As a kid, Diet Coke was all my mom ever bought, so I spent years getting used to it.
I dont drink much soda anymore, but it seems the last few times I’ve had a can of Diet Coke, it’s just not good. It seems more bland than ever before. I don’t seem to dislike any other sodas more than I used to.
Anyone else notice this?
I found this article by a food scientist basically asking the same question.
The gist of it is that Diet Coke’s recipe has not changed at all. Coke wouldn’t dare take a chance like that again after the disaster that was New Coke. But there are many factors that can affect your perception of flavors, including the type of container, temperature, and other things you eat or drink.
To add to that list, manufacturing does go wrong, the formula could’ve been off in the can you drank. Plus during manufacturing it’s possible for a teeny tiny pinhole to be made in your can, which will alter the taste more and more over time, and even evaporate some of the liquid causing an imbalance. You can squeeze the can a little to see if it has less resistance than other cans you have under pressure.
Thanks for sharing! That was an interesting read.
Still seems odd that they were wondering the same thing around the same time I started noticing it. Even if there was no official recipe change, I wonder if there could have been a batch that didn’t have the right syrup/water ratio.
I was actually surprised by how recent the article happened to be.
I was curious and looked it up because I had a similar thought about Pepsi recently, but I figured I don’t drink it often enough that I could trust my palate about the taste being off.