Caffeine Free Diet Coke Review – Tom’s Diet Quest

Caffeine Free Diet Coke has been on the market since the early 1980s, I have downed lots of it in the intervening decades, as I like to limit my caffeine intake.

This diet soft drink’s flavor is easily recognized as vastly different from real Coca-Cola. Aside from the sweetness fatigue that so blackly marks Diet Coke, the basic cola flavor itself tastes very little like Classic Coke. Indeed, Coke Zero approximates Coke Classic much more exactly than does this caffeine-free diet drink.

As happens with about any beverage sweetened primarily with aspartame (NutraSweet), as I drink through a bottle, it’s sweetness gradually weakens as my palate grows numb to the NutraSweet. Also, drinks with aspartame lose their sweet taste over time when archived, so that if you let this product mellow for long past the best-if-used-by-date, you’ll likely find much of the sweet flavor gone. I generally avoid Diet Coke, especially with products like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max on the market.

Benefits And Features

This product has no caffeine, and so is wonderful for those suffering from hypertension, heart arrhythmias, and other issues that alter the heart beat.
Nor does this soft drink have any calories worth mentioning; in fact, no carbohydrates whatsoever. So you will neither get fat nor jittery drinking this caffeine-free diet soda.
It’s sugar-free and modest sodium, at just 70 milligrams per 20-ounce serving. You will not get cavities or gain weight just by consuming this diet drink.
Without caffeine, there’s never a fear of getting the jitters or racing heart in me. However, this beverage does little to wake me up, except stimulate my mouth with its cola sensations and zippy fizz that sometimes tangs my nose like horseradish.
I experience no offensive aftertaste with this diet cola.
Once opened, this cola drink keeps fizzing for twenty to thirty minutes; long enough to finish a bottle before that dreaded flatness arrives.
Caffeine Free Diet Coke has been shown to be an effective competitor to Diet Pepsi, though the Diet Coke product is a relative newcomer to the diet cola industry (early 1980s). I prefer Diet Pepsi however.
The best-if-used-by date is three or four months out. So you can store this pop for a little while without any sweetness loss.

Disadvantages

Many products that get their sweetness from aspartame like this one, can begin losing that sweetness if left in the wine cellar too long past this date. I’ve indeed experienced this with some diet sodas. So while I often keep beverages way past this date, I generally would not do that with any NutraSweet-based product such as Diet Coke.
Sweetness fatigue appears after just several consecutive sips of this caffeine free product. To combat this, I just avoid chugging Diet Coke. Instead, I take a couple sips, and then put it down for a few minutes to give my mouth a chance to recover. Then I’ll have a few more sips. The Coke Zero and Pepsi Max products “chug” better, retaining their sweetness through chugging of the entire container.

Product Rating

I’ve never cared for the Diet Coke product, though at least Coca-Cola did cater to the no-caffeine market with this product. But the fact that it tastes so little like real Coca-Cola puts a big ding in my rating for this product, which is 75 out of 100.

Where To Buy Caffeine Free Diet Coke

Look for the gold and gray cans, plastic bottles, and cartons of Diet Caffeine Free Coke at your favorite grocery stores big or little such as Weis, Hometown Market, Giant Eagle, and IGA. I bought mine at Sheetz here in Altoona. Since this product has been manufactured for a few decades, it’s also available at most any small grocery store and some gas stations and convenience stores too.

References

Revision History

2015-01-18: Moved this post to the Tom’s Diet Quest blog, added whitespace, adjusted ad placement, revised content, and rearranged category and tag assignments.
2012-04-23: Originally published.