly less sugary and more "herbal" taste, what New Coke represented was a complete removal of choice in the marketplace (since old formula Coca-Cola was effectively and temporarily "retired").

Pepsi, at least to my palette, is typical baby-candy sugar water. Because of Coca-Cola's more complex flavor, it's the only soda I even consider drinking as an adult.

[cemaphonic]

29. You can still get it, more or less

The Coke they sell most places in Europe is pretty close to the New Coke formulation.

The whole affair temporarily crashed the economy of Madagascar, since they switched from natural vanilla to synthetic.

[China_cat]

30. Worse.

[XNASA]

31. They pulled a switcheroo right?

It's my understanding that Coke had planned to switch from sugar to corn syrup but didn't want the public to notice. So they put out some kinda phony 'new Coke', knew it would more or less flop, and then they said they were going back to the old formula, started substituting corn syrup for sugar.

Anyone who's ever had a Mexican Coke, one with real sugar in it, would understand the cover up. They're delicious.

[redqueen]

32. It was horrible, as I recall.

I remember thinking it was absolutely crazy to put that stuff out and expect Coke drinkers to think it was acceptable.

[DeepBlueC]

33. It truly sucked ...

No character at all. One of the things I like about Coke is is the slight sting of bitterness, a bit of astringency, that hits with the first bubbles before it disappears into the sweetness. On a parched throat that always feels particularly soothing to me. The bubbles, the bite ....aaah, it's the real thing!

[Kali]

34. No. It tasted like pepsi and consequently like all other colas except the real thing - Coke.

[D-Sooner]

37. I was 5, but

I seem to remember it being sweeter than regular Coke. I don't remember it being bad, really.

[Lethe]

38. Eh, it was ok, but then again I was 6 at the time and I would drink any soda

you put in front of me. I rarely drink soda's now at all...maybe once per 6 months. Maybe a pepsi at TAco Bell because for some reason TB tastes so good with Pepsi. I like classic Coke better than New coke or Pepsi though.

edit: the best CocaCola Classic I ever had was when I lived near Dallas. For some reason the coke there we bought tasted fantastic.

[begin_within]

39. I didn't like the "New Coke."

I thought it tasted like a watered down, less-flavorful "Coke" which seemed to lack the lime oil and vanilla of regular Coke. It was more like Pepsi, but not as good as Pepsi. I don't drink either Coke or Pepsi any more, because I'm trying to avoid both sugar and HFCS, and I can't drink aspartame - it gives me headaches.

[swag]

40. It was fucking awful, and they tried to strand us with it.

I wept with joy when "Coke Classic" appeared.

Now I don't drink soft drinks, but that was a traumatic period.

[DeepBlueC]

45. My experience exactly

I was old enough to buy a Coke anytime I wanted one (I had wanted many, many more than I got as a kid)and the bastards just disappeared it! It was traumatic for me too. No soft drinks for me anymore, but I like to know that I could have a real Coke if I wanted one.

[TK421]

41. Being a Pepsi drinker who would go to Coke in a pinch...I didn't notice anything

spectacular. Coke always seemed to be way too carbonated and tasted like maple syrup to me. The new Coke also tasted like maple syrup, but not too different. There was soda abound at my house growing up, so it was either Pepsi, Coke, or R.C Cola ( which I also liked ).

[pokerfan]

42. The wiki article has 33 references on the subject

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke

[Left Is Write]

43. It wasn't especially good, but the big flap was that it wasn't COKE.

People wanted their regular Coke back, and Coca-Cola learned that age-old lesson: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[The Traveler]

46. Two words.

It. Sucked.

:)

[dpbrown]

48. It was corn syrup instead of sugar... and it still is.

That's the laugh that Coke has had on all of us.