New, improved taste!
Or not.
Pepsi One — Pepsi’s one-calorie cola — has been reformulated, inside and out. It now sports a blackish can, instead of a silver can. It also sports Splenda as the diet sweetener rather than aspartame.
Unfortunately, the taste suffers a bit. Granted that diet sodas generally suck, Pepsi One at least had a frisson of sugar to give it something other than just the taste of Nutrasweet. The Splenda formulation seems to have less flavor but more artificial sweetner taste.
Still beats straight Diet Pepsi (to say nothing of Diet Coke, the Anti-Cola foretold in ancient prophecy), but not as much as it used to.
UPDATE: Someone else who doesn’t care for the change. The reason for the change (aspartame breaks down in heat, and it’s now widely available). Sugar growers, not surprisingly, dislike Splenda.
Various other comments (in the comments) here. One in particular matches my observations:
I was able to buy both old and new Pepsi One and do a taste test:
– Old Pepsi one tastes better to me and more like real Coke (my original addiction). Remember the original adds with “tastes like a leading cola”?
– New Pepsi one is sweeter and has more citrus flavor (as opposed to “dark” flavors of clove/allspice/cinnamon/etc.) This makes it more like regular Pepsi instead of Coke.
Also, I made an error — neither the previous Pepsi One formulation nor the present one have any sugar, just artificial sweetener. Still taste better than Diet Pepsi, though. Both old and new have acesulfame potassium (“ace-K”) as a secondary sweetener, which is what differentiated it from Diet Pepsi.
Coke is coming out with a Pepsi One clone called (oddly) Coca-Cola Zero. It uses the same aspartame/ace-K combo as the old Pepsi One. That’s very promising. They’re also reformulating Diet Coke to use Splenda instead of aspartame, which is promising only to the extent that Diet Coke tastes awful now and can hardly get worse.
BUT, remember the really dispicable taste of TAB. Nothing can be that bad ever again.
Mercifully, I wasn’t on diet drinks back in those days.
I’m hoping the switch to Splenda doesn’t ruin the taste of Diet Coke to the point that I don’t like it. Dave, you and I must agree to disagree on the Pepsi/Coke debate – I hope our friendship is up to it!
For what it’s worth, I am a long-term non-diet Coke fan over Pepsi — I find the spicier, “darker” flavor of real Coke preferable to the sweeter flavor of Pepsi. It may well be that the underlying flavors, though, work less well with aspartame’s bitter aftertaste, hence my flip-flop preference on the diet versions.
And as to our friendship, I’m the first to admit (and profit thereby) that there’s no accounting for tastes … 🙂
Even though it may not taste as good…now folks like me, who can NOT tolerate Aspartame, have something decent to drink, prior to the Pepsi One switch all there was, was Diet Rite, which is OK, but the Pepsi One is better…and it makes me happy!! 🙂
Well, then, I’m happy for you. 🙂
On a related note, I find that the Safeway Select Diet Grapefruit Soda is quite refreshing (for a non-caffeinated drink), and that the grapefruit flavor masks the aspartame quite nicely. Recommended.
I’ve been a fan of diet sodas for as long as I can remember. The taste is light and refreshing and there are NO calories! How can something that tastes so good be guilt-free? I haven’t tried the new Diet Coke with Splenda but I’ve heard it tastes a lot like Tab. No matter what my opinion is, I’m not likely to ever stray far from the traditional diet soda I know so well 🙂 I’m glad that they are coming out w/a variety of diet drinks- the more the merrier! No matter aspartame or Splenda, I’m confident in the safety and great taste. If you want more information on aspartame, check out http://www.aspartame.org