When Did Diet Cherry Coke Come To Your Area?

[Look In The Tunk]

I was looking at this page a few weeks ago:

http://www.usasoda.com/Cokediet.htm

and I was surprised to see hat Diet Cherry Coke has been around since 1986. The first time I ever saw it was when I went to Alaska to see family when I was 13 in 1996, and it was in this can:

http://www.usasoda.com/images/dcc8.jpg

I had never seen this before! I thought it was some test market thing or something. I remember bringing an empty can home and putting it with my soda can collection (which I no longer have). I took a photo of it, and one day I had the photo with me at school for some reason, and several people said "I've never seen Diet Cherry Coke before!"

The next time I saw Diet Cherry coke was in 2002 when it finally got on shelves in Hampton, VA. It was of course in this can:
http://www.usasoda.com/images/dcc11.jpg

(one of the uglier cans I've ever seen honestly--thank goodness they changed it a few weeks ago)

So, what's the deal, had it been a regional product up until 2002?

[mjb1124]

I think it was pretty widely available when it first came out. Then it gradually started fading away, so that by the mid-90s, it had gotten down to "regional" status. And then in 2002, when Diet Vanilla Coke was launched, Coke decided to push Diet Cherry again.

[Look In The Tunk]

That makes sense, because I never ever saw it in my parts until Diet Vanilla Coke came out.

You still have to go to the bigger grocery stores/Wal Mart supercenters to snag it though.

[mjb1124]

Yeah, same way here in the NYC area, for the most part. But it seems like everywhere else I go, it's available in 20 oz. bottles.

[Mr Zabe]

It was 1988, I was loading my company's pop machine with diet and regular cherry coke. I recall cherry coke hit the Chicago market around
1987???

By the way it took much courage to drink diet cherry coke back then....IMO. Not a good taste.LOL

[DJ HawaiianShirt]

Here in southern Virginia, the first time I remember seeing Diet Cherry Coke, the logo looked like this (http://www.platonicrelationship.com/dietcoke.jpg).

And that logo isn't very old. Maybe post-2000?

Anyway, I think Diet Cherry Coke is one of the best diet sodas out there.

[ramonazo]

Never, but in 2003 sometimes Imported Regular Cherry Coke was on sale in Soriana. Not anymore...

[Hacksaw]

I think it was around 1993 around here.

[Look In The Tunk]

Originally posted by SnappleElementsVenom:
Here in southern Virginia, the first time I remember seeing Diet Cherry Coke, the logo looked like this (http://www.platonicrelationship.com/dietcoke.jpg).

And that logo isn't very old. Maybe post-2000?

Yeah, that logo came out when Diet Vanilla came out too. Not one of my favourite logos.

[Android]

Of course, it's no longer Diet Cherry Coke. It's now Diet Coke Cherry. And ya have to wonder, when will Diet Coke, with Splenda AND Cherry, come out. Not to mention Caffiene Free... Let's see how many different SKU's Coke can squeeze into their grocery shelf facings!

andy