Coke quietly testing new beverage
Jun-18-2014

In the central lobby of the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, a glass display case features all the types of carbonated drinks currently sold by the company. There's the classic red can and its no-calorie iterations: Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Then there's Sprite, Fresca, and the citrus rainbow that is Fanta. Over on the left is a small green can that most American visitors won't recognize: Coca-Cola Life, a stevia-sweetened version of regular Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has been quietly test-marketing its new beverage, the first addition to the trademark "Coke" branded sodas in almost eight years. It released the drink in Argentina and Chile last year, and this fall it's launching in the U.K.

Coke Life isn't exactly a diet drink. According to the Guardian, it contains more than four tablespoons of real sugar and has about 89 calories per can-less than the 140 calories found in a can of regular Coke, but hardly something that will be championed by the quinoa crowd.

Instead, Coke Life is Coca-Cola's answer to the two health concerns that have been hitting the company's soda sales with a one-two punch: the anti-sugar movement, which rails against its full-calorie, full-sugar line of beverages, and the perception that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame (found in both Diet Coke and Coke Zero) are unhealthy and can even contribute to weight gain.

These concerns have contributed to a steady nine-year decline in U.S. soda sales. Last year they slid even further-dropping 3 percent, or more than double the 1.2 percent they'd fallen the year before. (Soda is already down a further 2 percent this year.) Diet soda sales withstood the decline for a while; now they appear to be tumbling, too. Last year, Diet Coke sales in the U.S. dropped nearly 7 percent, according to Beverage Digest.

As soda sales have fallen, Coke has also found itself fending off health-policy experts and state governments pushing for increased regulation of sugary drinks and snacks. New York City's limit on soda container sizes is currently making its way through state courts, and a California law that would add a warning label to cans saying, "Drinking beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay" has made it through the state senate, despite heavy lobbying by the local arm of the American Beverage Association (of which Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are members). In the U.K., where Coke Life will make its next debut, Coca-Cola has agreed to reduce the average calories in its sodas by 5 percent by the end of this year.

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