I still encounter restaurants, fast food chains, and food and beverage companies who have never heard of Splenda, the only good-tasting artificial sweetener available in the US.

At McDonalds, the lady at the drive thru window confessed that many of her customers are asking for Splenda, but the company won't buy any.

And Coca-Cola has actually come out with a new diet soda that is sweetened with (drum roll) aspartame! Fortunately Pepsi products mostly have switched over.

"new"

I think what Coke did was stupid... they put splenda into the Diet Coke.... and then named the old Diet Coke "Coke Zero" just so they can call it a new product. Gotta love it.... didn't they learn the last time, when they formulated Coke II?

Am I the only the who misses Crystal Pepsi?

Maybe McDonald's won't buy it because they are concerned about liability - there's a large amount of info coming out that Splenda isn't as safe the the producer would like people to think. Do a google search on "side effects of Splenda" and you'll see what I mean. There's another FT thread right now on Splenda intolerance in the Women Travelers forum.

One scientist writing about Splenda described it as being closer to DDT than sugar in structure. Something to think about.

Actually, "old" Diet Coke is still as it was. They just have a version that has Splenda as one of the sweeteners. The colors on the can include yellow (I assume to equate to the yellow packets.) Coke Zero is sweetened mostly (or all, I do not recall which) with acesulfame potassium. My take on it is that it is essentially Coke Light available outside the US (drinkable, but not great). DC with Splenda is also nothing great. ILuvParis started a thread a month or so ago about this. His take (and I agree) is that while both Diet Coke and Splenda are good, Diet Coke with Splenda is not. It all is a matter of individual tastes. I still prefer basic Diet Coke with apartame over any of the other variations. But I will take any DC variation before any Diet Pepsi version.

Hey, can the side effects of Splenda be worse than the cancer caused by saccharine? Just kidding. I like to bring that up for a laugh.

Splenda is definitely making inroads. I used never to see it in Houston. Now it's all over the place. And it's the only thing you can get out in California.

I think the Splenda may cost more to buy so companies stick with Nutrasweet. That may change as the pricing equalizes.

There was a whole thread on the new Cokes in OMNI.

Coke Zero has a higher content of Nutrasweet/Aspartame and the addition of another sweetener, acesulfame potassium or ace-k.

Diet Coke with Splenda is nasty. I don't know how they ruined it. Splenda replacing Nutrasweet in most sodas has been an improvement. Coke Zero and Diet Coke taste better.

I prefer Diet Rite, splenda, ace-k and no caffeine.

I actually prefer DC w/Splenda to the regular stuff. Coke Zero is also okay, though it tends to be too sweet (IMO) if it gets warm.

Mike

Not a Coke product, but Diet 7-Up really improved since moving to Splenda from Aspartame. It's actually drinkeable now.

Right now they have:
DC = Diet Coke
DC-S= Diet Coke-w/Splenda
CZ= Coke Zero
DC-L = Diet Coke with Lime

I actually really love regular DC
I thought for a while that Splenda-DC would be great but I think it actually misses some of the tartness of the artificial flavoring.

That Coke Zero tastes way too sweet.

I really do like the regular DC, and DC/Lime. The DC-lemon tasted like toilet cleanser.

Splenda = Sugar that has been chemically modified. Infact it is virtually the same as sugar execpt one molecule hs bee inversed. It therefore tastes like sugar, but doesnt get take intot he body the same way. Splenda has been on the market for years, just not with a commerical name. It's totally safe...


Coke Zero is made with aspartame AND acesulfame potassium -it's meant to me marketed to youth - the taste of Regular Coca Cola without the calories...

Diet Coke w/ Splenda = marketing to people who won't drink diet coka because of the artifical taste...

I love all Coca Cola Company products (Coca Cola purist here...) I even drink Tab on ocassion....

-Vincent

100% agree. The lime version came out good and the lemon came out like crap. Did they even test out the formula on any focus groups?

And that one is a mixture of saccharine and aspartame now. Used to be all saccharine. Its definitely harder to find Tab now--its up to Coca-Cola's independent bottlers to decide whether to produce it or not.

Is it me or what?

All of the artificial sweeteners taste nasty.

But, real sugar in my coffee is perfect.

They did not rebrand anything...

They are diversifying the "Diet Coke" brand ....

Diet Coke, Diet Coke w/ Lemon, Diet Coke w/ Lime, Diet Coke w/ Vanila, Diet Coke w/ Spenda

As I mentioned in a different post Coke Zero is a different sweetening...

Coca Cola needs to get some new managment, people who know what it means to be "The Coca Cola Company" President Woodruff were people who built the company and knew what it meant...

-Vincent

I grew up in a household with a diabetic, so sugar was foreign to me. I have since weaned myself from the pink stuff and am enjoying Splenda very much, but sugar still tastes bad to me!

Actually, as far as coffee goes, I'm trying to reduce and hopefully eventually eliminate creamer and sweetner. This is hard indeed!