I always like a challenge, so when new soft drinks come out, I like to see if I can tell the difference between them and their alternative. Dr. Pepper essentially issued a challenge recently when it released Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar as an alternative to Diet Dr. Pepper.
The diet version has been around in various iterations since the early 1960s, but since 1991 the company has promised that it “tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper.” And I’d agree that they’re right. More than any other diet soda (with the possible exception of Coke Zero Sugar), Diet Dr. Pepper has successfully mimicked the flavor of its sugar-sweetened version. The biggest difference has been the mouth-feel. It’s close to impossible to duplicate the feeling that sugar creates in the mouth without using sugar or a similar sweetener.
Enter Dr. Pepper Zero. Now the company promises that its newest diet version is even closer to the flavor of original Dr. Pepper. Or do they? The slogan is “The Zero you deserve is finally here.” No promises other than it’s zero sugar.
I’ve looked throughout the Internet for reviews and all I find is straightforward taste-tests. Every one of them tests the flavors knowing which version they’re tasting except for one. In that one, they blind taste test Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar against actual Dr. Pepper. Seriously? Remember the mouth-feel issue? Clearly the taster knew exactly which drink was which.
Enter yours truly. I love blind taste tests. Last year my wife and I blind tested seven different diet colas. Honestly, that was too much, but the amazing conclusion is that we both ranked Diet Rite our number one choice. Everything else was jumbled. But in the past two months I’ve blind tested Diet Dr. Pepper against Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar twice. And the result was the same both times. I couldn’t tell the two apart. When I had to make a choice between one or the other, I guessed wrong. I thought Diet Dr. Pepper was the zero sugar version. Again, side by side, they taste identical to me. But what about when I blindly taste-test them against the original?
Last night, I went out and bought three bottles of soda — one each of Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar. I placed them in front of me with the original in the middle and the others flanking it on the left and right. While blindfolded, I mixed up the other bottles to ensure I didn’t know which was which. The bottles are identical, so not even the shape would given anything way.
First came the Dr. Pepper. Sweet, creamy, smooth. Then came the bottle on the right. Jarringly sweet. The taste is similar, but the sweetness is extremely different. To make sure of what I was tasting I repeated the process. The results were the same. On to bottle number two. Again, Dr. Pepper first, then the bottle on the right. This bottle tasted almost exactly like original Dr. Pepper. I repeated again, and again I felt like the two were inseparable. Only then did I remove the blindfold to see the results. And again, it was Diet Dr. Pepper that was the winner. That’s three-for-three.
All of these people who swear that Dr. Pepper Zero Sugar tastes like the original are tasting them side-by-side with the expectation that Zero Sugar means zero difference in taste. They can see exactly what they’re tasting, which creates bias in the result. Unless they’re blind taste-testing, don’t trust the review. This reviewer has blind tested both Diet and Zero Sugar three times, and he’s telling you that next to each other, there’s no distinguishable difference. And next to the original, avoid the Zero Sugar hype and stick with Diet Dr. Pepper.
Copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt.
