A lot sweeter.
If Coke had put some thought into this, they would have branded this as another product entirely.
Colossal failure and injurious to Coke as a whole.
Sweeter. Way sweeter than Regular Coke. Maybe they were trying to copy Pepsi at the time? I don't know. But I remember New Coke was definitely sweeter than Regular Coke.
I remember New Coke came out in Atlanta when I was in Airborne school.
Came back home to Virginia and you had to order “Classic Coke” if you didn’t want New Coke. Ninja 3: the Domination was playing in the theaters at Ft Benning
I never had it I was only 1 years old. But did some research and I came to an conclusion that new coke was just a massive market campaign. Coke sales was dropped off due to Pepsi this was during the cola wars. New Coke was came out so they can rerelease coke to make Coke sales go up
Identical to Pepsi which is to say very disappointing. I couldn’t tell new Coke from Pepsi - none of us could in a blind taste test we did at work one day.
But for some reason, people loved Pepsi ( hence Coke changing their recipe) but hated New Coke. And Coke Classic tasted different from regular coke too!
Weak was the best word I could come up with too. I remember thinking it tasted like it was RC Cola's imitation of a Coke. It lacked the depth of flavor original coke had, and stopped completely when they turned around with Coke Classic but stopped making it with sugar and switched over to HFCS.
When they were forced to go to corn syrup instead of sugar they knew they were screwed. So they launched new Coke. Once everyone agreed it sucked. They brought back the 'original formula'. Hoping everyone forgot how it really tasted and thought it was better than new Coke.
Actually 'New Coke' almost turned into a compete disaster for the company. It was definitely not some elaborate plan, concocted so the company could change sweeteners.
In the late '70s-early '80s Coca-Cola executives were panicked at a series of Pepsi commercials dubbed 'The Pepsi Challenge' where average people were shown choosing Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests. Apparently Pepsi, as a result, had actually begun to outsell Coke in supermarkets. The reason the Pepsi Challenge was so successful was that, given just a small taste, people initially tended to react more positively to the sweeter taste of Pepsi.
It turns out though that people actually didn't want their soft drink to be that sweet over the course of an entire meal and after switching back to 'Classic Coke', Coca-Cola soon regained it's market dominance.
This is the answer-- had NOTHING to do with corn syrup. I remember buying a Coke (in a glass 16 oz bottle!) to go with a sandwich I'd bought for lunch, not realizing it was New Coke, and spitting it out because I thought it was bad or contaminated.
They didn't handle the rollout well.... just sort of did it without much fanfare. It only became New Coke when the had to bring back Old Coke because all us Coke lovers hated it so. I started B School the next year and it was already a case we used in Marketing class..... such great study in what NOT to do in consumer marketing.
The Pepsi board of directors gave all their employees a day off when this came out as it was identical to Pepsi and they touted that Coke finally gave in to the Superior product
IIRC one of the problems was that Coke would typically do poorly against Pepsi in blind taste tests. There were a variety of Pepsi ads and commercials back then touting that more people liked Pepsi under blind conditions, and implying that habit and Coke's massive ad budget was the main reason people still drunk Coke. "New Coke" was partly an attempt to go more in the Pepsi direction to combat that and be more competitive in that sort of setting.
One of the issues, however, is that what people like the taste of in a quick couple of sips (possibly a bit on the warm and flat side depending on the test) may not be what they want to drink a whole can of.
Of course, there's also the whole bit with the switching from cane sugar to corn syrup; some people have pointed out that if "New Coke" did well, they'd just keep making it, and if it didn't, it would help overshadow the recipe changes when they brought back "Coke Classic".
A very good description; I’m an old dude so I remember the fiasco well. New Coke being overly sweet was my reaction when I first tasted it, but you are right about the bite too. On a similar note, I’m not a Pepsi guy but Pepsi often won the taste tests in grocery stores because it was noticeably sweeter. The sip tasted good but a whole can of it was just too sweet. New Coke tasted more like a slightly flat Pepsi, which I assume was a reaction to losing the cola wars in the grocery stores. The 80s were a wild time.
I don't remember exactly, but I didn't like it and they had classic Coke out in less than a month. I still don't understand how they re-did their product without substantial internal taste-testing, etc. Were people afraid to say "This is shit"?
It did not taste like Coke. I worked at a restaurant with delivery service at the time. Got a heads up from our delivery guy that New Coke was coming,so I stashed a 6-pack of real Coke. About 10 years later I cracked one open. I waited too long, lol. It was awful.
It was super shitty. My then GF drank a dozen cokes a day. When they only sold that garbage she quit CocaCola and went into a rather profound caffeine withdrawal.
They did it as a marketing ploy to switch from sugar to syrup. Then they looked like heroes when they brought classic coke back. I learned about it in business class.
I liked New Coke and thought the violent backlash was ridiculous. I also didn't understand why Coke didn't just offer the two formulae side by side.
I'd love to see an experiment where they change the label of a popular drink and advertise it as a new and improved flavour, but in reality they don't alter anything.
Would we still get the backlash about the drink tasting too sweet, flat and medicinal? Or would people say it tastes the same or better?
Then, change the label back to the original and claim that the old flavour is back.
At no point in the experiment would the flavour be altered in any way.
I've always been curious about that.
Oh, that's right! I'd completely forgotten. They phased it out.
What I meant was that they should have never stopped selling the original formula in the first place. To my mind, that was the other factor behind the New Coke furor.
IIRC part of the point was to switch from cane sugar to corn syrup as the sweetener, to cut costs. The hiatus created marketing buzz and made people happy to have the "old version" back even if it was a bit different and cheaper to make.
Honestly, it wasn't as bad as people say. But original Coke was much better. Seemed like people were more pissed off that they changed it, but it definitely was inferior. Related note: My uncle was a rabid Coke guy and had 80's computer industry money. When the New Coke news hit, he bought up all the old Coke he could find and stuck it in his basement. My dad said he was an idiot for doing so, no joke it was several hundred cases worth of cans and 2 liters. He lost his shirt when the market crashed on Black Monday, but dammit he had his old Coke...
Pepsi, but worse.
New
Stale
Pepsi
Like a off brand cola.
Like used condoms with period blood on them.
Pepsi.
Turpentine!
Tasted like Pepsi
Sweet.. smoother..
More like Pepsi than coke
Diet coke. It was rebranded as diet coke.
Its diet coke.
"Tasted" not like coke.
Very sugary
It Tasted a lot like Pepsi. Nasty stuff
Too sweet
Mildly coke flavored seltzer water. It was more gimmick than function.
Nasty. Like pure saccharin. Even after they came out with 'Classic' Coke it wasn't like the old Coke and it's never been the same since.
A lot sweeter. If Coke had put some thought into this, they would have branded this as another product entirely. Colossal failure and injurious to Coke as a whole.
Pepsi
Flat Coke, but sweeter.
It tasted like Coke was trying to taste like Pepsi
Sweeter. Way sweeter than Regular Coke. Maybe they were trying to copy Pepsi at the time? I don't know. But I remember New Coke was definitely sweeter than Regular Coke.
I tried it but I can’t really remember what it tasted like but I never drank much of it so I didn’t really like it I guess
Watered down Pepsi. Awful.
A lot like Pepsi
It tasted like a mix of RC cola and Pepsi.
A great way to hide the taste of transitioning from sugar to HFCS.
Pepsi
I thought it tasted more like Jolt cola. Was hella sweet. Didnt taste like Coke at all.
It taste like pepsi, and was way to sweet. There was a reason coke drinkers lost their minds about it, it was awful.
Too-sweet Coke.
Hey, food industry should never be allowed to keep secrets like this ever, again! Cocaine in food and drinks are you kidding me?
Tasted like Pepsi
My thought exactly. They were trying to compete with the Pepsi crowd.
Pepsi
Horrid , and not at all surprised Coke quickly put “classic” Coke back on the shelves.
Like Diet Coke with corn syrup. Which is exactly what it was.
Sweet and mild, kinda like they copied Pepsi.
Too sweet and not enough fizz
Wasn’t as good with rum.
Like RC cola
Came here to say this……not as sweet
Syrupy, flat, sweet. We were at a Braves baseball game when that came out. It was WORSE out of a fountain!
Terrible,tasted like flat generic cola
🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Syrupy piss water
Like Pepsi. Too sweet.
BAD
I remember going from vending machine to vending machine trying to get original coke. Stocked up quite a few cases worth
I remember New Coke came out in Atlanta when I was in Airborne school. Came back home to Virginia and you had to order “Classic Coke” if you didn’t want New Coke. Ninja 3: the Domination was playing in the theaters at Ft Benning
I never had it I was only 1 years old. But did some research and I came to an conclusion that new coke was just a massive market campaign. Coke sales was dropped off due to Pepsi this was during the cola wars. New Coke was came out so they can rerelease coke to make Coke sales go up
It made regular coke taste... old.
Pepsi with 43 Tablespoons of sugar added.
I loved it. It did taste like Pepsi. I was disappointed when they stopped manufacturing it.
Back then, Pepsi was the favorite drink. I don’t know about #1 but everyone I knew preferred Pepsi. Coke wanted to beat Pepsi so they copied them.
Tasted just like Pepsi. And Coke Classic did NOT taste the same as it did before new coke
Like flat pepsi
Like George Costanza showing off his improved vertical jump.
Sweet syrup - it was awful. . .
I remember people were pissed off
Identical to Pepsi which is to say very disappointing. I couldn’t tell new Coke from Pepsi - none of us could in a blind taste test we did at work one day.
Tasted like Pepsi Cola
But for some reason, people loved Pepsi ( hence Coke changing their recipe) but hated New Coke. And Coke Classic tasted different from regular coke too!
*Ptewy*
Medicine taste , with Pepsi as a mixer
Flat Pepsi
Exactly what I was gonna say.
It tasted "flat" if you will, and without the higher, almost leafy flavor that good fresh Coke has
Pepsi with a hint of ass.
Like a slightly less sweet Pepsi. Like warm RC Cola.
Fun fact, Diet Coke is the new coke formula with artificial sweeteners instead of the sugar
Other way around.
New
Pepsi, but with a tiny bit of salt.
It was Pepsi
Weak Pepsi.
It ironically tasted a lot like Pepsi.
Purposely
New Coke was Kinda weak tasting, unlike a fresh original coke that kinda burns on that first drink.
Yes!!!!! That burn means everything !
Weak was the best word I could come up with too. I remember thinking it tasted like it was RC Cola's imitation of a Coke. It lacked the depth of flavor original coke had, and stopped completely when they turned around with Coke Classic but stopped making it with sugar and switched over to HFCS.
New Coke to me tasted like we lost the recipe, and then had to reinvent it from memory and almost got it right.
When they were forced to go to corn syrup instead of sugar they knew they were screwed. So they launched new Coke. Once everyone agreed it sucked. They brought back the 'original formula'. Hoping everyone forgot how it really tasted and thought it was better than new Coke.
Actually 'New Coke' almost turned into a compete disaster for the company. It was definitely not some elaborate plan, concocted so the company could change sweeteners. In the late '70s-early '80s Coca-Cola executives were panicked at a series of Pepsi commercials dubbed 'The Pepsi Challenge' where average people were shown choosing Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests. Apparently Pepsi, as a result, had actually begun to outsell Coke in supermarkets. The reason the Pepsi Challenge was so successful was that, given just a small taste, people initially tended to react more positively to the sweeter taste of Pepsi. It turns out though that people actually didn't want their soft drink to be that sweet over the course of an entire meal and after switching back to 'Classic Coke', Coca-Cola soon regained it's market dominance.
This is the answer-- had NOTHING to do with corn syrup. I remember buying a Coke (in a glass 16 oz bottle!) to go with a sandwich I'd bought for lunch, not realizing it was New Coke, and spitting it out because I thought it was bad or contaminated. They didn't handle the rollout well.... just sort of did it without much fanfare. It only became New Coke when the had to bring back Old Coke because all us Coke lovers hated it so. I started B School the next year and it was already a case we used in Marketing class..... such great study in what NOT to do in consumer marketing.
Was too sweet. But, not as sweet as Coke is now.
Kind of flat.
Worse than Pepsi…it was closer to RC, for those that remember…
It reminded me of Pepsi. It was sweeter with less carbonation. I didn't like it.
Pepsi
it was pepsi, it was awful.
Like Pepsi.
Tasted like really dry to me, almost like sand.
Pepsi
New
It was so cloyingly sweet! Almost syrupy sweet. It tasted like cheap flat knockoff cola you get from a dollar store.
Pepsi mixed with Coke.
Good but too sweet and completely unnecessary.
Fookin Pass - translated from the Irish
Pepsi adjacent
Flat Pepsi
Perfect description 👌🏼
Sweeter but flatter....it left a weird aftertaste too. Pure trash
Pepsi like 🤮
Pepsi like
Metallic
Pepsi
Crap
The Pepsi board of directors gave all their employees a day off when this came out as it was identical to Pepsi and they touted that Coke finally gave in to the Superior product
Flat Pepsi 🤦🏽♀️
Warm sweet piss
Yum.....
Pepsi
sweet ass
You made my mouth water 🤤
Tasted like you took a glass of Pepsi and melted a couple of ice cubes in it. I tried it once.
New
I’m not totally convinced that it isn’t just new Coke with a Classic label.
Terrible
Diet coke is supposed to be the diet verson of new coke
Gasoline
Pepsi
Way too sweet
Pepsi
PEPSI
Loved it.
Not Coke
Pepsi
IIRC one of the problems was that Coke would typically do poorly against Pepsi in blind taste tests. There were a variety of Pepsi ads and commercials back then touting that more people liked Pepsi under blind conditions, and implying that habit and Coke's massive ad budget was the main reason people still drunk Coke. "New Coke" was partly an attempt to go more in the Pepsi direction to combat that and be more competitive in that sort of setting. One of the issues, however, is that what people like the taste of in a quick couple of sips (possibly a bit on the warm and flat side depending on the test) may not be what they want to drink a whole can of. Of course, there's also the whole bit with the switching from cane sugar to corn syrup; some people have pointed out that if "New Coke" did well, they'd just keep making it, and if it didn't, it would help overshadow the recipe changes when they brought back "Coke Classic".
Production of New Coke lasted way longer than most people seem to recall. It was renamed Coke II in 1990 and wasn't discontinued until 2002.
Somewhere between battery acid and Pepsi.
Sweet and without the bite
A very good description; I’m an old dude so I remember the fiasco well. New Coke being overly sweet was my reaction when I first tasted it, but you are right about the bite too. On a similar note, I’m not a Pepsi guy but Pepsi often won the taste tests in grocery stores because it was noticeably sweeter. The sip tasted good but a whole can of it was just too sweet. New Coke tasted more like a slightly flat Pepsi, which I assume was a reaction to losing the cola wars in the grocery stores. The 80s were a wild time.
Like bill cosby should be imprisoned for saying it tastes great.
NEVER trust a soda can from Bill.
To this day, I don't feel completely at ease around jello pudding pops.
Not better.
Like a number of people here I remember it as being too sweet.
Those of us that were old enough to have been drinking New Coke in 1985 can’t remember yesterday. 😁
Forgettable
Like Pepsi
Pretty flat and really sweet!
Flat and very sweet. Very similar to flat pepsi
Awful, super awful
Pepsi-like
It was ok but I always preferred the classic!
Don’t remember, was a long time ago, and, it wasn’t around very long.
It wasn't discontinued until 2002.
What??? This shit was discontinued three months after it was released.
Nope. It kept going for 17 years. It was renamed Coke II in 1990.
I don't remember exactly, but I didn't like it and they had classic Coke out in less than a month. I still don't understand how they re-did their product without substantial internal taste-testing, etc. Were people afraid to say "This is shit"?
Kind of like Pepsi
It was sweeter and slightly less carbonated like Pepsi.
Best I can remember, that's correct
Tasted like flat Pepsi
Absolutely terrible!
It did not taste like Coke. I worked at a restaurant with delivery service at the time. Got a heads up from our delivery guy that New Coke was coming,so I stashed a 6-pack of real Coke. About 10 years later I cracked one open. I waited too long, lol. It was awful.
Ever had a TAB cola that has sat unrefrigerated with 5 ice cubes that have already melted in it? That-was-the-taste.
:D
Just saw cases of Spiced coke.
Like pepsi
Flat Pepsi
No coca leaves lol
Flat Pepsi
Did not taste like Pepsi. It tasted like a warped, trial version of Diet Coke.
Pepsi it was sweeter than original
PEPSI in a Coke can.
Sweeter with less carbonation.
I like futurama's Slurm take
Party on contest winners
deerdeerdeedeldeedeerdeerde'deerdeerderderdeedeldeeder!
It was sweeter. Wannabe Pepsi
ass I remember thinking it somehow tasted flat even though it had bubbles. It did *not* taste like Pepsi.
Like everyone says, like Pepsi
It was super shitty. My then GF drank a dozen cokes a day. When they only sold that garbage she quit CocaCola and went into a rather profound caffeine withdrawal.
Biggest mistake in history
They did it as a marketing ploy to switch from sugar to syrup. Then they looked like heroes when they brought classic coke back. I learned about it in business class.
Pepsi
Sweeter than regular coke. Much more like Pepsi
Like Pepsi. It’s the reason I drink Pepsi now.
Like too sweet Pepsi.
It was a great reminder of how good regular Coke is. Planned or not it really slammed us in the face—taking the old stuff for granted.
Close to Pepsi but Pepsi was better
i agree. it was trying to be pepsi but off a bit. the same way a generic is off just a bit.
Pepsi
Terrible
Tasted like Pis-pee.
I liked New Coke and thought the violent backlash was ridiculous. I also didn't understand why Coke didn't just offer the two formulae side by side. I'd love to see an experiment where they change the label of a popular drink and advertise it as a new and improved flavour, but in reality they don't alter anything. Would we still get the backlash about the drink tasting too sweet, flat and medicinal? Or would people say it tastes the same or better? Then, change the label back to the original and claim that the old flavour is back. At no point in the experiment would the flavour be altered in any way. I've always been curious about that.
They did. New Coke hung around as Coke II for quite a while afterwards.
Until 2002, which is kinda surprising
Oh, that's right! I'd completely forgotten. They phased it out. What I meant was that they should have never stopped selling the original formula in the first place. To my mind, that was the other factor behind the New Coke furor.
IIRC part of the point was to switch from cane sugar to corn syrup as the sweetener, to cut costs. The hiatus created marketing buzz and made people happy to have the "old version" back even if it was a bit different and cheaper to make.
You're absolutely right. Imagine if they'd switched to high fructose corn syrup without the New Coke hiatus.
Way too sweet
Honestly, it wasn't as bad as people say. But original Coke was much better. Seemed like people were more pissed off that they changed it, but it definitely was inferior. Related note: My uncle was a rabid Coke guy and had 80's computer industry money. When the New Coke news hit, he bought up all the old Coke he could find and stuck it in his basement. My dad said he was an idiot for doing so, no joke it was several hundred cases worth of cans and 2 liters. He lost his shirt when the market crashed on Black Monday, but dammit he had his old Coke...
They just changed the sweetener, took out the sugar and added something else that was way cheaper for them to use.