Gone, but Not Too Soon

Coca-Cola doesn’t often change its line up of flavors. Yes, they have a ton of varying options (depending on where you live, there might be upwards of 40 regional flavors available to you), but on a national level you probably only expect a few solid flavors to be available: Coke, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and then the Diet and Zero versions of such. Every once in a while, though, the makers at Coke try something new, some national flavor that they expect everyone will want to drink and love and keep with them all through the nights or days or whatever. The last big flavor to come out was Vanilla, which was sometimes joined by Cherry for Cherry Vanilla, but we haven’t seen a major rollout of a permanent flavor of Coke since. Not until now.

Spiced Coke was supposed to be that next big flavor. A blend of Raspberry and Spice flavors added to the default Coke blend for something new and exciting, or so we were led to believe. Coca-Cola really expected this to be the next big thing (which leads me to think they did a whole ton of product testing that came up all aces for them), and they rolled it out with much applause. Now, six months later, they’re already discontinuing the soda, claiming poor sales for the new flavor. Spiced Coke will soon be no more, and because of that, I bought a mini-can 10 pack to finally try it out.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really want to drink this soda, but it wasn’t because of the raspberry flavor. From experience, raspberry flavor in Coke can be really good. I discovered that back when I worked at a steakhouse years and years ago. I’d hit up the bartender and have them pour a little raspberry puree (which they kept around for some mixed drinks) into my soda and, oh yeah, it was really good. Years later, when I saw that the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines had raspberry as an option, I was getting that all the time. At least until recently when (in the stores around me) they swapped raspberry out for tropical flavor (which, in all respects, is inferior). I assume this was to eventually bring in Spice as a new flavor in the machines, but whatever the case, the lack of raspberry was sad.

What I didn’t want was specifically what was in the name: spice. Spice to me implies cinnamon and/or nutmeg, flavors that are traditionally found in fruity pies and the like. I don’t particularly like cinnamon flavors so I avoided what might have been a soda I’d pick up once in a while. “Spiced”, to me, implies spicing, a heavy emphasis on the spice flavor. Even though the cans and bottles clearly say it’s a raspberry spiced soda, “Spiced” is right there, up front and center, so you expect that to be the dominant flavor. It’s not, and that name really doesn’t help the soda at all.

What Spiced Coke actually tastes like is raspberry on coke, with maybe just a hint of spice. I’ve had three cans so far, two over ice and one straight, just to get the full experience for it, and in reality this barely tastes like Coke at all. It’s very fruit forward, tasting much more like a raspberry soda than a Coke. if it was dyed red and called, say, “Fanta Raspberry”, I wouldn’t doubt it for a second. The Coke flavor is very subdued, very much a second fiddle to the raspberry, which might be off-putting to some people.

Cherry Coke, by contrast, is a solid blend of flavors between Coke and cherry. You get the fruity punch, yes, but it doesn’t cover up that identifiable cola tang. Spiced Coke, though, is very raspberry in its flavor, and that covers up the cola. Coke has a distinct taste, even in comparison to other colas (some have more bite, some have a touch of mint, but nothing tastes quite like a Coke), and when you cover it up you ruin that specific tang. The raspberry in Spiced Coke is too heavy, too forward, and it ruins that experience.

But what I don’t really taste in the soda is spice. The first time I sipped it I got the raspberry, then a bit of the tang, and at the very back end of the flavor, in the aftertaste, just a little bit of spice. That went away very quickly, though, and further drinking on the soda hid the spice entirely. Now on that third can, I don’t taste the spice at all. That’s the main descriptor of the soda, the “Spiced”, but it’s also the least interesting, and least noticeable, flavor at all. It fades away and is gone as soon as you get into it, lost in everything else.

I think the “Spiced” name probably kept a lot of people away. They would expect something spicy (and Coke does have a Spicy variant flavor, mind you) or something far more cinnamon forward. If they did, and they didn’t like those flavors, then they’d avoid the soda. If they knew it was going to be a fruity soda with spicing added, they might have had something specific they expected from the flavor, which also isn’t here. What I doubt anyone was looking for from this soda was just a pretty generic raspberry cola. And, remember, that’s what it actually is.

Calling it Spiced Coke really did a disservice to the cola. It might have been better if they had just called it Raspberry Coke, put a little berry on the label, and not mentioned the spice. People would at least know what flavor they were going for, and any hint of cinnamon they got they’d likely chalk up to Coke’s tanginess. I mean, how many people really know the exact list of flavors that go into a can of Coke? I don’t. If they’d called it Raspberry Coke I wouldn’t have questioned it for a second. But Spiced Coke? No, that’s not this flavor at all.

Somewhere between development and marketing someone really dropped the ball. Because of that I’d bet a lot of people avoided this soda, and those that were interested in it didn’t get what was on the label. This should have had a different name and been allowed to sink or swim fairly. Instead, six months after they pitched it, Coca-Cola is rolling back their “next big flavor” after it failed to connect with anyone. Someone, somewhere, has got to be wondering just how they fucked up this hard when, in reality, one simple change in the name might have done wonders.

But Coca-Cola. Really. Just bring back raspberry flavor in your Freestyle machines. I really liked that taste and I miss it. I don’t need spiced in my coke, but I crave that raspberry taste. Do me a solid, would ya?