When placing the order for our supply of soda at work here, my distributor said "Wanna try 'Coke 2'?"  Remembering the rave review given it by my friend James on Aces Full of Links, I said "Sure, why not?  Include a case of Coke 2 and we'll try it out."  Well the C2 (I'm still not comfortable with how much that reminds me of C4) sat for days and only one can of it disappeared.  I'm not much of a Coke drinker but I figured today I would try it out...

It's been 10 minutes since I took a couple hearty swallows and my tongue still feels weird.  C2 is smoother than Coke Classic, sweeter, and just all around bad.  It reminded me of the nauseating beverage "Tab".  There was a definite and long lasting Diet Cola-esque aftertaste that I'm still trying to get out of my mouth.  Even the mouth feel is not quite right... like I've been drinking spit or something.  Blech.

When I drink Coke, I think I'll stick to the sharper, cleaner flavor of Coke Classic.  More likely than not however, I won't drink Coke at all, and will instead quaff Canada Dry or Barq's Cream Soda.  Sorry, but this soda drinker's opinion is that C2 is gross, and I was more than happy to dump the undrunk portion down the drain.

Though I appear to be in the minority.  Just about every other site I visited where people talked about trying Coke 2, they loved it.  So don't take my word for it... try it yourself.

In other soda news testing the tooth rotting aspects of soda reveals that the darker colas (like Coke) are actually less harmful than ginger ale, or iced tea.  The kindest gentlest soda of all is apparently Root Beer.  According to the Academy of General Dentistry:

...Results from the study, which exposed healthy dental enamel to a variety of popular beverages over a period of 14 days, found that non-colas and canned iced tea were especially harmful. They contain flavor additives, such as malic, tartaric and other organic acids, which are more aggressive at eroding teeth. Root beer, which contains the least amount of flavor additives, was found to be the "safest soft drink to safeguard dental enamel."...

...According to Cynthia Sherwood, DDS and AGD spokesperson, soda's combination of sugar and acidity can be lethal to teeth. Though the level of risk varies from person to person, Dr. Sherwood says, "Repeated exposure of soda through sipping over a long period of time increases the risk of getting a cavity."...

All this soda talk has made me thirsty... I think I'll go grab a Barq's Root Beer.