...will soon be arriving at a grocery store near you (within a couple of week). There's a big thing on CNN about it now. Guess they got sick of the bombing stories.

Personally, when I want a vanilla coke I just add the appropriately-flavored stoli, but I can see where that wouldn't work at the office.

Any thoughts? Will y'all drink it? How about the equally-new berry-flavored Pepsi? What flavors of soda would you like to see.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Answers

You know it begs the question:

"What would Stoli Vanil taste like in Vanilla Coke?"

Would it be overkill?

Or could you just add regular Stoli to Vanilla Coke and get the smae effect?

The mind boggles.

There will have to be scientific studies done at the Chao Institute in Arlington, TX.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

I refuse to be excited about vanilla coke. I was excited about diet coke with lemon and then it ended up tasting like someone melted a lemondrop and threw it in the coke. Blech. It had that slightly chemical 409 lemon kind of thing. Pepsi lemon is only slightly better.

So now they're taking my OTHER favorite flavoring and adding it to coke. And they'll just ruin it.

I don't think you can flavor soda, cause you just kind of EXPECT soda. And when it isn't right, your taste buds go into revolt. Or at least, mine do. But no to berry-flavored pepsi. I hate fruit- flavored things like Cherry Coke. Blech.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

If regular Stoli going into Vanilla Coke works, the one cool thing is that it would probably be cheaper. Regular Stoli is usually cheaper than Stoli Vanil, at least in my area. But then again, I live in Baltimore County, Maryland, where you can't buy any wine or beer in the grocery. You have to go to the liquor store for all of your alcoholic beverages. The bonus is that the liquor stores are not government run or ABC stores so there are some price wars to take advantage of and there is one on every corner.

Don't even get me started on package goods...

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

If I want flavored Coke I'll just go to Sonic.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

The only thing I know about Vanilla Coke is that it(they?) sponsors a free music festival ever Friday this summer in ATL and I'll be there every Friday.

Maybe I'll sneak in some Stoli.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Oooh! A combination I hadn't thought of: Ocean Water with Stoli Vanil! Bless your heart for mentioning Sonic.

Honestly, almost all cokes taste bad to me now - cokes meaning all soda or pop or whatever. Even my beloved Dr. Pepper tastes weird and doesn't bring me joy ever since I stopped drinking sugared drinks. This weekend in DC was supposed to be "fat weekend", in which we drank and ate anything that we fancied, and all my Dr. Peppers were yucky. It was a huge blow, because Dr. P has always been my second best friend (after cigarettes, of course).

I'll be trying Vanilla Coke. But I won't drink any Pepsi, as Pepsi makes me very sick.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Robyn, what is Ocean Water? We don't have a Sonic in my area that I can think of (even though we do have the commercials - don't you hate that?)

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Dr Pepper just might be coming out with a new flavor. I couldn't say more than that, but it might be happening in July. It might be red.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Carmel Pepsi ownz. If they tried to can it, it would be terrible, so I hope that nobody notices that ice cream carmel in the bottom of a fountain Pepsi is the drink of the Gods other than people with access to Roe-Anns. :D

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Dawn, Ocean Water is a Sonic drink that looks like blue Kool-Aid but tastes coconutty. It smells like suntan oil. I don't drink it because Sonic's logo for it is a wave with a big drop, and I always think I'm about to get a big frosty cup of salt water.

But, I bet it would be good with vodka. Or rum.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

I would like to state for the record that Ocean Water is good with rum.

I don't know how I feel about this news of new Dr. Pepper flavors. And after eating red velvet cake for dessert for two days, and then having the sneaky suspicion that my entire insides have now been permeated with red food die, red Dr. Pepper frightens me.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2002

Mmmmm...I wonder how that Sonic Ocean Water would be with Malibu Rum...overkill? How about with banana flavored rum?

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Apple, rice, chicken and vanilla.

The Four Flavors of the Apocalypse... and Luby's...

The Matrix is real, yo, and is attempting to homogenize our taste buds. Resist.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

That said, I had a Vanilla Coke last night and it was quite tasty.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Apple, rice, chicken and vanilla.

Yeah, and I would not drink a Chicken Coke. Not even for money.

And I think you'd have to add "banana" to the Apocolyptic flavors. I hate all things that are supposed to taste "like" a banana.

Dan, rice is not even a flavor, now that I think about it. What's "rice-flavored?" Clown.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

You know what, though? Vanilla gets a bad rap. Once I started using real vanilla - and by that I mean scraping the vanilla from the bean - my whole view of vanilla really changed. It's become one of my favorite flavors, in fact.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

here's a flavor you might enjoy. it's truly the san francisco treat.

http://www.ilovebacon.com/050902/b.shtml

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

All right, I can take a hint...

...little ms. morbid fascination with the celtics livin' in Alabama her whole LIFE.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

The day is May 13, 2002, and a friend of mine found a bottle of Vanilla Coke on his recent vacation in Florida.

I've just tried it, and it is incredible! Tastes exactly like if you made it yourself (unless you put in half a glass of vanila syrup with half a glass of coke).

I will be jonesing for more when I am done. Coke better get it into New Jersey quickly!

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

...little ms. morbid fascination with the celtics livin' in Alabama her whole LIFE.

Morbid being the operative word. So sad, my Boston love. Why do they want to hurt me all the time?

I am still standoffish about the Vanilla Coke. Since I have been drinking (in a purely addicted sense) Diet Coke for many years now, I wonder if the Coke de Vanil will be too sweet.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Speaking of new Coke stuff, do y'all have the Fridge packs yet? They're pretty new here, and I have to say, quite handy. Of course, I already have a coke dispenser from Container Store, but the smaller cases are much easier to carry.

What will they think of next?

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Hannah, what are fridge packs?

Questions, questions, I'm always asking questions.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

I tried the Vanilla Coke last night. The weird thing is that I drank like 5 of them and did not get any drunk on.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

So very sad. While in ATL a couple of weeks ago, all we wanted was a Vanilla Coke. We even went to the Coke Museum, and there was none to be found.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

I work right across the street from Coke World Headquarters. I also, on occassion, go to a convienence store that is no more than 500 yards from said world headquarters.

Ya know what? I went there the day they released Vanilla Coke and THEY DIDN"T HAVE IT!! I was SO mad. I almost asked if they could send the manager 500 yards down the road to pick up a few cases from the CEO of Coke.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

It tastes exactly like a Stoli V & Coke minus the yummy alcoholness.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

It tastes exactly like a Stoli V & Coke minus the yummy alcoholness.

Which means you can just add cheap vodka, rather than the $20 Stoli and get the same effect. I'm telling you, life is good.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

"Which means you can just add cheap vodka, rather than the $20 Stoli and get the same effect. I'm telling you, life is good."

Al, did you buy a ticket to ride on my train of thought? Come, join me in the club car, I'll buy you a rail (pun intended) vodka and VCoke.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Which means you can just add cheap vodka, rather than the $20 Stoli and get the same effect. I'm telling you, life is good.

Goddamn, Al, I'm gonna go throw a party now.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Hannah, what are fridge packs?

Dawn! I just saw this. Basically they revamped their 12-pack packaging and made the cases more like rectangles. Then they put perforation on one end so you just tear it off, stick the whole thing in your fridge, and they roll out one at a time. Just like the stupid plastic dispenser I bought at the Container Store.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

Hannah, s'aright, I figured that you weren't deaf, you were just ignoring me. Hee.

Now, 12-packs in our area have been like that for a long time...and, they are now making cases like that too. Unless you are a Pepsi drinker (in which case you should be shot anyway) and their cases used to come in those asinine two-tier structures which would only fit in the fridge if you took out a shelf, which is, oh so, convenient.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

How about the equally-new berry-flavored Pepsi?

And this, makes me want to gag.

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

How about bile-flavored RC Cola?

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2002

How about bile-flavored RC Cola?

C'mon Omar, now don't make fun of Royal Crown...they have been making that bile flavored crap since 1905.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Austin must be ultra-hip... I didn't know the Coke boxes came any other way than with that perforated part so it can live in your fridge, ready for the easy taking.

As for whether Vanilla Coke plus regular vodka will taste like regular Coke with vanilla vodka*, I will wait for a verdict from y'all first before assuming. Because, see, once on a Sunday afternoon I tried to jerry-rig it with regular Coke, regular vodka, and vanilla syrup, and it was a glass full of nasty. I'm skeptical that anything but the actual vanilla vodka will do.

* Smirnoff's Vanilla Twist? Tastes just the same, at a nicer price point.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

I tried the new Vanilla Coke this weekend, sans vodka, and I wasn't very pleased with it. It just wasn't right. Almost cream soda-ey, but sort of chemical-ey.

That was what it tasted like from a plastic bottle. I'll wait and try it from a can or fountain before I have rendered my final verdict. I hate to not feel the love for the Coke.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

Well, the fridge packs are new, cause they say they are. When I say rectangle, I mean long and skinny. Not the normal kind of 12-pack rectangle every brand uses.

And I have absolutely no desire to try Vanilla Coke. I like my Diet Coke just the way it is.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2002

My Opinions:

Vanilla Coke in bottle: flat, syrupy, yuck.
Vanilla Coke in Can: fizzy, good bite, yum.
(I feel about the same re: Cherry Coke--it's better if the phosphoric acid dissolves some yummy aluminium or something. And Diet Cherry Coke: yuck.)
Vanilla Coke + Stoli Vanil: Waste of Stoli
Vanilla Coke + any non-potato-crap vodka: Yum.
Diet Lemon Coke: Tab with sugar instead of saccharine. Why? Potable, but only barely.
Diet Coke: tastes like ass, and Diet Pepsi have the edge. (HERESY!)< br> All other Pepsi products, as compared to similar Coke products: flat, over-sweetened, syrupy, yucky.
The Real Thing[tm]: Still Nectar of the Gods, barring that unfortunate New Coke incident. And even better in countries where the sugar content is higher than (or replaces the) the ccrn syrup content.
Probably won't bother with Berry Pepsi.

I wish we could still get Guarana Cola in the ATL. Best stuff ever, smuggled in from an unspecified location (a country somewhere South of the Border). But given the impossibility of getting a steady supply, probably US FDA requiements are completely ignored and it makes you give birth to puppies or grow hair on your eyeballs or something equally horrific if you overindulge in its stimulating cola-esque tastiness. Ever since reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, I'm all for my food passing basic "It won't kill you" tests.

And whoever brought up "coconut", thanks a lot for triggering my gag reflex. :( Vile stuff. In ATL, you CAN get coconut soda at Plaza Fiesta Latina. And the World's Tackiest Jesus Clock. But you can not drink that stank coconut swill near ME. *vomit*)

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002