Ultimate Mystery - Coke Creations: Ultimate

"Ultimate," the newest flavor in Coke's Creations line, has been released, and the novelty of these whimsical concept-based soda flavors still draws me in like a moth to the flame. 

This flavor is branded with a video game theme, more specifically, League of Legends (abbreviated as, "LoL." No joke.) 

Arcane, the Netflix series, is loosely based on the characters from LoL, and I really liked it, but from what I understand, the plot of the show has nothing at all to do with the gameplay, and from the looks of it, neither does this soda. 

MOVE Peeps, Get out tha' Way! - Coke MOVE

I am VERY tired. It's been a really long week with me working overtime and I want nothing more than to just crawl right into bed, but I really want to get back into posting consistently, so here's a quickie.

Coke Creations is back again with another intangibly themed soda, this time we have "Move." A "transformation flavored" soda. What does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine! 

Coca-Cola Tic Tacs

Six years. That's how long it's been since I posted a Tic-Tac review. It was the 2017 Minions re-release, because they were finally banana-flavored. (The 2015 version was passion fruit for reasons I will never understand.) So to say, "It's been a minute," would be an understatement. 

Like most millennials I grew up with a pack in my pocket, and pretended they were medicine, a totally normal and healthy thing for a child to do. But as the early 2000's obsession with all things minty-fresh ended, I found myself reaching for them less and less. It's time to check in and see what they're up to. 

Marshmello's Limited Edition Coca-Cola - Watermelon Strawberry Flavored

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.

This is What Dreams are Made of? - Coke Dreamworld

Coca-Cola's Creation line are sodas that are flavored using abstract concepts and unique labels. So far we've had Starlight, Byte, a collaboration with Marshmello (which was actually strawberry-watermelon flavored), and now we have Dreamworld. 

 

Normally I hate marketing that take a normal product and hypes it up to go viral, but I have actually been having a lot of fun with this! While I have found most of it's flavors to be rather conventional, with Starlight tasting like cotton candy, and Byte having a raspberry-fruity flavor, the elaborate labels and just barely unpretentious product descriptions keep me coming back for more every time. Is this the new limited edition Oreo for food bloggers? 

The Cola that fell to Earth - Coke Starlight

I am fighting the urge to obnoxiously yell, "SPACE COKE," the same way Peter Dinklage yelled "SPACE PANTS" in his SNL skit a few years back. 

This is a novelty product. I know it, you know it, Coca-Cola knows it...but I had to buy it anyway. It's Space flavored Coca-Cola. SPACE flavored. What does that even mean? There aren't any descriptors on the packaging, and the press release online boasted a "subtle cooling sensation." Will this be like those cooling Chinese ice cream Oreos I tried a few years ago that were mentholated? (I hope not.) I guess we'll see!

Was this a mistake? - Dark Blend Coffee Coca-Cola

Dark Blend Coffee Coca-Cola - Aldi

We heard you like caffeine, so we put some caffeine in your caffeine. (Any of you out there even remember Pimp My Ride?)  Anyway, Coke released a new line of sodas blended with coffee. There are three flavors available: caramel, vanilla and dark blend. That said, my opening line is true, these do have more caffeine than normal Coca Cola, but it's still far less than a typical espresso drink or any of the energy drinks on the market. So their angle  is less about energy boosting, and more about flavor.

I guess there is an audience out there for such a product? Personally, I was really skeptical about the whole mash-up. I thought it would either be so lightly flavored you could barely taste the coffee, or it would be so over the top it would be disgusting. Needless to say, I ended up seeing a 4-pack at Aldi and decided to jump in with both feet. 

So, I have four cans of this stuff (three now that I gave one to my buddy Jared, @farbeyondsippin on Instagram), so let's see how it tastes and what I can do with it!

Soda Sipping Spree

Soda Sipping Spree   - Misc.

As soon as you put something out into the universe, like "I'm quitting soda," forces immediately start to work against you. So, here we are. Barely a week later and I have not one, not two, but THREE new sodas to try AND even more soda coming in the mail because I am a sucker for Stranger Things and their New Coke promo.

The re-released Stranger Things themed cans of New Coke use the formula previously released in 1985, which is before I was born, so I jumped at the opportunity. As for the other sodas, my fiancee bought me the Spider-man themed Dr. Pepper as a gift, because he knew I was interested in it, as well as the orange-vanilla coke. The California Raspberry coke? That was all me. 

Time to jump in and see how these taste! (Sweet sugary caffeine, how I've missed you.) 

♫ Buyin' Lots of Groceries, Gotta Drink A Lot of Peaches ♫

Georgia Peach Coca Cola - ShopRite 

Let's see if any of you former 80's-90's kids can help me solve a mystery while I sip on some fruity soda. 

Growning up we had a few PCs with...really bizarre add-ons? The first one I remember was a CRT monitor in my bedroom that was hooked up to...something. I can't remember the OS, but what I do remember is that it had several Duke Nukem games and some bizarre dungeon-shooter game where I murdered knock-off Beavis, Butthead, and Barney the purple Dinosaur. (I never did beat Barney. His singing killed me too quickly. Googled it. OMG little-me was playing some kind of modded Wolfenstien?! Kill Beavis and Butthead? Where did I even get this?!)

Eventually we worked our way up to a PC with Windows 95, which was bundled with Echo The Dolphin, and, for some reason, a CD with the music video for "Lump," by The Presidents of The United States of America. Why? I have no idea. I found this Reddit thread where two other people seemed to have gotten the same thing, while others got Weezer and a different game? Does anyone know why this was a thing? Why these particular songs? I've been spiraling down this nostalgic rabbit hole for at least an hour on Google and I have more questions now than I did when I started. 

Anyway...thanks to that CD, I was introduced to the band, and I fell in love with their quirky songs, like Peaches. Long story short (too late) let's drink some peach flavored soda.