John's Blog

Sometimes, you crave something just because you can't have it. A few years ago when I first hear of Pepsi Kona, it was long after they had pulled the plug on this coffee/cola blend. My reaction was one of profound disappointment, since for some reason I thought combining these two flavors sounded intriguing....or sounded like a very BAD idea, and I wanted to try it so I could objectively decide which was the case. But alas, I never ran across any of the other coffee-colas that are out there so the craving passed.

Recently, with the announcement of the introduction of Coca-Cola BlaK, I had these dormant cravings stirred-up again. They promised "a carbonated beverage that fuses Coke effervescence with coffee essence". My initial reaction was that this is too good to be true; anything that sounds that good will probably lead to a big disappointment but I was still determined to "get me some" and try it for myself. All week long, I've had my eyes peeled looking for it when I've gone in various stores, only to find giant piles of "Black Cherry Vanilla Coke" under the "NEW" banner, and not a drop of BlaK. I almost picked up some of that to drown my frustration, but I decided against it. Since Cherry Coke was such a disappointment (anybody who remembers a true "fountain" cherry Coke will know what I'm talking about, and YES..I'm that old), and since Vanilla Coke was so gawd awful horrible, why would mixing them together be any better?

So today, I'm strolling through Target and again, no BlaK in sight. But there happens to be a guy pushing a pallet of Coke products through the store, and I flag him down and ask him where this "holy grail" of sodas might be. He tells me, "Oh yea, it just came in. Ya 'wanna come back in an hour, I'm gonna build an endcap of it." Ah, no I don't. You've made it clear that it's too much trouble to just go in the back and get me some, but he sees my look of disappointment, and I think he's going to cave in and do the right thing. Ah, no. "Dude, it's everywhere now. Where have you been that they didn't have it?" I proceed to go down the list of the stores I've been to that didn't have it, only to have him concede "Oh yea, I haven't been there yet". This is not going well. He then ticks off the area grocery stores that he HAS stocked, and luckily one of them is the next planned stop on my trip so off I go. But when I get there, I find out that he was a lying sack of crap, and this store didn't have it either. But one more stop has me acquiring the object of my desire; cola-wise, that is.

After all this frustration, this stuff had better be good. And here's the news: it really is good! I truly had been prepared for a big letdown, but I was pleasantly surprised at just how much I liked it. It has a very pleasant mouth feel, largely due to it being so lightly carbonated. Just enough cola fizz to make it interesting. They call it a "carbonated fusion beverage" but let's be clear, coffee wins the battle of the flavors which isn't such a bad thing. It is sweet, but not too sweet thanks to the use of artificial sweeteners which keeps the calorie count down to 45 per serving. It somehow has an almost "creamy" feel, making it a nice alternative to a Frappuccino which comes in at 190 calories per bottle.

The novelty will probably wear off, but for now this is one of my new favorites. I don't see myself guzzling it in mass quantities, but it's a pleasant change from plain old soda. You may want to get yours now, since I don't see this doing big bucks business, which may lead to a short life span like Vanilla Coke. But then again, I predicted I wouldn't like it, so what do I know?