The Vio family of fizzy milk drinks. Photo: Vio.

Coca-Cola is getting into the milk business.

The soft-drink maker is currently test marketing a sweetened fizzy milk beverage called Vio. Made with sparkling water, a hint of skim milk and cane sugar, the 8-ounce beverages come in four fruit flavors: Citrus Burst, Peach Mango, Very Berry and Tropical Colada.

Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the brand, told Slashfood on Tuesday that the drink is currently in "very limited distribution and only in New York City."

Coke Classic has left the building.

Nearly 25 years after Coca-Cola added "Classic" to its original formula in order to differentiate it from the short-lived New Coke, the company has admitted defeat.

Company officials confirmed Friday that they're phasing out the Classic tag from American cans and bottles this year to streamline global branding, finally putting to rest the New Coke fiasco of the mid-'80s.

"It felt like the right time," Scott Williamson, a spokesman for Coke, told Slashfood on Monday.

Coke fans surely remember the spring of 1985, when the company shelved Dr. John S. Pemberton's original 1886 Coca-Cola recipe for a formula that performed better in taste tests and tasted, as I recall, a great deal like its chief competitor Pepsi, which naturally caused a furor among the soft drink's legion of fans.

"In the real world, they had a deep emotional attachment to the original, and they begged and pleaded to get it back," the company says on its Web site.

"Critics called it the biggest marketing blunder ever. But the Company listened, and [77 days later] the original formula was returned to the market as Coca-Cola classic®."

Williamson said that "classic" will remain in small print on the side of the bottles in the phrase "Coke Classic Original Formula."

"When people think Coke, they think Classic," Williamson said. "So more than two decades after we introduced that word, its reason for being as a descriptor has essentially disappeared."

About time they realized Classic has been the standard all along.

Thats right! As fellow blog The Consumerist states,"no, not that kind. Coca-Cola." Earlier this week, a local newspaper of Sweden reported that a woman (who wishes to remain anonymous) living in Malmö will be seeking inpatient treatment for her addiction to the Coca-Cola beverage. Her addiction has caused a variety of health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Momlogic, another blog, states that originally local health authorities recognized her health problem but did not think it was appropriate for her to receive inpatient treatment. Recently, the Administrative Court of Appeals ruled that the woman's addiction to the beverage should be treated at an inpatient facility.

I'm still wondering whether or not this is bogus. It seems to me that there could have been many other causes of this woman's poor health besides her Coca-Cola intake. For example, what else is she consuming and what is her medical history? Check out the poll below to let us know what you think.

Have you seen the label for Diet Coke Plus? Check that out to the right -- the soft drink claims that it's "Diet Coke with VITAMINS & MINERALS"! That means that Diet Coke is finally healthy, right? Not quite.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FDA has sent Coca-Cola Co. a warning letter stating that the beverage doesn't contain enough vitamins and minerals to be considered "plus." That word is, apparently, reserved for the foods that have at least "10% more of the reference daily intake or daily reference value of a nutrient than a similar product." And they also note that it's not quite kosher to try and make a carbonated beverage fortified.

Coke has no plans to change their label, and the FDA is waiting for them to "take prompt action to correct these violations." So, it should be an exciting little war come the New Year.

Even though it's been sold in Japan for more than 50 years, Coca-Cola has only just received trademark recognition for its iconic bottle. The elongated hourglass bottle became a registered U.S. trademark in 1960 and is honored by Russia and China, among other nations.

Coca-Cola began fighting for Japanese trademark registration of its "contour bottle" back in 2003. Other shapes associated with pop culture and American food, notably Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders, have won Japanese trademarks. What made the Coke case different is the fact that its bottle has no lettering whatsoever. In fact, it's the first bottle sans lettering to receive a trademark in that country.

For some reason this case begs the question: Is Sapporo's silver 22-ounce can a registered Japanese trademark? If not, it should be, I find the tapered can as evocative and iconic as Coca-Cola's classic bottle.

Seems like Coca-Cola is coming full circle some 120 years after its invention by druggist John Stith Pemberton.

Well, sort of.

Yesterday the soft-drink giant unveiled the Coca-Cola Research Center for Chinese Medicine in Beijing.

Coca-Cola has set up a lab to experiment with new Chinese herbal flavors for Coke and other beverage products. It's the first international company to open such a facility at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Coca-Cola plans to have its researchers develop beverages using Chinese herbal ingredients and formulas.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson had this to say "This collaboration will ultimately help us bring the insights and benefits of traditional Chinese medicine to consumers all over the world." And it should probably give them a bit more cred than Vitamin Water. Though to be frank, I'm not quite sure I'm ready for Diet Coke with ginseng.

We've all opened up a bottle of soda and have it get warm on us as it sits on the table. But what if there was a technology that actually made the drink stay cold even after you open it?

Coca-Cola is experimenting with a bottle that chills on the inside after you twist off the cap. They have to be stored in special vending machines so this is probably not something you'll be able to get at any supermarket. The bottle could be used on a new drink called Sprite Super Chill, which is going to be released in the UK later this year. No word yet on any use in the US anytime soon.

[via Boing Boing]

If you had asked me ten years ago whether I was a Diet Pepsi drinker or a Diet Coke drinker, I would have said Diet Pepsi without hesitation. I just liked Pepsi better (people who tell you that there isn't a difference between the two are either crazy or don't drink soda -- or maybe too much).

However, a few years ago, I noticed my local supermarket was always out of Diet Pepsi and I was forced to buy Diet Coke. Somehow, I got used to it and I've been drinking it exclusively now for a few years. But last month? I decided to buy Diet Pepsi again, and now I'm back to drinking that. Sorry to cheat on you, Diet Pepsi.

This is just a really tedious way to say Happy 25th Anniversary Diet Coke! It was unveiled on July 29, 1982 and is now the #1 diet beverage in the world.

(Oh, that headline. I think that was one of the slogans for Diet Coke in the '80s. Am I remembering that correctly?)

I've seen some pretty bizarre drinks in my time, but InventorSpot.com's Soft Drink Hell of Fame inductees may top just about anything we've shared on these virtual pages to date. Joe already pointed us in the direction of Pepsi Ice Cucumber a few days ago, and though it made this list as well, is definitely the most normal beverage of the bunch. So without further ado...

For those of you concerned about your weight, fear not! - Diet Water is now available on the shelves. You know, as opposed to the regular, calorie-laden bottles of water that we all consume daily. (Half of nothing is still nothing, right?) If plain water isn't exciting enough for you, then you could also purchase Water Salad - the brainchild of a little beverage company called Coca-Cola. Like they say at InventorSpot - is this the stuff that is left over in your salad spinner?

Next up is Coolpis and Calpis. (Yes, just sound them out.) Though the names alone are enough to keep me away, Coolpis is actually a Kimchee-flavored beverage. Now I love Kimchee - but in a drink?

For those of you hardcore gamers out there working up a sweat rolling 16-sided dice, Final Fantasy has released their own line of potions drinks so you can quench your thirst as you play along.

There are many, many more, believe it or not, including Mother's Milk (complete with a picture of a breastfeeding child on the carton) and KidsBeer - yes, KidsBeer - which you can find over at their site.

(thanks, Michelle!)
Images via InventorsSpot.com

Bolivian coca growers are urging the Coca-Cola Co. to eliminate the word "Coca" from the name of its popular soft drink because of the leaf's importance in that Andean nation's culture.

A commission representing the coca industry passed a resolution earlier this week urging the Atlanta-based soft-drink giant to strike "coca" from its name and asking the U.N. to decriminalize coca leaf. The resolution demands "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca (example: Coca Cola) refrain from using the name of the sacred leaf in their products." Bolivia's coca farmers have yet to weigh in on the controversial energy drink Cocaine.

For its part, Coca-Cola said that its trademark is protected by Bolivian law. The company also repeated past denials that the soda has ever used cocaine as an ingredient.

Energy Fiend has a great caffeine content database that can give you the exact amount of caffeine in just about any drink you could want to know about. It is a great resource because, although drinks containing caffeine make it clear in the ingredients list, they don't list the actual amount of caffeine that they contain. Coca-Cola, perhaps taking a cue from E.F. is hoping to make getting this information easier for consumers by adding labels to all of their products indicating their exact caffeine content.

Such labels are already found on Enviga (8.33 mg/oz.) and Full Throttle (8.81 mg/oz.) and Coca-Cola Classic (2.83mg/oz.) cans will have it by May, with the rest of the beverage lineup - including Diet Coke (3.75mg/oz.) to follow over the rest of the year, though the labels will not be put onto the bottles and cans of Coca-Cola products sold outside of the US.

For comparison, drip coffee (black) has 18.13mg caffeine/oz., Red Bull has 9.64mg/oz. and regular black tea has 5.88mg/oz.

Cherry Coke is getting a new look, thanks to rap star and business entrepreneur Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. He was involved with not only the design of the new can, but also the television commercials and marketing campaigns for the brand. The soda was relaunched last week at New York's Fashion Week, alongside the latest addition to the Coca-Cola family, Cherry Coke Zero.

The advertising campaigns for both products went public on Valentine's Day, with outdoor, radio and point of sale ads, as well as a 30-second commercial (featuring a Jay-Z soundtrack) that debuted during that evening's episode of American Idol.

I'm rarely tempted by what the local convenience store has to offer in the way of soft drinks and fad juices, but during a late night pit-stop I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I had just read about Coca-Cola's plans to buy Fuze Beverages, and though I had seen the drinks before, I had never tried one. Being a coconut fanatic, I was pretty thrilled to see one called Banana Colada. I really expected it to be a mess of artificial, chemical-like flavors, but was truly surprised to find out it was delicious.

According to the label there is only 5% real juice (no big surprise there) but they do boast a high content of calcium and vitamins. The best part of course is that the drink is fat free, and an 8oz serving only has 90 calories. If you know of another beverage that tastes like a pina colada with those stats, let me know.

The Banana Colada belongs to their "Refresh" line of drinks, which also comes in Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Guava, and Peach Mango flavors. In addition, they sell three other lines of drinks. In case you're not familiar with them, they include:

Vitalize - more like a sports drink, high in electrolytes and antioxidants
Slenderize - 2 grams of carbs, approx. 10 calories per 8 oz serving
Tea - a selection of green, white, and oolong chilled teas

Details on the acquisition of Fuze haven't yet been released, but they do state that Fuze would operate as a stand-alone entity of Coca-Cola Co. if the deal does go through as planned.

Food Business Review Online had an interesting piece on 10 trends to watch for in 2007. I was glad to read that healthful food for kids and local sourcing of ingredients made the list. On a separate note, I was especially happy to learn that nutraceutical beer is in the offing.

Here's the full list:

• Calorie burning beverages: Look for more products like Celsius and Enviga that purport to help shed pounds without exercise.
• Satiety-enhancing foods and drinks: Products that increase the feeling of fullness are just starting to hit the market. Among them is LightFull Satiety Smoothie, which is high in fiber and protein, but has only 70 calories per serving.

It looks like you won't have to fish for change to get that bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Diet Coke for lunch out of the vending machine. Thanks to a partnership between MasterCard and Coca-Cola, vending machines are now taking all forms of payment, including credit and debit cards. In Philadelphia, 1,000 of these card-swiping vending machines have been rolled out.

At first, it sounds great. "Wow! I can use my credit card! I don't have to carry change anymore!" But, as the article states, the concept "inevitably raises questions about when a convenience might become an enabler, encouraging consumers to drink more soda or buy more candy, while spending money they don't necessarily have" and health professionals are worried.

Now, I am all for convenience when it comes to shopping, and a credit card certainly makes it easier to make a purchase. However, if you don't have seventy-five cents, do you really need to take out your credit card and charge that tiny amount? If you don't have the change, skip the snack and wait for a real meal.