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| Summit Diet GT Cola |
Since their introduction in the 1960s, diet colas have steadily taken a bigger chunk of the soft drink market. In 2010, Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi-Cola to become the second-best-selling soft drink. According to PepsiCo's 2011 annual report, the public purchased over US$5 million of Diet Pepsi product. It may pale in comparison to Diet Coke's sales, but sales like those are still attractive enough for smaller companies to chip away at Coke's and Pepsi's profits by offering their own line of sodas-- diet or otherwise. ALDI offers a line of carbonated soft drinks under the Summit brand. Today, we take a look at Summit Diet GT Cola.
I'm partial to diet sodas. I'm not a diabetic, and I'm well aware that "Diet" doesn't mean it's particularly healthful. It's just that I don't care for the way that high fructose corn syrup in regular sodas seems to linger inside my mouth and on my tongue. Between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, I prefer Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi does a better job of approximating the flavor of its regular variety. Diet Dr. Pepper comes a close second. One look at the silver/red color scheme of the Diet GT Cola can, and you know which cola brand they're trying to evoke. Despite the obvious parallel being drawn to Diet Coke, I remained hopeful that the contents would resemble Diet Pepsi.
The flavor is... different. It has faint caramel undertones, falling somewhere between Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. It's not overly sweet. However, there's a medicine-y aftertaste that's difficult to overlook for the sake of saving a few cents. I took a look at the list of ingredients on the can to try and figure out what was giving the soda its peculiar aftertaste:
Then I took a look at the list of ingredients on the back of a Diet Pepsi bottle that I fished out of the recycling bin:
If you weren't already aware of it, FDA regulations require food manufacturers to list ingredients in decreasing order of predominance. What we can then gather from looking at these two lists is that not all diet colas are created equal. The Summit diet cola actually contains more Potassium Benzoate than the Diet Pepsi, which may explain the aftertaste (exactly how much more is a mystery). Also, caffeine is listed last on the Summit can. That may not have much bearing on its flavor, but those of you looking for a sugarless buzz may want to look elsewhere. On the other hand, "natural flavor" is listed higher up on the Summit can than it is on the Diet Pepsi bottle. Give ALDI some credit for attempting to give their product some personality.
It's not a bad cola, mind you. It pretty much falls in-step with my experiences with other "store brand" sodas. It's just not the cola that I grew up drinking. The major bottlers offer frequent promotions that make any potential savings practically negligible. I would still drink Summit Diet GT Cola if I was in desperate need of a soda fix, but it won't replace my favorite brand anytime soon.
I'm partial to diet sodas. I'm not a diabetic, and I'm well aware that "Diet" doesn't mean it's particularly healthful. It's just that I don't care for the way that high fructose corn syrup in regular sodas seems to linger inside my mouth and on my tongue. Between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, I prefer Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi does a better job of approximating the flavor of its regular variety. Diet Dr. Pepper comes a close second. One look at the silver/red color scheme of the Diet GT Cola can, and you know which cola brand they're trying to evoke. Despite the obvious parallel being drawn to Diet Coke, I remained hopeful that the contents would resemble Diet Pepsi.
The flavor is... different. It has faint caramel undertones, falling somewhere between Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. It's not overly sweet. However, there's a medicine-y aftertaste that's difficult to overlook for the sake of saving a few cents. I took a look at the list of ingredients on the can to try and figure out what was giving the soda its peculiar aftertaste:
It's not a bad cola, mind you. It pretty much falls in-step with my experiences with other "store brand" sodas. It's just not the cola that I grew up drinking. The major bottlers offer frequent promotions that make any potential savings practically negligible. I would still drink Summit Diet GT Cola if I was in desperate need of a soda fix, but it won't replace my favorite brand anytime soon.
I'm drinking one now, and trying to ignore the slight hint of green olive flavor. Olive flavor??
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine a diet cola tasting worse than one that tastes like olives.
Think I'll be buying Safeway Diet Cola next time. Their Diet Root Beer is pretty decent.
Aldi's diet cola does have a strange fruity Hubba Bubba bubble gum flavor that is outside of the typical cola flavor profile. It's about as gassy as diet Pepsi and doesn't burn your throat the way diet Coke does. I'm guessing the extra Potassium Benzoate helps keep the shelf life longer in storage. The major brands (Coke & Pepsi) have limited shelf-lives and hire rack jobbers to pull outdated product out of the stores. It's not awful, but I prefer the GT diet Citrus Twist when its available.
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