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This may be old news to any British, Swedish or South American readers, but most of North America and Asia have yet to experience Coca-Cola’s newest creation: Coca-Cola Life.

In the face of the all-natural health trend, last fall Coca-Cola released a green-labeled, Stevia-sweetened cola in select areas around the world as a kind of test run. Unfortunately, Japan was not one of those testing places, despite their predilection for weird-flavored sodas and possession of palates less accommodating to the super-sweet.

Rose Yokoyama, a writer from RocketNews24’s partner website Pouch, got her hands on some Coke Life in order to try to it before it makes its debut in Japan (if it ever does). Here’s what she thought of the green cola!

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Let’s start by saying that Rose is somewhat of a cola connoisseur, having done reviews of other colas before. She is also a fan of Fentimans Curiosity Cola, a botanically brewed cola that has been dubbed as the best of the best.

Upon tasting Coke Life, Rose was expecting the subtle sweetness and more natural flavors found in Fentimans, but was rather disappointed when the caramel flavor and refreshing bite was pretty much identical to that of normal Coke. That being said though, Coca-Cola was probably trying to make a drink as delicious and nearly as sweet-tasting as their original blend, so we’re sure they’re not too disappointed by her review.

The Stevia sweetened brew isn’t necessarily another attempt at a calorie-free drink, it’s rather a mid-range caloric, natural choice for their more health conscious consumers. One 330ml can of Coke Life has 89 Calories, one-third less than normal Coke, which has 139 Calories for the same amount. It’s really the “natural” sweetener aspect that they’re focusing on.

So, what we gather is that Coke Life pretty much tastes like normal Coke, maybe just a little less sweet. A casual taste-test done by British newspaper The Telegraph, found that many people even preferred the natural less-sweet variation over the original.

There’s no news if this green Coke will enter the Japanese market anytime soon, but if it does, we’re excited to see how well it will do. After all, Japanese people tend to like things a little less sweet than Westerners, so this variation might go far in Japan.

Photos: RocketNews24
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