Blind tasting: Coca-Cola Coke vs Woolworths Select Cola (25 May 2014)

The cola wars

Any die hard Coke fans out there? I'm not talking about the white powdered stuff which used to be in Coca Cola but the drinkable kind you find all over the world. These days I'm not a huge soft drinker but when I was a kid I couldn't get enough of it. Did the Coke vs Pepsi Challenge many years ago although I think die hard fans can tell the difference with these products. On a recent shopping trip for the Mrs I was asked to buy some Coke from the refrigerated section. Woolworths was selling a 1L Coca-Cola Coke for $3.69 and was interesting to see you could get a 1.25L for less on the room temperature shelves for about $2.79 I think. I also noticed the Woolworths Select Cola for only $0.90 for 1.25L so thought I'd do a blind tasting. Back home I served up both with ice. After careful consideration the Mrs decide on which one she liked which she also thought was the Coke. In fact it was the Cola from Woolworths. Surprised at the result she now will probably buy the Cola for much less when craving that sugar hit.

I tried it myself and I found not a lot of difference in smell and taste of each but perhaps for some there is. Both seem to have the same ingredients although the Woolworths Cola sugar content is slightly higher with 11.5g per 100g compared to 10.6g in the Coke. Sodium content for Woolworths Cola is 4mg while Coke is higher with 10mg. My thoughts are if you're going to buy something that's bad for you you might as well pay less for it and save your money for other things. Personally I think you shouldn't drink either but I'd be interested to see if anyone can taste much of a difference in their own blind tasting. Some people will be more than happy to pay a premium price due to image association while others might actually be able to taste a difference in the products and prefer one over the other. I look forward to your thoughts.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Sugar hit guaranteed

CONS: Contains a lot of sugar you probably shouldn't be drinking

MUST TRY: Your own blind tasting and share your findings

VERDICT: I couldn't really taste a difference between Coke and Cola so for my money I'd be buying the cheaper version for future parties and mixing cocktails

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Cola vs Coke

Coca-Cola Coke Nutrition Information — perhaps should be called Non-Nutrition Information

Woolworths Select Cola Nutrition Information