Diet Coke Frost Makes Us A Little Sad

Photo credit: Diet Coke

OK, so we’ve had a lot to say about Diet Coke this week, and today is no exception. Allow us to introduce Diet Coke FROST, a cherry-flavored, 30-calorie per 20-ounce Slurpee available at 7-Eleven, and the brand’s first release in more than 30 years.

It’s a Diet Coke! It’s a Slurpee! It’s a Cherry Coke!

What is going on here? And why would you want to drink a frozen beverage in February? We’re not sure, but we got our hands on a few cups in the name of helping those of you who seemed eager to give it a sip:

We kinda wanted to try it, too. Moreover, we wanted to like it. We were nuts for Cherry Coke as kids, and especially gleeful when it was offered in soda fountain form. We have extra-fond memories of after-school walks to 7-Eleven for a cold Slurpee on a hot Texas day. Operating the lever on the machine with precision and timing was serious business.

But we might have to file Diet Coke Frost Cherry under foods kids love but adults hate. (Yet why would a child pick a low-calorie beverage? These are the questions we would have raised in Diet Coke Frost marketing meetings.)

Editors tasted the Slurpees and delivered uncensored reactions.

"You can’t tell it’s diet," one optimistic taster announced, before adding several minutes later: "It has that diet aftertaste."

"I like this less than Marmite,” said another editor. “Marmite was 1000% salty. This is 999% sweet, plus that distilled chemical taste.”

Just how sweet is the Diet Coke Frost? “It tastes like all the candies at Grandma’s house pulverized into one terrible idea of a slushy.”

Another thing we loved so much we downed them like candy when we were kids? The decidedly-not-supposed-to-be-eaten-like-candy Luden’s Cherry Cough Drops. Man, were those good. Sips of the Diet Coke Frost evoked some of that fondly remembered flavor. But another editor detected a more emphatically medicinal flavor: “Robitussin,” she declared.

Despite some knee-jerk distaste, others saw a silver lining.

"There’s something about it that is really appealing. Like, I keep sipping at it and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the sugar."

There is general excitement on Le Twitter, too:

In the immortal words of LeVar Burton, don’t take our word for it; there are ways to get your hands on a free Slurpee, if ye feel like a slushy in February.

As for that telltale diet-y aftertaste, it’s one that could perhaps be undone with a glug of vodka.

Which brings us to perhaps one of our favorite things about the Diet Coke Frost; even though it’s 27 degrees outside, it got us really excited for summer.

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