Even for a sporadic mass-media consumer like me, it’s been tough to miss the tremendous advertising push for Coca-Cola’s new Orange Vanilla variety. It seemed like an ideal BoWilliams.com review candidate from the first spot I heard, so when Lea came home with a six-pack the other day, I asked for one.
This looks and handles like regular Coca-Cola, but with a bit of a Creamsicle vibe in the aroma as it bubbles up in the glass. And indeed, that’s what I tasted when I drank it. Or, maybe it’s like a Coke float made with two parts orange sherbet and one part vanilla ice cream. It’s really sweet; to my palate, significantly sweeter than regular Coke. The orange taste is more artificial than natural, but it’s that evocative, well-established gustatory territory for such.
Roger Ebert tried to review movies on their own terms, which I find a noble and emulable impulse. It is in that context that I say that, for me, personally, Orange Vanilla Coca-Cola is pointless. In the first place, I hardly ever drink sugary sodas anymore. In the second, I would choose a regular Coca-Cola over this product every time. I finished a 20-oz. bottle of it with my lunch today, and there’s an excellent chance that will be the last Orange Vanilla Coca-Cola I ever consume.
However, does it hit its marks (or at least what I imagine them to be)? I think it does. That I have no personal affection for Orange Vanilla Coca-Cola does not make it a silly product. If you read my description above and you think you’ll like it, then you almost certainly will. It’s a polished, well-designed experience.
8/10
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