It's easy to forget now, when there are over a dozen flavors of Coca-Cola available, but a bottled cherry cola -- as opposed to the sort of cherry colas mixed up traditionally at drugstores and diners -- was once a revolution. Like you'd probably expect, Coke came up with it, Pepsi borrowed the idea a few years later and, nearly a quarter century later, Royal Crown is finally getting in on the act, with their newish Cherry RC, which is available in limited markets, but has been popping up all over Phoenix.
So who wins this proxy battle for ultimate cola supremacy? We staged a blind taste test to find out.
We set up three rows of Styrofoam cups in the kitchen and rounded up a group of tasters that included the author, along with Pop Culture veteran Jay and newbies Ray and Sarah
Verdict: Coca-Cola Cherry wins all four tasters with it's milder, more subtle flavor. RC impresses some with it's fruitiness -- it has actual Cherry juice in it. Pepsi is, as it seems to be with any sophisticated group of tasters, a distant third.
Sarah on Coke: "It didn't taste like you've got a shot of cough syrup in it... It's really tough to get cherry flavor right."
Jay on Coke: "Subtle but tasty."
Ray on Pepsi: "This is way too sweet."
