Stevia Cola Taste Test: Green Cola, Coca Cola with Stevia, and Vegan Cola

Aug 27

Written By Louise

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Content Warning: Mentions of diet culture and fatphobia. Click here to skip to the verdict.

Stevia is the herbal sweetener that stormed the 0 calorie sugar substitute scene back in the mid- to late-2000s. It happened at the perfect time: when the 90s anti-aspartame hysteria hadn’t been debunked, and the perceived healthiness of a food depended entirely on how few calories it contained. And, of course, before the truth came out: stevia doesn’t actually taste like sugar.

0 calorie diet cola, had, of course, already existed for quite a while. But, back in the early days of the World Wide Web, someone spread a bunch of rumors about aspartame causing every illness known to man (more info here), so many people swore off it for life. It was basically one of the early prototypes for the shitshow that is present-day life, when people won’t get life-saving vaccines or medical care because of some garbage they saw on YouTube.

Still, many found unsweetened coffee to be yucky and wanted to put sugar in there without instantly gaining 10 pounds because they consumed a carb (low carb was settling into the diet scene as the one and only way to lose weight), and that’s where stevia stepped in.

Since stevia is a plant, it’s ALL NATURAL, which was the buzzword people were looking for, since they were trying to avoid CHEMICALS like aspartame and sucralose. Stevia is, indeed, very sweet, but it doesn’t taste like sugar. I don’t really know what it tastes like other than “sweet”, to be honest, but it’s just not the same type of “sweet” as sugar.

Before Green Cola, which launched in 2012 in Greece and is now available worldwide, there were other stevia-sweetened sodas, particularly the brand Zevia. Zevia has numerous flavors, including cola, and all of them taste like stevia with an essence of whatever they’re supposed to taste like. Because I grew up with a mom who never missed an opportunity to rant about things she hated, and two of those things were diet soda and people with more generously-proportioned physiques, I spent way too long trying to convince myself that Zevia wasn’t terrible so I didn’t have to feel bad about ingesting a soda.

Green Cola is a vast improvement on Zevia cola, that’s for damn sure, but the bar for that one was under the counter at Chipotle (yes, I’m saying Chipotle is BLAND af) so that’s not saying a whole lot. Since the brand has enjoyed some success, our old friend Coca Cola had to jump back on the stevia train and come up with a competitor.

However, Coca Cola with Stevia isn’t as widely available as Green Cola. In fact, I think it’s only in Greece. Perhaps they’re being more cautious about releasing a stevia Coke after the failure of Coke Life. Remember Coke Life? The drink that was 65% regular sugar corn syrup, 35% stevia, and appealing to 0% of the population? Modern-day USA is all or nothing, Coke! Get with the times! It’s either high fructose corn syrup IVs or breatharianism, JEEZ.

Apparently, though, other countries are better at moderation, and a 50% sugar, 50% stevia cola called (somewhat confusingly) Vegan Cola from Polish beverage company Vitamizu is gaining in popularity around Europe.

So, we have three stevia colas up for tasting: Green Cola, Coca Cola with Stevia, and Vegan Cola.

Green Cola’s overall taste is pretty similar to Coke, but it has a faintly herbal aftertaste, almost like Cockta (the old Yugoslav Coke substitute). Unsurprisingly, Coke with Stevia tastes more like Coke.

The problem with both Green Cola and Coca Cola with Stevia is that they both taste strongly of stevia. You really never forget that you’re drinking a stevia soda, though consuming them with a meal rather than drinking on their own helps a lot.

Personally, I prefer Coca Cola with Stevia, because Coke is my favorite cola. However, I will stick with Coke Zero for 0 calorie cola, which I like much better, since…you know…it doesn’t taste like stevia.

Vegan Cola is not 0 calorie; like the ill-fated Coke Life, it is a reduced-sugar soda that uses stevia to replace some sweetness. Vegan Cola claims to have 50% less sugar than normal cola (Coke Life went for 35% less). It has the benefit of actually not tasting like stevia due to its sugar content effectively masking it, but, of course, won’t work for people who are looking for no sugar rather than reduced sugar.

Verdict: Vegan Cola tastes the best, but does contain sugar. Coca Cola with Stevia tastes “better” (more like Coke) than Green Cola, but neither 0 calorie option is great.