Just got back from London and my report is as follows:

1. Several of the grocery chains still had limited amounts of diet coke vanilla.

2. Lots of lemon diet coke available (don't think they quashed that yet in London)

3. Lots of vanilla coke available (think they're still making that there)...incidentally lots of vanilla coke is available on the continent and some coke light with lemon. In some of the French fast food and motorway places, no coke light at all but lots of coke light with lemon.

4. No sign in London as to whether they will have coke zero. Also no sign of diet coke cherry which is supposed to be replacing diet coke vanilla, at least according to what I read in October.

5. Finally the coke light scam has spread to the caterers of the airlines. When I returned home on American Airlines, and asked for a diet coke, I was given a coke light. When I explained I could not drink this foul tasting drink, they searched and told me that was all they had. How diet coke light got on the airplane is beyond me as the 777 only serves the LHR route and does not go to the continent....

6. No sign of any of the cherry vanilla or diet cherry vanilla dr. peper either.

Great UK report.

In regards to point #5, the airlines supply food and beverage from local food service companies. So on the way to the UK you were served US food and drinks and on the way back from the UK you were served UK food and drinks.

Granted there maybe some variation like the peanuts. LOL In general you get local products each way.

very true....but the UK coke distributor serves diet coke....some in the UK import from long distances coke light...coke light is not British...coke light is from the continent....British serve diet coke.

Originally posted by MATHA531:
3. Lots of vanilla coke available (think they're still making that there)...incidentally lots of vanilla coke is available on the continent and some coke light with lemon.

People of Great Britain and the whole Europe... I envy you

[ 01-24-2006, 10:22 AM: Message edited by: Ramón Coca-Colero ]

Originally posted by MATHA531:

5. Finally the coke light scam has spread to the caterers of the airlines. When I returned home on American Airlines, and asked for a diet coke, I was given a coke light. When I explained I could not drink this foul tasting drink, they searched and told me that was all they had. How diet coke light got on the airplane is beyond me as the 777 only serves the LHR route and does not go to the continent....

Please note, that that AA 777 doesn't shuttle back and forth from one city to another. It was probably catered in Paris, or Frankfurt the day before. They rotate stock until it is gone with soda, and then resupply it.
I love flying internationl flights as a soda can collector, as you never know what you are going to get. Example:
3 years ago I was flying to New Zeland on air New Zealand, ask for a can of coke, got a can of coke from Japan!!! It made me enjoy that can of coke a little bit more.
Again, catering, though the flight started in the US and was headed to NZ, probably a couple of days before that it was on a Japan run.

Even on domestic flights, you will see the soft drinks from all over. Just look at the cans for bottler names, special offers for regional things like sports teams or ammusment parks, and, certainly language differnces. I once got a Sprite out of a can that was what I think was Thai on a flight from Cleveland to Newark. The unserved product from one flight is taken off after each flight and repacked into a new full cart for some other flight. A particular can might have been placed on a flight in Japan and taken off that plane and put on ten or more others before its number comes up.

BTW, Diet Coke and Coke Light are the same product. Certain countries have laws that say the word "diet" implies "heathful" or "medical" so they use the alternate trademark. The sweetener blend in the product, no matter what they call it, will vary based on each country's laws and market conditions. A Coke Light you find to taste bad in Germany might be sold to you as a Diet Coke in England, while a Coke Light in Mexico might be the same formula as US Diet Coke.

Coke light and diet coke are two completely different drinks with completely different formulas and completely different tastes.

To say that the coke light I don't like in Germany might be the same diet coke I don't like in the UK is simply utter utter nonsense.

[ 01-25-2006, 04:41 AM: Message edited by: MATHA531 ]

You ought to tell the Coca-Cola Company that, they seem to be under the impression that Diet Coke is the prefered worldwide brand name, and Coca-Cola Light is the alternative brand name in jurisdictions (like Mexico, BTW) that prohibit the use of the word "diet" in that manner.

Since it says so on the company's own website.

I think here Diet Coke was renamed to Coca-Cola Light in order to link more this product to the Coca-Cola brand, because here in Mexico the trademark "Coke" is not well-known...

i'm confused. i thought "coca-cola light" in europe was the same as "coke zero" in the US.

so... if you guys hate coke light... then you also hate coke zero... since they're the same. if they are the same.

but... i just don't see how anyone could prefer diet coke over coke zero. zero is so much better.