Coke Blak and other Coffee Sodas

[skoolpsyk]

Just tried Coke Blak. It has a familiar taste to me. I think when I was a kid there was a diet chocolate soda, but I can't remember who made it. This is what I think it tastes like.

Anyone remember this?

[Ktepi]

Just tried Coke Blak.  It has a familiar taste to me. I think when I was a kid there was a diet chocolate soda, but I can't remember who made it. This is what I think it tastes like.

Anyone remember this?

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Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge or Polar Diet Double Fudge?

I think there's definitely a similarity in the way both chocolate flavor and coffee flavor taste when there's no cream. If I didn't drink so many Asian canned coffees, that probably would have come to mind as a comparison for me, too.

[K8memphis]

Yeah, I've walked passed this product several times at the store. I think the Blak rhymes with blek as was mentioned is a real turn off. Jarring and annoying as alacarte said. Yes it is.

Jason, I love your avatar. It's a TEN!

And Bergerka gets a 10 for the funniest reply.

Edited April 16, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[dockhl]

I used to be able to get 'Big Head Coffee Cola' in San Diego but not for a long while. I REALLY liked that one! I don't think Coke Blak (other than the name) is too bad............

[skoolpsyk]

Just tried Coke Blak.  It has a familiar taste to me. I think when I was a kid there was a diet chocolate soda, but I can't remember who made it. This is what I think it tastes like.

Anyone remember this?

←

Canfield's Diet Chocolate Fudge or Polar Diet Double Fudge?

I think there's definitely a similarity in the way both chocolate flavor and coffee flavor taste when there's no cream. If I didn't drink so many Asian canned coffees, that probably would have come to mind as a comparison for me, too.

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those don't sound familiar, but I was quite young. I do remember it was in a can not bottles. maybe Shasta?

[phlox]

I just tried this, and I was expecting to hate it and got one out of morbid curiosity, but it was tasty! It would be great with Thai or Vietnamese food.

[Gigi4808]

I tried it when it was ice cold- once your done looking at the cool label and cute bottle the first thing that hits you is the smell. The aroma is vaguely coffee, vaguely chocolaty and vaguely burnt sugar. You would think that would be a good thing but all together the effect is like a tira misu/creme brulee from hell.

The mouth feel is that of almost flat Coke- I like almost flat Coke so I considered that to be a fairly good thing. Flavor wise it starts out with a sharp coffee/tootsie pop flavor, mellows into a taste best described as chocolate tootsie pop and finishes like a Coke left overnight besides the bed that spent hours getting direct sunlight before you drank from it again (uh, not that I have ever done that or anything...) The aftertaste is what I can only imagine the breath of Satan himself is like.

I can safely say I will avoiding this like an episode of "30 Minute Meals"

Edited April 21, 2006 by Gigi4808 (log)

[Rebecca263]

I just tried a bottle of this! I would have liked it, it tasted pretty good! I really like the ginger finish of a Coca Cola, and this has it, in spades. But, I am now feeling ooky, and I don't think it's from the group of very drama oriented 16 year olds that I had the pleasure of dealing with tonight, either (aske me about the girl who decided to rollerblade to my home from a town ten miles away, without telling her parents, and got lost in farmland ). No, it's the curse of the corn syrup! Satan's spawn, if I believed in the poor fellow.

[jgm]

I was underwhelmed by the flavor and overwhelmed by the price: $2 a bottle.

[phaelon56]

Just tried Coke Blak.  It has a familiar taste to me. I think when I was a kid there was a diet chocolate soda, but I can't remember who made it. This is what I think it tastes like.

Anyone remember this?

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It was Faygo if I recall correctly. There is still Faygo product being made but not the chocolate flavor. But you can get Canfield's chocolate soda.

Annd if any of these chocolate flavors taste as bad as the "chocolate" syrup that Monin and Torani make for use in flavored latte's or Italian style soda's - they must be truly disgusting and artificial tasting. But some people like that

finishes like a Coke left overnight besides the bed that spent hours getting direct sunlight before you drank from it again (uh, not that I have ever done that or anything...)

Of course you haven't done that. Flat Coke left overnight on the nightstand is well known as a good hangover curative and I'm SURE you've never had one of those!

[Gigi4808]

Of course you haven't done that. Flat Coke left overnight on the nightstand is well known as a good hangover curative and I'm SURE you've never had one of those! 

ME?!- why no! I am just a nice Italian girl, pure as the driven snow I am!, a fine example of a young lady.... ok since I feel safe to say that my Mother is not reading, there may have been a time or two that the delightful smoothness of Effen vodka was had in amounts that may or may not have been enough to knock out a moose...

[elfin]

Blak was promoted/ distributed for free on the streets of Chicago this week. Grabbed two bottles. Very, very sweet-won't quench a thirst. Taste cola going down with a coffee candy finish. Does remind me of Thai (not Vietnamese) ice coffee. If you like Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke or even Black Cows it may be more palatable.

[Jason Perlow]

I finally got a chance to try this stuff today. Initial observations

1) At $1.79 per 8oz glass bottle at 7-11, its priced WAY TOO EXPENSIVE.

2) I like the flavor, although I'm pretty sure that the same could be accomplished by pouring some coffee extract syrup, like Autocrat or Coolbrew into regular Coke. It reminds me of "Zydecola", a drink from New Orleans that was marketed several years ago.

I really don't think this one is going to be a success. Yes, the flavor is good, but I think they seriously need to re-do the packaging -- Sodas are pretty value priced and commodity these days, and at the superpremium price that they are selling a Coca-Cola drink with coffee flavor added, which is supposed to compete with the ready to drink cold latte drinks from Starbucks, etc in the same case, its not going to fly. At bare minimum, they need to drop the price down to like $1.25 for an 8oz portion, and I would add another packaging for a 16oz or 20oz portion in a plastic bottle in line with their other drinks, priced at the same price as regular Coke.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Rebecca263]

I paid $3.99 for a 4 pack in Foodtown. I LIKE the small bottles, it's just not necessary for me to have a huge bottle, after all, it's not water. BUT, I would thrill to a change in recipe. Why not offer a premium soda with cane sugar instead of those other sweeteners?

And, the packaging is an abomination. On that alone, it isn't going to fly.

[Jason Perlow]

$3.99 for a 4-pack is not that bad. But not everyone is going to buy it by the 4-pack, I think its mostly slated for the convenience store demographic.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The aroma is vaguely coffee, vaguely chocolaty and vaguely burnt sugar. Flavor wise it starts out with a sharp coffee/tootsie pop flavor, mellows into a taste best described as chocolate tootsie pop and finishes like a Coke left overnight

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I have to agree with you, on your impressions, Gigi, but I really do like the stuff .. chilled heavily ... and I had one with vanilla ic cream to make a "float" ... yeah, that was realllly good!

[skoolpsyk]

As for the price, I'm sure we'll be seeing this is a 99 Cent Store near you soon!

[zilla369]

I had one Saturday. Now, I don't drink coffee except very rarely, so probably my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

It was the weirdest beverage experience - first sip, I thought hey, that's good! Second sip I thought yuck!. Picked it back up a few minutes later and thought hmmm....now it tastes better, but not as good as the first sip.

I didn't finish it though. And I felt pretty queasy for an hour or so after I stopped drinking it.

I concur with the jellybean analogy upthread - and I don't care for jellybeans at all.

Sorry, Coke Blak - but I think it's over between us before it even began.

[Gigi4808]

I have to agree with you, on your impressions, Gigi, but I really do like the stuff .. chilled heavily ... and I had one with vanilla ic cream to make a "float" ... yeah, that was realllly good! 

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I will send my share to you!

[Jay Francis]

Coca Cola, as we all know, gets its flavor from bubbling sherry through de-cocanized coca leaves, thus, the raison why all Coca-Cola base comes from one source. Some countries are rumored to still use cane sugar, Mexico for example, instead of high fructose corn syrup. But I have done side by side taste tests with American Coca-Cola and Mexican Coca-Cola and cannot distinguish the two in a double blind test.

I just tried BLAK. The flavor is not very coffee-ish, certainly nothing like the flavor of a Greek style frappe made with European Nescafe instant, nor like a whipped up iced coffee made by concentrating coffee extract through a Vietnamese filter and then whipping in a blender with sugar and ice.

No, the taste, and who knows why, is more like coconut. I taste coconut, almonds and cocoa. Very strange when you consider the ingredients list.

Wouldn't it be amusing if Coca-Cola had decided to market several different flavors for BLAK, and the flavor you got would be completely random, so as to confuse you about the taste?

This is a high fructose corn syrup drink. Very sweet. After I go through my four pack, I will never buy this product again.

Edited May 7, 2006 by Jay Francis (log)

[Jason Perlow]

I taste the coconut also.

[dockhl]

My husband says that when you add rum it really bringsa the coffee flavor out...........

[Moto]

My husband says that when you add rum it really bringsa the coffee flavor out...........

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That's the answer's I've been searching for. Thanks

[alacarte]

My husband says that when you add rum it really bringsa the coffee flavor out...........

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What's funny is that if you add milk, you hardly taste the coffee. It just tastes like pepsi-and-milk.

[phaelon56]

Coke Blak finally appeared in my local area - at WalMart of all places. At $4.98 per four pack of small bottles I think it's not exactly jumping off their shelves. In the peak of the summer picnic / party / beverage season around here you can get a 12 pack of Coke or Pepsi products (12 oz cans - not a 7.5 oz bottle) for $3 - $4.

The verdict? For my taste it has the worst of all worlds. Take the crappiest coffee flavored soda you can imagine, water it down a bit, reduce the carbonation, add some flat cola drink and then dress it up in a nice bottle. I did taste that bit of vanilla flavor and also something a bit like mild cough syrup. Mmmmm....

I'm not a big fan of cola drinks in general but do enjoy a cold one at times. I am a fan of the NY Espresso soda that's been mentioned here and have also tried an Itlain coffee soda that I enjoyed. But Coke Blak? Loser. I'll give it six months before they quietly stop producing it.