Coca-Cola Zero Oreo

This scary looking can is a limited edition from the folks at Coca-Cola. This caught my eye at the store because I first thought it was a canned version of the Fanta Haunted Apple, which was also in the store and with only a cursory glance they both feature black and white stripes. However, my double-take confirmed it was something wholly different. Now, there is a lot going on here. Firstly, an Oreo flavored beverage??? Who came up with this? It's such an odd concept for a beverage flavor at all... but then to pair that with cola? Secondly, Oreos are basically empty calories in the form of a sugar and fat biscuit... so they said, "Let's make it without sugar!" My guess is someone said, "No one will buy it because they will think it's a can of pure sugar. Parents will never let their kids try it so it has to be diet or with artificial sweeteners." But the entire thing from start to finish had to have been approved by heaps of people at Coca-Cola and it was just too bizarre to pass up. Ironically, I also have found some Coca-Cola flavored Oreo cookies at a snack shop. Although this isn't a place I would normally discuss non-soda things, how can I pass up reviewing them side by side, so lets crack on!

This can is 12 fl.oz. and listed at 0 calories with ingredients such as aspartame and sucralose. However, it does contain 34mg of caffeine, which is on par with the amount of caffeine in regular Coke. Opening the can releases a satisfying crack of carbonation releasing. The aroma coming off the top of the can is very vanilla scented. It smells more like a can of vanilla cake frosting and I don't think Oreo filling has much of a scent. Taking a swig, I find that this is very reminiscent of Vanilla Coke. I'm searching for the slightest hint of the chocolate wafer you get when eating Oreo cookies but not finding it. The vanilla is strong and overtakes the entire experience. I'm picking up little to no cola flavor. In fact, I'd say the vanilla might be stronger than that in your average Coca-Cola Vanilla bottle. A couple of sips in, I think I'm sensing the faintest hint of chocolate, if you can call it that, on the back taste buds to the sides of my tongue, and only in the finish of the sip. It's certainly a unique experience to taste. 

While the can is entirely in English and found in the U.S., leading me to believe it was bottled in the U.S. or Canada.... the cola flavored cookies are a different matter. I found these in a foreign import snack shop. The kind of shop that only has the uniquely flavored snacks found outside the U.S., primarily the U.K., Latin America, and East Asia. This box appears to come from Korea based on the type, and then which seems to be confirmed once I finally located a .kr web URL printed on the box. 

This box has two sealed bags of cookies inside, which is nice if you want to save the rest for later. But each bag only contains four cookies. So this entire box contains just 8 Oreo cookies! When opening the bag a sugary mix of vanilla and spice scent wafts out. The taste is something different to be sure. I really only got the taste of the chocolate biscuits. It wasn't until well after I swallowed the chewed cookie I finally picked up a very tiny taste of something which could be akin to cola, but it also felt a bit pepperminty. There's also an unrecognizable chemical-like tang I'm getting before and after. While chewing, I don't sense it, but when putting the cookie in my mouth and after ingesting it I find it to have a weird essence.

Nehi Grape

In 1905, a pharmacist named Claude Hatcher founded the Union Bottling Works in Columbus, Georgia. Claude's company focused primarily on the production of his sodas Chero-Cola and Royal Crown Ginger Ale. Due to the popularity of Chero-Cola, the company changed its name to the Chero-Cola Company in 1912. 

By 1924, Chero-Cola Co released a line of flavored sodas under the name Nehi. While the name conjures something of an asian origin to my mind, lore holds that it had a more folksy beginning. There is more than one story, but the two major myths basically boil down to calling the competition "knee-high" in how they compared to their drink. The Nehi line up at the time included orange, grape, peach, and root beer. By 1928, Nehi drinks were outselling Chero-Cola and so the company again changed names to the Nehi Corporation. 

Nehi suffered from the Great Depression like most other companies and operated at a loss in 1932. When Claude Hatcher died in 1933, the new president of the company became H.R. Mott. H.R. Mott led the development of a new cola beverage and borrowing a concept from Hatcher, named the drink Royal Crown Cola. Never ceasing to ride waves of popularity the Nehi Co. changed its name again in 1955 to the Royal Crown Company. The company was later brought under the umbrella of Snapple, which was later acquired by Cadbury Schweppes Inc. which spun it off to the control of by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Although Nehi can still be found today in some flavor variations, I doubt it is possible to still find it in glass bottles.

Perhaps Nehi is most well known from M*A*S*H, the television series which ran from 1972-1983 about an army surgical group in Korea. The character "Radar" O'Reilly was obsessed with Grape Nehi on the show. 

This bottle has a nearly non-existant level of carbonation, but a pleasant sugary, grape aroma. It has a sweet grape flavor like most modern American fruit-flavored sodas but isn't quite as overly rich as, say, a Welch's or the older Crush Grape which can sometimes make you sick by the end of a bottle.