New Coke, 35 years on

I enjoy precisely that aspect of canned Coke, but I avoid it from bottles or fountains. Dr. Pepper for those situations.

I remember those taste test booths Pepsi would set up in shopping malls and such. Here's how they went for me:

1. They'd hand me two unmarked cups, one with Pepsi and one with Coke.

2. I'd take a sip from each, they'd ask me which I preferred.

3. I always knew which was the Coke, and would point to it.

4. They'd look away and say "Next!"

I've always preferred Coke. I prefer less sugared drinks because the sugar tends to overwhelm the flavor of the drink. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to find lightly sugared drinks today, they all taste like syrup. I drink coffee black, and just buy plain soda water and add a bit of OJ to it.

Either my qualia are objectively different from everyone else's, or it's 90% marketing fluff and psychological tribalism.

It's not so much that there can't be a difference between the various cokes, Pepsis, and other brands--I just find it hard to believe that the difference is so great that people can find one repulsive and the other divine.

It's all just sweet, fizzy drink. Side by side I might be able to tell coke and new coke apart. I don't find it difficult to believe that people have a preference. I find it difficult to believe that one could be so swayed by the difference to revolt.

So I cannot shake that it's more tribal identity than taste... Sort of like rock vs hip-hop.

Yea, I know telling people it's mostly mental is going to be controversial, so sorry.

I drink Coca-Cola as my preferred choice. I can't stand Pepsi (and will order a new drink in a restaurant if Pepsi shows up when I ordered Coca-Cola; I can tell, even if it's not labeled). There's a specific sweetness to each, to my tastebuds. I also enjoy RC Cola, but it's also a different flavour from either of the two most well-known brands.

I get pretty specific in my tastes, especially surrounding extra flavourings. I dislike vanilla flavouring added to my colas, though I will still drink it paired with another flavour such as orange or cherry.

I will choose Cherry Coke (classic) over just Coke any day, but will choose just Coke over Cherry-Vanilla Coke. I'm willing to drink Wild Cherry Pepsi (actually quite good), even though regular Pepsi is not a flavour I enjoy.

There's an interesting version of Pepsi called Pepsi Throwback (at least, that's what it's called around here) which I also enjoy greatly. It uses a different sweetener than regular Pepsi.

I can't stand either Diet Coke or Coke Zero (or any Diet soft drinks, really); neither taste right, to me.

Now, I still think New Coke vs Coke was overblown. I don't fault the Coca-Cola company for trying to shake things up a bit, and perhaps the new formula could have appealed better, given time and a better launch. We'll never know, though ...

Yes. I mean, not everyone else's, but certainly many.

> What I find incredible is just how similar everything tastes.

Vaguely similar, maybe. Incredibly similar? That's either you ignoring or being biologically unequipped to tell the differences.

> I just find it hard to believe that the difference is so great that people can find one repulsive and the other divine.

They taste different. In some cases radically different. Cokes and Pepsis are reminiscent of each other, but the difference between them on, say, a multidimensional tartness-sweetness-bitterness spectrum is as great as the similarity between them on the cola-hotdog spectrum. It's not difficult at all for me to recognize why people might like the taste of one and not the other.

If they were actually the same, the blind "Pepsi Challenge" wouldn't have worked as well as it did.

Next you'll say that you think Heinz ketchup tastes like Hunts ketchup, something which is just logically untrue, as if the ingredients and their proportions don't matter. Are they both ketchup? Yes. Do they taste the same? No. They don't mix the same ingredients in the same proportions. When two things are different, is it reasonable to form preferences even if those preferences are sometimes circumstantial (A better on X, B better on Y)? Yes.