I’ve only been wanting to try it for most of my life. Time to explain.
We all know the story. Coca-Cola was losing market share in soft drinks to Pepsi. The legendary, nearly century old Coke Formula seemed “stale” to the American populace. Something needed to done, and the answer was to change things. A new version of the soda, “New Coke” would be released in 1985 as a way to revamp the brand, but instead wound up being rejected by the populace at large.
While focus tested to be enjoyed and designed to mimic some aspects of Pepsi which were felt to be key to its growth in the market (something that more than likely had to do with “The Pepsi Challenge,” and being promoted by Michael Jackson) when people actually had it in their homes and drank it, they just didn’t like it.
That itself wasn’t the main problem – under normal circumstances, the product would simply not sell well and be discontinued. The problem was that the original formula was completely replaced with the new one! This meant anyone who wanted the traditional drink, save for a few scattered stocks, couldn’t get it at all! The stories of people having fridges “filled with the original stuff” are numerous and, true or not, show the love people had for the original drink, even if sales records didn’t show this to the executives at Coca-Cola.
79 days after the release of “New Coke” the original formula, named Coke Classic, would return to stores, and New Coke would fade away.
At least, that’s the story as I knew it. New Coke was released the same year I was born, meaning I technically was around while the product was in stores, but obviously would be too young to even drink it, let alone remember it had I been able to experience it.
Growing up I heard about it often – in little food documentaries, as a joke in TV shows, so many references here and there in media. It was something that I heard was terrible; hated; the worst thing ever! All this did though was make me curious, just what did it taste like?
When I asked my mother she told me it tasted “kind of like Pepsi but bad.” Others I asked agreed, and that would match what I would later learn about the drink.
Now, growing up in the 90’s there were many soft drinks available, with new ones coming into the market seemingly all the time. Yeah, I was a soda junkie, still am for as bad as it is for me – I enjoy the stuff.
I wondered, why don’t they try it again? Let a new generation try the drink! It would turn out Coca-Cola would try to keep the new formula around in the form of “Coke II,” but this drink too faded away and by the end of the 90’s was only sold in a few areas before being completely discontinued in 2002. I don’t recall ever seeing a can in my life, yet it seemed somewhat familiar when I did learn about it – perhaps I saw a commercial as a child? Who knows.
Whatever case, move ahead to 2015 and the 30th anniversary of the drinks release. I was somewhat hoping for the sake of nostalgia they would bring it back, at least for a little while, but nope. No dice.
Ever since then I’ve been a bit vocal on the issue. The story goes that back in the 80’s, the way Soft Drinks were the market really couldn’t support more than a few varieties. When Diet Coke was released it was considered a risk, for example, with concerns that the market couldn’t accept a new variation.
Now that’s obviously changed – today you can find, I think 8 different version of just Coke out there? Let alone the variety of other Soda brands and flavors in those brands. The markets different, so them having brought it back wouldn’t have been too crazy a risk, especially since 80’s nostalgia is such a big thing! Why not give it a shot?
As I would mention my interest in New Coke to older friends of mine, some of them would say that the “Mexican Coke” that you can get is actually “New Coke.” It’s not, that’s just Coke made with actual sugar. Others had other things to say, that it was sold as the normal drink in other parts of the world, what have you, but the reality was clear – the drink was gone. When Coke II left store shelves, that was the end of that, and given how things looked, I feared they never would give us another chance to at least try the drink.
Well, to my surprise, they finally did, seemingly out of the blue (or should I say, out of the red) decide to bring it back, but for a really coincidental reason.
You know that Netflix show “Stranger Things?” Yeah, I’ve never watched it, but it’s set in the 80’s and is full of the very 80’s nostalgia I was just speaking of above. Well, as it turns out the upcoming season of the series is set in 1985 and apparently will feature the drink. Given how Coke has promoted other media before, what has resulted is something I’ve been begging for — the re-release of New Coke, in a limited form.
I was told it would be in stores, but that wasn’t the case — it turns out you have to order a special limited collectors set which will include 2 cans of “New Coke” at a fitting cost of $19.85. Nonetheless, it’s a chance to actually get the drink that I took advantage of earlier today.
I’m mixed on this. Of course I’m a bit obsessed with the story of New Coke and the chance to try products from the past, to in a sense taste what 1985 was like (man that sounds strange) is something I enjoy the thought of, but it’s crazy to me that instead of doing this for the drinks 30th anniversary, they instead decided that a TV show tie-in was the right way to let us experience it.
In the end though, I don’t care. Something I’ve been wanting to do my whole life will finally be an option.. come about June 17th. Yeah, it’s going to take that long for me to get the damned drinks, but when I do it’s going to be good. Or maybe I’ll hate it, I don’t know, but you know I will write about it.