When I first saw the black bottle of Sprite at the Cancun airport I was very curious as to what it was. Upon closer look the bottle was all in Spanish and the only thing that I could understand was that it was a Limited Edition and that it was all-natural. What was Sprite – Botella Edicion Limitada?

I had to buy it and see how it compared to the traditional Sprite. It cost 55 pesos ($4.60 USD) which is a little more expensive but it was in an airport where everything is expensive anyways.

The "Botella Edicion Limitada" Sprite is in a black bottle with a black label. "Sabor natural" is on the front of the bottle, meaning natural taste. I think that this is aiming at the trend of carbonated beverages going all-natural.

Ingredient List

The natural bottle of Sprite contains sugar as opposed to HFCS that is in traditional Sprite. With Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback being released earlier in the year I think that Coca-Cola felt like they had to release something with sugar also. I do not know how easy it is find natural Sprite in other countries.

Comparison of Sprite bottles

After pouring both the traditional and natural versions of Sprite it was clear that the traditional had much more carbonation. They both smelled very similar and were identical in color.

The natural Sprite had a lighter flavor and not a lingering taste it was refreshing. The traditional Sprite had more carbonation and a slightly stronger flavor. Overall the taste between the two was not significantly different.

I think that this product will only be out for a short amount of time. I do not think there is much of a market for a natural version of Sprite. There is not a significant taste difference and the only advantage is that is contains sugar instead of HFCS. After tasting both of them, I actually prefer the natural version. I like the flavor and the lesser amount of carbonation. If anyone else finds the natural Sprite please let me know what you think.

Per Coke's press release about the new drink, Sprite Green "has 50 calories per 8.5-ounce serving and 5% lemon juice. Sprite Green was created to appeal to active young adults and will be launched in two U.S. cities this month in distinctive 8.5-ounce aluminum bottles. Initial availability will be limited to teen and young adult-oriented locations and events with a broader rollout planned for early 2009. Sprite Green complements the Sprite brand's leading lemon-lime and zero-calorie lemon-lime sparkling beverages."

The big hype about Sprite Green is the use of Truvia, which is the trade name for a version of a stevia-based sweetener created by The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill. Using what they consider a "natural sweetener" (there's some debate on that), you can lower the calorie count on a typical bottle of Sprite.

Sprite Green aluminum bottle

We were able to find a bottle of Sprite Green here in Chicago, though it did not look anything like the aluminum bottle illustration that Coke provided when they announced the drink. Our version was packaged in a 12 oz. green glass bottle with a narrow neck. A pretty sharp look… if you ignore the ugly plastic twist cap on top.

Upon opening the bottle, well, it smells like Sprite. It even looks like Sprite, with that clear, bubbly appearance. But what about that all-important taste experience?

Upon first sip, it's actually pretty good. Tastes pretty much like the Sprite you know and love. But then the floor drops out and you realize that your are on some gruesome amusement park ride of flavor doom! Now, granted, this is a diet beverage, so a non-attractive taste is to be expected. But given that this drink has a stevia-powered aftertaste, maybe I wasn't expecting exactly what my mouth was saying… which was pretty much, "what did you just do to me?"

The aftertaste ruins Sprite Green. At first, it's not really there like most diet beverages. It sort of sneaks up on you. But this delayed rancidness makes up for it in the end. The taste is actually quite dry and cleanish as far as texture, however the flavor is very bitter and non-food-like. Almost like you accidentally swallowed some hair spray. It's an odd collection of substances that sort of sit on your tongue, waiting to be scrubbed off. I can now understand why Sprite Green has been launched in "limited markets" and isn't really taking the country by storm. Yuck!

However, if you are still interested in this drink, you'll find that a 12 oz. bottle contains 70 calories, 160 mg of sodium (Wow… that's quite a bit!), and 18 g of carbs (17 g of which are sugars). The drink is caffeine-free.

Sprite Green
Carbonated water, lemon juice from concentrate, sugar, natural flavors, sodium polyphosphates, sodium citrate, potassium sorbate (to protect taste), rebiana (stevia extract), salt, malic acid, ascorbic acid (to protect color)

The combination of stevia and sugar makes Sprite Green sort of a hybrid drink when it comes to sweeteners. Hmm, where have we seen this before? Oh, that's right… Coca-Cola C2 and Pepsi Edge. Anyone remember those drinks from 2004? They crashed and burned, not only based on taste, but also on need. In the end, they weren't. The same seems to be true regarding Sprite Green. It's a beverage without a real purpose.

That said, I really wish Sprite Green was better than it tasted. Those used to the aftertaste experiences of diet sodas may welcome it more than we did, however if we were looking for a lemon lime-flavored drink with the benefits of stevia, we'd probably choose Zevia over Coke's entry.

• Sprite Green
• Zevia
• SANS Natural Diet Soda

Original Story: The latest diet beverage war has begun with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration granting approval for use of a new artificial sweetener in soft drinks. Based on the stevia plant found in South America, rebaudioside A (also known as Reb-A) is the key ingredient in two new sweeteners being used by both Coke and Pepsi in new products.

First off is Sprite Green from Coke, which uses the Truvia brand of sweetener, the consumer name for Rebiana, which is the Reb-A version offered by a joint project between The Coca-Cola Company and Cargill.

Rolling out first in New York and Chicago, Sprite Green is a reduced calorie version of Sprite, the most recent line extension since the rebranding of Diet Sprite to Sprite Zero and the trio of short-term Remix flavored drinks (Sprite Remix Tropical, Sprite Remix Berryclear, Sprite Remix Aruba Jam). Per Coke's press release about the new drink, Sprite Green "has 50 calories per 8.5-ounce serving and 5% lemon juice. Sprite Green was created to appeal to active young adults and will be launched in two U.S. cities this month in distinctive 8.5-ounce aluminum bottles. Initial availability will be limited to teen and young adult-oriented locations and events with a broader rollout planned for early 2009. Sprite Green complements the Sprite brand’s leading lemon-lime and zero-calorie lemon-lime sparkling beverages."

On the flipside, Pepsi is rolling out Zero Calorie versions of SoBe LifeWater in 3 flavors: Yumberry Pomegranate, Fuji Apple Pear, and Black and Blue Berry. These drinks use the PureVia brand of the Reb-A sweetener, created by Whole Earth Sweetener Company and used by Pepsi.

Pepsi's press release notes that "in addition to a full day's supply of Vitamin C, each bottle of zero-calorie SoBe Lifewater also provides 20% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin E as well as 10% of the recommended daily value of Vitamins B6, B12, Niacin (B3) and Pantothenic Acid (B5.) Each also will be infused with a unique blend of herbal ingredients." The SoBe products are going to be available nationally.

Like the abundance of Splenda-based products that came out years ago, the introduction of Stevia-based sweeteners to the marketplace is bound to prompt a new wave of drinks or at the very least, reforumalations of existing diet beverages. Right now, the hot combo seems to be Aspartame/Acesulfame potassium (as used in Coca-Cola Zero). Sucralose as a stand-alone sweetener got some press when Coke rolled out Diet Coke Sweetened with Splenda back in 2005, but other than its comob use as Sucralose/Ace-K in Diet Rite, hasn't really been the "silver bullet" sweetener like Aspartame/Ace-K has been.

One wonders what's going to happen with these Stevia-based drinks… or beyond that, if the public is going to be utterly confused by the zillion names associated with this new product (i.e. Stevia, rebaudioside A, Reb-A, Truvia, PureVia, etc.)

It's going to be an interesting year in beverages!

Back in fall 2004, Coke rebranded "Diet Sprite" as "Diet Sprite Zero". We had a complete review here on BevReview.com. Well, they've rebranded it again… this time simply as "Sprite Zero".

In fact, per my last review, I sort of predicted this on October 24, 2004…

Some have asked why Coke went with such an awkward name as "Diet Sprite Zero." Well, it's my opinion that this is the first phase in an advertising campaign that will result in this beverage eventually being known as "Sprite Zero". Note that the bottle logo shows the "Diet Sprite" portion and the "Zero" portion as very distinct and not very integrated. In a year or so, look for the "Diet Sprite" logo to simply disappear and the marketing to emphasize the "Zero". This is not unprecedented, either. Coke already uses the "Sprite Zero" brand in other countries, like in Argentina, where they just relaunched "Sprite Light" as "Sprite Zero."

The renaming of Diet Sprite Zero plays into the relaunch of the Sprite brand, with a new logo and new packaging, playing up some sort of S-shaped lemon-lime logo thingy. It's a very sharp design… if they would have actually changed the font used for the word "Sprite" as well. It looks incredibly dated next to the revised design elements. So close, but so far.

Anyway, the drink is the same. Only the name has changed. Enjoy, if you like such things. Personally, I can't stand the taste.

Aruba Jam follows two previous Sprite Remix incarnations, Sprite Remix Tropical (2003; fruit punch flavor) and Sprite Remix Berryclear (2004; cherry/grape flavor).

Whereas the predominant color scheme of Tropical was orange, and Berryclear displayed purple, Aruba Jam plays off a darker red color scheme. Unfortunately, it doesn't taste that unique. It's probably closer in flavor to Tropical with a fruit punch overtone, but it's less "fruit punchy," in my opinion. It's perhaps the blandest of the three Sprite Remix installments.

The scent of the drink is very fruity and bubbly, and it possesses Remix's trademark "Burp Factor," but it's just not a standout drink. I actually would have hoped for more of an orange flavor; that would have been unique. Instead, it seems like we got a toned-down fruit punch. Aruba Jam takes a lot like the original Sprite with just the slightest of aftertaste differentiating the drink.

Overall, a disappointing outing for the Sprite Remix franchise. I don't expect Aruba Jam to do very well, especially given that the name describes no flavor whatsoever.

Coke has had reasonable success with its Sprite Remix. In 2005, the company might replace the berry flavor it now sells with a new Sprite Remix called Aruba Jam, Beverage Digest reported. The flavor might be orange, similar to Pepsi's Mountain Dew LiveWire.

I don't really get into "diet" drinks, other than mixing up a batch of Crystal Light. I've never been a fan of the aftertaste found in artificial sweeteners. But I'm always interested in good marketing and promotion, especially when it comes to soft drinks. Upon seeing the billboards for this advertising campaign, I was intrigued mainly because the image showed that the logo on the bottle would go sideways… a very unique approach.

Looking at the bottle design this new launch was replacing, it's easy to see how it could be improved. The old logo feels dated, with the primary promotional emphasis on "Caffeine Free". Since Diet Sprite shares that attribute with regular Sprite, there really isn't any advantage here (other than the obvious use of the word "Diet"). Also note that the bottle color is the same as regular Sprite: green.

Looking at some of the more recent Sprite brand extensions like Sprite Remix Berryclear and Sprite Remix Tropical, you could see that the Diet version needed a fresh look.

So when Diet Sprite Zero finally hit the shelves the other day, I picked up a bottle. To say that I was disappointed with the imaging would be an understatement. Here we have a situation where the actual product doesn't look like the advertised bottle. (Being a Coke product, it's not surprising. Almost every Coke TV commercial shows people drinking out of glass bottles; when was the last time you purchased one of those?).

The flavor is exactly the same… and that's nothing really to write home about. I was just thrown off that the label showed the logo in the standard orientation when compared to the billboard. Then again, the billboard also shows the beverage defying gravity! The new promotional emphasis on the bottle is "0 Carbs – 0 Caffeine – 0 Sugar", which I think pretty much sums up this drink.

Some have asked why Coke went with such an awkward name as "Diet Sprite Zero." Well, it's my opinion that this is the first phase in an advertising campaign that will result in this beverage eventually being known as "Sprite Zero". Note that the bottle logo shows the "Diet Sprite" portion and the "Zero" portion as very distinct and not very integrated. In a year or so, look for the "Diet Sprite" logo to simply disappear and the marketing to emphasize the "Zero". This is not unprecedented, either. Coke already uses the "Sprite Zero" brand in other countries, like in Argentina, where they just relaunched "Sprite Light" as "Sprite Zero."

So I guess it's just a renaming that will eventually remove the negative connotations associated with the term "diet", while also trying to revitalize the look to attract a hipper, younger audience.

Diet Sprite will be christened with a new name in a couple of weeks: Diet Sprite Zero. Why, you ask? Here's the apparent logic behind the marketing concept: Zero implies an absence of quantity. What do people who are watching their weight look for? Yep, that's right — an absence of any and all unnecessary calories. That's what you get with a diet drink, and that's what you get with Diet Sprite.

Coca-Cola and competitor PepsiCo are chasing all growth opportunities, and the best way these concerns know how is to constantly innovate their marketing schemes. They, of course, can develop new products to capture growth — Coke's C2 and Pepsi's Edge are two examples — but reenergizing a brand via new packaging and a new title can oftentimes be more effective, both in terms of cost and creativity. Plus, you don't have to worry about potentially damaging backlash to a different concept; "New Coke," you'll recall, wasn't appreciated by the beverage marketplace.

Diet Sprite Zero has a nifty ring to it; the "Zero" at the end confers an almost quasi-sci-fi connotation to it, if you get what I mean. Maybe it will provide a hip hook that dieting teenagers can latch onto. After all, Coke wants its consumers to be as young as possible so brand loyalty can settle in nicely.

I've already seen a billboard for this. The bottle packaging is weird because they run the logo sideways parallel with the bottle's orientation.

Here's my take… "Diet Sprite Zero" is a temporary name that will eventually become just "Sprite Zero". I see Coke phasing out the "Diet" portion of the name. It's a lot like when SBC bought out Ameritech in our area. For a while they were "Ameritech", then they were "SBC Ameritech", and finally just "SBC".

On top of that, Coke already uses the "Sprite Zero" brand in other countries, like in Argentina, where they just relaunched "Sprite Light" as "Sprite Zero".

Finally, a November 21, 2003 editorial in Beverage Digest also hints at a name change:

As industry prepares for unprecedented push behind diet CSDs next year, Coke system executives say Coke "probably" changes name of Diet Sprite to "Sprite Zero" in North America. One bottler says, "it's a done deal." Another says, "it's 60-40." Most bottlers talk as if it will happen. One bottler, asked for comment, declares: "This is still a secret."

…"the word 'diet' may not be a positive for some consumers."

…Several bottlers also say word "diet" isn't broad enough. They claim "Sprite Zero would speak to a healthy product: no calories, no carbs, no caffeine."

I liked Tropical a lot, however it did make me burp quite a bit. Berryclear still has the burp factor, but it's less like Hawaiian Punch and more like a cherry/grape flavor. It's still decaffeinated, which I appreciate.

The one problem I have, however, is this continual idea of manufacturers rolling out a beverage, trying to build an audience, and then pulling the rug out from underneath it. It happened for Pepsi Blue. Then Sprite Remix Tropical. It will probably happen to Red Fusion. From what I've read, Tropical Remix actually stole sales away from the core Sprite brand, and that might have been a reason it went bye-bye. Sprite is so bland, it wouldn't surprise me.

Berryclear gets a thumbs up!

According to the press release, "Sprite Remix will feature a new tropical version of the great taste of Sprite and will be launched with a unique graphic treatment of the signature Sprite logo. Sprite Remix gives people another way to enjoy their Sprite," said Chris Lowe, chief marketing officer, Coca-Cola North America.

Another way to enjoy their Sprite? Um, OK.

Well, I got my hands on some of this Remix stuff last week. I've been shying away from caffinated drinks for a couple months now (I'm a light sleeper), so I was excited about the idea of another non-caffinated flavor option… I think Sprite Remix is a good product. Still tastes like Sprite, but with a nice and fresh "fruitiness" in the flavor. It's pretty tasty and light. I'm not a big fan of the packaging, but it does taste good.