Sometimes Foodie: Marshmello's Limited Edition Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Creations has been busy. We've already had four different flavors: Starlight, Byte, this collaboration with Marshmello, and Dreamworld in under a year! That's one flavor per season.

New flavors are fun, but if you don't do it right, it leads to burn out. After a decade of blogging, and countless limited edition products from well known brands, I feel qualified to say, Coke is doing it right.

While Creations hasn't had enough time, or flavors, to be a proper one-to-one comparison to Oreos...I'm going to compare them to Oreos anyway.

Why am I sick of Oreos, but not sick of Coke? (I constantly say I am sick of Oreos, yet I keep buying them. I already have a bag of Snickerdoodle on deck.) What about Coke sets it apart? Well, a few things, but, rather than write out a long-winded post (Like I usually do) I'll just bullet point them here:

It's Readily available - other than the online-exclusive Byte, you can buy these pretty much everywhere. CVS, Wawa, Grocery Stores, Target...these aren't exclusive to any one store or location.
Single bottles/cans are available - unlike Twinkies or Oreos, you can buy a single bottle. If I like it, I can get more or buy a pack of the cans. If I don't, I don't have an entire box or bag to slog through.
Palatable flavors - Coke isn't a risk taker, they aren't out here making Turkey flavored soda (which is fun to think about, but sounds horrific to actually consume.) They're making "starlight." What is "starlight?" There is no real descriptor on the bottle, but it's sweet and cotton candy-like, with that classic Coke taste. Familiar, yet different enough to warrant a pretty label. Every flavor of Coke might not be your favorite, but they've never released anything gross just to be trendy. (Looking at you Mystery Everything Bagel Pop-Tarts and Swedish Fish Oreos.) Creations is fast and loose with the naming, and descriptions, but all of the flavors so far have been fruity and kind of normal.

From a financial standpoint, the Oreo is more bang for your buck, but the easy consumability of a single soda, vs an entire bag of cookies is worth it for people like me with a high snack-food turn-around time. But, Creations is still new-new, and hasn't let me down yet. Could Marshmello's soda be Creation's first dud?

Unlike the other Creation products with their conceptual names and branding, this is the first one to flat out tell you what it is supposed to taste like. And it's not marshmallow. It's Strawberry Watermelon.

On one hand, I love the poetic absurdity that an artist named Marshmello, did NOT choose to make this marshmallow flavored. I studied art in college, I'm a graphic designer, and I dabble in a lot of artistic mediums, so this makes complete sense to that part of my brain. Like, of COURSE this isn't marshmallow flavored. That would be predictable!

BUT the food blogging, type-A, marshmallow-loving part of me understands the disappointment that it isn't. (It's like the opposite of those satisfying video compellations.) It might not be as satisfying, but strawberry watermelon still sounds pretty pleasant.

Opened and poured, it looks just like classic Coke. Bubbly, brown, but it smells sweet and fruity. The thing that comes to mind is Airheads, which actually sold a watermelon and strawberry combo bar! (Are those still available? They are my top two Airheads flavors combined into one!)

So it smells like Airheads, and it tastes...kind of like Airheads. Dissolved into cola.

Cola is a pretty robust caramelized flavor that pairs nicely with fruit, like cherry, orange, or even raspberry. (My favorite Coke Remix option!) And this is no different. It's familiar, yet different, and very sweet. It reminds me a bit of Patch strawberry soda from Save-A-Lot, but with a cola background. I bet if you took a bright red berry soda, and mixed it with normal Coke, you'd get something very similar to this. It's sweet, it's candy like, and youthful. To me, this tastes like middle school, but in a good way.

After a while I noticed a slightly sour after taste, similar to this year's Voo-Dew (sour candy.) The aforementioned sourness actually enhances the candy-like nature of the drink.

It's bright, fruit-forward (in an artificial kind of way), and very sweet. I'm 35 now, and I still love candy, but I think this flavor would do better with a younger crowd. I like it, and I had fun drinking it, but I don't love it. I guess Limited Edition Marshmello Coke and I are better off as F-R-I-E-N-D-S.