Okay, after realizing how much of my daily calories came from soda, I've been drinking a lot more soda water and iced tea. But I have discovered that as a result of not having Coke in my diet I am craving other things: sweet things or salty things which I occasionally replace with other things that seem healthier but in the end it all just jumps what I'm eating in a day (makes little sense actually what I crave, but I'm pretty sure the lack of Coke is to blame, as it's the only diet change I've made). So what I want to try is replacing the coke with a diet soda, so I get sweet soda-y caffeine-y goodness but not so many empty calories.

As I am forming this line of reasoning at the store I see Diet Coke with Splenda. Now I know I don't like diet Coke very much, and I don't like the aftertaste of many diet sodas, but so many people I know like Splenda, even say it tastes more like sugar I thought wooo! This is it, this is the answer.

So I get it home and crack open a can. For reasons I can't explain (probably, as Ivy said, related to working at the winery in my past) I smell it. It smelled okay, and I take a (anticipation is strong!!!) drink.

Pllllgggghhhh! Okay, it doesn't taste like diet Coke. But it sure doesn't taste like Coke. Really, what it tastes like is sugar water--and way way sweeter than what I would ever want to drink.

Now disappointed, I do a google search, winding up at the Wikipedia where I read up on all the new Cokes out now. I read some page (probably not the wiki one, not going to go look for links) that tells me that diet Coke was the formula for new Coke: they did it with sugar, think that since diet Coke sold so well they'd sell a caloric version. As we all know that bombed, but it is still (according to some random page I found mind you) the formula for diet Coke. But that Coke Zero was supposedly made from the Coke Classic formula.

Armed with new information, I go down to the mini-mart, and I buy a small bottle of Coke Zero and a small bottle of Coke C2 (my own mini taste test). Coke C2 tasted like exactly what it is--like someone mixed diet Coke and regular Coke. So it doesn't suck, but it's not really what I want to be drinking.

Coke Zero is thus far my winner (even though I didn't expect much from smelling it--it smelled like diet Coke to me...). It seems to have the bite that regular Coke has (which none of the other diet colas do). I like that bite--it's one of the things I miss about drinking Coke. So it may be one I can stand switching to.

I'm also going to try diet Pepsi. I'm not typically a Pepsi fan (too sweet and no bite), but as Ivy pointed out the diet sodas don't taste like their counterparts anyway, and she thought it was palatable for a diet soda. I actually might get some diet Mountain Dew too--not big on the taste, but love the caffeine kick.

For the moment though, I think Coke Zero is it. Feel free to make other diet cola suggestions if you have them...