We Tried Both Of Diet Coke’s New Flavors & They Don’t Taste Like What You’d Expect

There's a saying you've probably heard in some form at least a few times in your life: Don't fix what's not broken. It's usually accurate; however, in the case of Diet Coke, it could not be farther from the truth. Though its classic flavor has reigned supreme for decades and is most definitely not broken, Diet Coke has just released two new flavors — and after tasting them with five other Bustle editors, I can personally confirm that they're just as good as the classic Diet Coke we all know and love. Like, really just as good.

The two new flavors join Diet Coke's existing line-up of drinks, which until now has included classic, Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry, Twisted Mango, and Zesty Blood Orange (the latter four were released in Jan. 2018). As of Jan. 16, that line-up will now include two new additions — insert drumroll — Blueberry Açai and Strawberry Guava. As with the other flavors, the new additions will come in 12-ounce cans, and feature a color blocked vertical stripe in colors closely resembling the flavors: blue, of course, for Blueberry Açai, and pink for Strawberry Guava. Considering its prior releases featured the colors red, green, yellow, purple, and orange, Diet Coke is pretty much at all the colors of the rainbow status now. (I guess it's missing indigo, but really, can anyone tell the difference between violet and indigo?)

When I shared the news of Diet Coke's new flavors with five of my biggest Diet Coke-lovin' colleagues here at Bustle, they mostly responded with a mix of excitement and apprehension. So, to take advantage of their anticipation, as well as the fact that the Coca-Cola Company did such a great job of keeping the names of these two new flavors under wraps, I decided to sit each of my co-workers down and have them try the two new flavors without telling them what the flavors were until afterwards. A taste test, if you will! After all, even though I knew what the flavors were called, I still felt like they were ambiguous enough to leave me curious as to what they'd really taste like — and what better way to get their honest opinions about how the new flavors taste than to have my colleagues tell me exactly what they think without any other information like the actual names of the flavors swaying their judgment?

Read on to find out what they thought, and a thorough explanation of what Diet Coke's new flavors taste like.

Blueberry Açai

The first flavor, Blueberry Açai, surprisingly... doesn't smell like blueberries or açai at all. In fact, as Lifestyle Editor Emma Lord commented upon taking a whiff of the drink, it reminded her of gummy bears. The actual taste of the flavor was similar; there were hints of peach, and Bustle Digital Group Editor-in-Chief Kate Ward (a self-proclaimed Diet Coke-obsessee) compared the taste to an Everlasting Gobstopper. Associate Lifestyle Editor Melanie Mignucci commented that she felt the drink tasted like "Hawaiian Punch and Diet Coke had a baby," while Senior Manager of Editorial Operations, Samantha Rullo, asked me if the flavor was "Wild Berry" (which, to her credit, is actually kind of close to Blueberry Açai).

Strawberry Guava

Upon smelling the second flavor, Strawberry Guava, we found the scent to be much less ambiguous than Blueberry Açai. Notes of strawberry are immediately apparent upon first sniff, to the point where each of my colleagues asked me if the flavor was simply "Strawberry." Associate Lifestyle Editor Kristin Magaldi commented that it smelled "less sweet" than the Blueberry Açai flavor, and that she was already leaning toward it being her favorite. The taste, similar to the scent, was strongly strawberry — Kate compared it to strawberries and cream, while Sam (ever the wildcard) said it reminded her of "Blue Raspberry" due to the hints of another fruity flavor — likely the Guava — she tasted mixed with the strawberry taste.

Overall, all five of us were impressed with the taste — though Samantha, Kate, and Emma were bigger fans of the Blueberry Açai while Kristin and Melanie liked the Strawberry Guava better. Ultimately, we all agreed that the two new flavors make great additions to the line-up, of flavors, and the option of picking one of them instead of the classic Diet Coke flavor whenever we wanted something different was welcome. Both new flavors are currently available in stores, and are permanent additions to the flavor line-up.