Matters of Taste

TIME's food critic Mimi Sheraton secured a bottle of new-vintage Coca-Cola, currently scarcer than a 1934 Mouton-Rothschild, and tasted it against old- style Coke and Pepsi-Cola. Her report:

Cola tastings will probably never replace wine tastings as a status party theme, but as the new-formula Coke seeps into the marketplace, there surely will be many informal comparisons. Because cola beverages are meant to be drunk well chilled, it seemed a good idea to follow that practice.

New Coke seems to retain the essential character of the original version in that it, too, imparts faint cocoa-cinnamon overtones and has a balanced, smooth body with no sharpness or overpowering flavor. However, it is sweeter than the original formula and also has a body that could best be described as lighter. It tastes a little like classic Coca-Cola that has been diluted by melting ice.

I have always preferred Coca-Cola to Pepsi, finding the latter much too sweet and thin. Most of all, I dislike the citrus-oil flavor I seem to detect in Pepsi. And though the new Coke approaches the sweetness and thinness of Pepsi, it does not have the lemony aftertaste. Therefore, I still prefer Coke. I suspect that those who have preferred Pepsi will continue to do so.