Coke Zero ... My Hero!

I confess that I am a huge Coca-Cola fan. I used to drink close to 2 liters a day. Or three cans, which ever came first. I really try hard not to drink Pepsi, even though it was born in the Carolinas. At UNCW, I did a research paper on Coca-Cola advertising for an English class. I have Coca-Cola signs in my kitchen ... or I will when I hang them in my new house. They were up in my old house!
In 1985, I told two of my friends that the Cokes we'd been buying at Buffalo's on Wrightsville Road (I think that's the name of the street) tasted funny and just weren't the same. I wondered if the bottles had been washed properly. Two weeks later, New Coke came out with fanfare and when I tasted that one, I knew why the Cokes we'd been buying in refillable glass bottles (sigh, remember those?) tasted different. They'd been filled with New Coke. I hated New Coke, along with most of the free world.
A few years ago, I switched to Diet Coke thanks to Weight Watchers. An 12-ounce can of Coke is what, three points? I had to stop spending my points on Coke. Diet Coke is zero points, and I loved it when they added Vanilla, but my favorite is Diet Coke with Lime!!! Ah, rapture.
So imagine my surprise when I stopped at the Kangaroo mart on my way into work this morning and saw a bottle of Coke with a black cap. The label was kind of silverish. Was this a Diet Coke contest (sometimes they change the cap color for contests)? I pulled it out of the cooler. Coke Zero it said. Zero calories.
Well, zero calories is zero points, fer sure so I nabbed that Coke Zero and a Diet Coke with Splenda just in case I hated it. (For the record, I did try Coke2 and thought it was okay, but tasted kinda flat. And it was still 1 or 2 points. Diet Coke is zero and I'd gotten used to the taste, especially the lime.)
But I digress!!
I whipped off the cap and took a sip. Oh, honey! This stuff tastes a heckuva lot like good old Coca-Cola!! I mean it. It's not just some new version of Diet Coke. I mean the Diet Coke with Splenda tastes good, but it still tastes like Diet Coke. The Diet Coke with Lime is yummy, but it still tastes like Diet Coke, with a little splash of lime.
No, we're talking this tastes so much like my all-American friend in that red can, that curvy plastic bottle with the red cap and label, that if I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine that's what I was holding.
Now, if my husband (another Coke afficionado, thank heavens. Can you imagine what it would be like if I was Coke and he was Pepsi?) were to try it, he might be able to taste more of a difference then I can. NOT because my tastebuds aren't as sharp ... I thought I proved that with the New Coke story above ... but because he drinks the fully-sugared Coca-Cola Classic all day every day, and I have switched to unleaded -- Diet Coke.
How come I haven't heard anything about this??? Is Coke sneaking products onto store shelves these days thanks to the New Coke debacle? I mean, I have seen no DC with Splenda ads. I bumped into that product in a convenience store before it came to my Harris Teeter shelves. Now to have the miracle of Coke Zero just suddenly appear, why, it's as if I were Aladdin, rubbing the genie's lamp. Treasure beyond compare.
I'm so looking forward to my drive to work tomorrow morning. And yes, I will just have to make one teensy tiny stop on the way in. Lookout Kangaroo Mart ... here I come!