Does Coke Zero taste different in the UK vs. the USA?

Submitted ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨MurrayL@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

We know that Coca Cola sold in the US is sweetened with corn syrup, and that Coke Zero is formulated to be nearly indistinguishable from the standard recipe.

But Coca Cola here in the UK has always been sweetened with cane sugar.

Is the UK version of Coke Zero formulated differently to match the different taste profile? Has anyone done a taste test to see if there’s a difference?

(Side note: I’m aware a certain president recently decided Coke US should be made with cane sugar too, but that fact makes my question less interesting so I’m choosing to ignore it.)

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msfroh@lemmy.ca ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
As popcornpizza called out, most of the answers in this thread unfortunately seem unrelated to your question.

I live in the US and haven’t been to the UK in years, but I do visit Romania every year or two. I don’t notice a big difference between Coke Zero sold in the US versus Romania. I’m certainly not a Coke Zero expert, but they taste pretty much the same to me. My hunch is that Coke Zero tastes the same across Europe, but I’m happy to be corrected.

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- MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Interesting! And thanks for actually reading the question properly.
  
  If that’s true it might suggest Coke Zero tastes the same worldwide? In which case I wonder which original Coca Cola it’s closest to?
  
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cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Coke Zero is sweetened with sucralose, not HFCS or cane sugar. It’s a diabetic friendly alternative. It might taste closer to Coke made with cane sugar, but I’m not sure. I don’t drink soda anymore, but I do drink Gatorade Zero.

I recommend sucralose sweetened beverages over HFCS and cane sugar ones.

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- MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yes, I realise Coke Zero is not sweetened with HFCS or cane sugar. That knowledge is in fact central to my actual question: does Coke Zero taste different in the UK vs. the USA?
  
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  - cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨45⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    Yeah, I was confused by the wording of the question. Wasn’t trying to weasel around the comment as much as I was trying to make sense of it.
    
    I read it again. You seem to think that Coke Zero in the US is made to taste like HFCS because that’s what the US puts in regular soda? Because that’s not the case. Sucralose doesn’t emulate the flavour of HFCS or cane sugar.
    
    Here’s a Wikipedia article on it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose
    
    As to whether it tastes different, I suppose it might. Coca-Cola prides itself on a “secret recipe” known only to a few, but like a few other products that claim the same, this is mostly marketing. The “secret” to Coca-Cola is that, in the US, the company has the exclusive right to import the coca plant and extract from it. This process can be used to make the narcotic cocaine, and in fact Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine. It doesn’t now, but it does still contain coca extract, which no other soda from another company can do. I do not know how the United Kingdom regulates the coca plant. If they don’t grant Coca-Cola the right to use it, they cannot make US Coca-Cola in the UK, and they probably can’t import the safe, cocaine-free extract from the US, either. It depends.
    
    So, I think your question should have less to do with how the beverage is sweetened or if the UK lets them make it the same way the US does. I assume the UK is your country, since Coke is made in the US (was invented there, in/near Atlanta, Georgia) so it’s kind of the baseline.
    
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popcornpizza@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I feel like I’m the only one who understood your question, and sadly I don’t live in either country, so I can’t say.

I do recall that when I switched from Diet Coke to Coke Zero (for some reason there was a shortage of Diet but not Zero), it took me a while to get used to it because Zero tastes way sweeter.

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Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If I remember correctly, sodas tend to be made sweeter in the US because Americans usually drink them super cold, which makes taste buds less sensitive, while elsewhere drinking more room temperature soda is more common.

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- MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  This is interesting! But sadly does not answer my question.
  
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- CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  They’re sweeter because they use high fructose corn syrup where as other places like Mexico still use cane sugar. To get a good Coke in the US, you have to go to a Mexican market or taco truck and get it in a glass bottle. We have a gluttony of corn here so it gets forced into everything from plastic to gasoline to soda.
  
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Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Semi-related - we had salt and vinegar pringles in Europe and they were good, but then when we got back to the US they were just much more intense and flavorful. We did not compare ingredients.

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- MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  We love salt and vinegar in the UK. I think statistically it’s the second most popular flavour of crisps here, after cheese and onion.
  
  Sorry to hear the US somehow ruined it, although I’ve had pickle flavour crisps from the USA and enjoyed them, so I think there is hope.
  
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  - prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨6⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    US has some good salt and vinegar chips, you just gotta get the right brand.
    
    At risk of wading into a larger conflict about naming conventions got fried potato snacks, Pringles aren’t really considered “chips” over here, but “potato crisps” due to their district texture and flavor.
    
    If you get a good brand of salt and vinegar (preferably kettle cooked imo) chips here, they can be very strong.
    
    Though I have had some issues with consistency in the past where one bag will just have hardly any flavoring, but I guess that’s bound to happen one or two times when you eat literal tons of potato chips.
    
    Personally, I’m a fan of jalapeno kettle cooked chips.
    
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  - Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨26⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
    I assumed it was just more chemicals and additives in the US
    
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