Have you lost your Pepsi Max cherry?

(Pepsi) Max Cherry   

Pepsi Max is my favourite beverage of all time. I first drank it on a family holiday in Lanzarote and simply couldn't belive that something with so much taste and sweetness was actually devoid of sugar. But it was! I haven't stopped drinking it since. Now there's Pepsi Max with Cherry!

We all remember Cherry Coke, it didn't taste much like Coke at all, it could have been marketed as a whole new product; judging from the packaging that's exactly what Coca Cola wanted us to think.

Cherry Coke was pretty nice, fruity and dark, and it was satisfying. But it was full of sugar. My first thought when I saw the Pepsi Max Cherry bottle was "Oh my God I need some!". But then my second thought was "How have they done that without sugar??".

Cherry Coke had the benefit of being able to use proper fruit flavours and sugar to sweeten the deal, but Pepsi didn't, and as far as I know there isn't cherry-flavoured Nutrasweet.

But manage it they have!! There is the tiniest hint of "chemical" to the cherry taste but only if you stop and think about it. As a way of getting caffeine from a bottle into your veins it's not unpleasant and I went through a 2-litre bottle in an afternoon.

Is Cherry Coke better? Sadly, yes. Yes it is. But what about Diet Coke with Cherry? Nope. Pepsi Max trumps it by a margin. Diet Coke's cherry flavour really is noticeably more "chemical", and I think this stems from the old Diet Coke vs. Pepsi Max divide. Diet Coke doesn't have the same quantity of taste as it's blue-red-and-white rival, so adding another flavouring has a different effect on each. Diet Coke is subtle, and the fake cherry overpowers it. But Pepsi Max with Cherry is just right.

I've only seen it in Asda so far, perhaps there is an exclusivity deal? It's currently £1.38 for a 2-litre bottle, or £2 for two, just like the rest of the Pepsi Max range.