Usually I skip breakfast, not on purpose but through sheer lack of time.
This morning, rarely, I had chance to grab a quick sandwich before rushing out the door.

Theres a canteen where I'm briefly working, its not too bad but its not great.(Mexborough Business Center).
Although the closing times are usually 3pm, its mostly shut and packed up by 2pm, go for food after 1pm and they've run out of beef, turkey, ham....and today bread.

Yes bread.
Other options: one lonely, small, dried out and shrivelled 'potato' or what was meant to be some sort of fish dish.
Neither appealing.

So I opted to skip lunch and grab a drink and a bar of something.

No bottled water - again, drinks and sweets (desserts) are very erratic, one minute the cabinet is stuffed with water, the next they only have sparkling water....then no water.

Today I noticed that they only had (fizzy drink wise) diet coke and coke 'zero'.



Pepsi Max vs. Coke Zero

Now although I am trying to cut down, I'm an avid fan of Pepsi Max - having drank an estimated 1036 2litre bottles of the stuff over 5 years. Scary huh?
Well mostly I'm trying to go on just water, I've really cut down on the fizzy drinks, but water is not always available!
(As in, the water-cooler is empty, theres no refills and the water from the bathroom says 'Not Drinking Water!')

Sooo I think I know my stuff, I'd happily take the 'Coke Challege' any day involving Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Pepsi Zero and feel quite confident I could identify them all.
(Send all Coke/Pepsi can donations to: 17 Grosvenor Av.........)

I don't really like Coke, it leaves a funny lining in my mouth and I can almost feel my teeth rotting with each mouthful.
But I thought I'd give Coke Zero a go - its a blatant copy of Pepsi Max, no sugar, just caffiene.

Would it taste better?
Would I have to switch my Costco purchasing habits from Pepsi Max to Coke Zero?


Well no.

Predictably it tastes very similar to Pepsi Max, but (thankfully) nothing like that swill they call "Diet Coke".

Drink wise, as I said, it tastes very similar to Pepsi Max but with a slight Coke hint.
Lots of fizz too, similar to Pepsi Max, I guess it means less liquid in the can and more profit for the companies. Slightly fizzier than Pepsi Max it seems, also if you hold it in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing its like your swalloing sea foam, lets just hope theres not as much bacteria.
Overall it feels like it has less 'body' to it than Pepsi Max, possibly due to the increased amount of carbonated water.
Smell wise, theres a hint of something, its hard to make out but isn't too dissimilar from the smell of gelatin based chew sweets.

Branding wise, well...its a black coke can with a bit of arty work on it, not massive appeal although its quite obvious this product has been aimed at men who dislike asking for and carrying Diet Coke cans, nevermind the foul taste of the stuff.
I'm quite sure in a few years, if the product manages to stick around (anyone remember Tab?) the can will be re-designed just as Pepsi Max has gone through several logo/style switches.


So overall, very similar to Pepsi Max, slightly different taste, a bit more fizzy and a different branding.
No major appeal, unless you've not drank Pepsi Max before which comes out as the superior product.

Unfortunately many people haven't tried Pepsi Max before - as they tend to go straight for Coke every time, so they'll never know the difference.

Although its nice to see Coke trying to aid those of us who are health concious and wish to avoid sugary drinks.
(Read: Its nice for Coke to cash in on a market by copying Pepsi, yet again)
(Read: Its nice for Coke to introduce another drink heavily laden with aspartame)


On a side note, the Twix that accompanied by 'meal' wasn't half bad - and before anyone says it, I ate the twix after drinking most of the coke Zero so it didn't affect the taste ;o)

:!: