The magical sweetner tastes fine to me; it's as good as any other non-caloric sweetener I've tried. Maybe not as good as sugar. But then I have a bias towards zero calorie drinks that do not cause massive headaches and that do not make me worry about cancer… Or just give me sugar. The Coca-Cola product ZERO Vitamin Water tastes better than water, the other option that won't make you fat and kill you. (So stop complaining!) ~ Ilene
p.s. The Market Shadows' Virtual Value Portfolio is long shares of Coke (KO) and we sold several put options in the Virtual Put Selling Portfolio.
Coca-Cola's Magical New Sweetener Might Have A Serious Problem: Its Taste
By KATIE JENNINGS at Business Insider
Coca-Cola recently released a new product, Coke Life, intended to please anti-sugar consumers who are wary of artificial sweeteners like aspartame. The magic ingredient? Stevia: a calorie-free sweetener derived from plants.
But while large companies are just starting to warm to the alternative sugar replacement that has long been a mainstay in the supplement aisle of health food stores, it might not be ready for prime-time.
Stevia hit the U.S. sweetener market in 2008 under brand names like Truvia and Stevia in the Raw (made by the manufacturer of Sweet’N Low), and it has been used to sweeten specialty drinks like Zevia for years. Now major beverage companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are banking on stevia as the perfect natural sweetener solution for a calorie-conscious consumer base that is also increasingly concerned with natural ingredients, as The New York Times Magazine reported.
But stevia is receiving pushback from customers. As we recently reported, fans of Vitaminwater took to Facebook to protest the use of stevia in the company's products, complaining it tastes like “chemicals” and “cough syrup.” (Vitaminwater is made by a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company.)
Food scientists have been working for years to try and engineer both the plant and its chemical compounds in order to tweak the taste. The holy grail? A soda that tastes good — and is perceived as both healthy and "natural."
What Exactly Is Stevia?
In its natural form, Stevia rebaudiana is a leafy green plant found in Paraguay and Brazil. It has been used in those regions for hundreds of years as a sweetener and also “as a treatment for burns, colic, stomach problems and sometimes as a contraceptive,” according to LiveScience.
Keep reading: Coca-Cola's Magical New Sweetener Might Have A Serious Problem: Its Taste
