Coke Milk?

Fizzy Milk!

Thanks to Maurice Chittenden in the Times Online (UK), we've got news of a new product from Coke. It's a new "vibrancy" product that if successful in the US, will be marketed in other countries.

COWS may not think it is the real thing but Coca-Cola is set to launch fizzy milk on the world.

The drink contains skimmed milk mixed with sparking water, flavoured with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.

Scientists have developed the drink at the firm’s laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, ensuring it will not curdle in its 8oz aluminium bottle.

Going under the name Vio, Coca-Cola has begun test-marketing the carbonated drink at natural food stores and delis in New York It sells for about £1.50 a bottle, no chilling required. One of Coke’s copywriters claims it tastes “like a birthday party for a polar bear”.

A flavour tester for BevNET.com, a drink industry research site, who tasted the citrus version, said: “It’s big on milk flavour and, as a result, has a somewhat creamy body. It didn’t seem sweet until you consumed almost a whole bottle.”It comes in four “natural” flavours — peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada — and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26g of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5g of fat.

The drink is part of a wider Coke initiative called Project Life to develop milk-based products. If it is a success in the United States it could be launched globally.

The new product is reported to have "a hint" of skimmed milk and comes in four flavors: citrus burst, peach mango,tropical colada, and very berry. Packaged in 8 oz aluminum cans for about $2 retail.

Coke says that it has "a delicious, unique and smooth flavor". no artificial flavors, preservatives or sweeteners, and provides 15% of daily calcium requirements plus vitamin C.

BevNet, a website that reviews beverages, has not been enthusiastic in its reviews, going as far as equating it to a yogurt based drink from India called Lassi.