Slashdot Mirror
New From Coca-Cola ... Fizzy Milk?
suraj.sun writes "Cows may not think it is the real thing, but Coca-Cola is preparing to launch fizzy milk on the world. The drink contains skim milk mixed with sparkling water, flavored with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar. Scientists have developed the drink at the firm's laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, ensuring it will not curdle in its 8 oz. aluminum bottle. Going under the name Vio, Coca-Cola has begun test-marketing the carbonated drink at natural food stores and delis in New York. It sells for about $2.50 a bottle, no chilling required. One of Coke's copywriters claims it tastes 'like a birthday party for a polar bear.' It comes in four 'natural' flavors — peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada — and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26 grams of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5 grams of fat. The drink is part of a wider Coke initiative called Project Life to develop milk-based products. If it is a success in the United States it could be launched globally." Nothing washes down a grilled rat cheese sandwich like a bottle of fizzy milk.
My memory's a little fizzy^Wfuzzy, but they have a number of similar products in Japan and Korea, with some having been developed almost a century ago. About the only differences I can think of are generally less sugar (or at least not so oh-my-god-sweet), and no carbonation -- though a number of the drinks are acidic and fermenty enough to seem almost carbonated.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Just when you think Chocolate Milk was far enough, Coke raises the bar.
Oh god. >.
There is also the swiss drink "rivella", which is whey-based, and enjoying a relatively stable but modest popularity since 1952
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
I've been mixing Coca-Cola and milk forever...
Oh great! It's as sugary as Coke, but now with more fat!
It doesn't sound too bad when I read the description, but I don't know about the carbonation.
How does the citrus flavor not curdle the milk? Sounds like you might end up with a Cement Mixer
Shameless plug alert: Game server control panel
See, this whole thing just illustrates what I realized some years ago. Coca Cola Company = Microsoft. Think about it. Just like Microsoft can't innovate to save its life and instead prefers to operate either by reacting to what others in the industry do or by giving customers something that they don't want, that's how the Coca Cola Company works. So what did Pepsi do this year? They gave us Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, both of which used real sugar instead of corn syrup. So what is Coke's answer to this? Fizzy milk.
I think I just vomited a little in my mouth.
"Smooth Moos" was launched around 1995 -- but the product has so little Internet presence that I think it's pretty much Pepsi's Holiday Special. Coke, beware: you're not Genghis Khan.