Coca-Cola may very well be the most popular fizzy drink in the world, with a logo plastered on billboards in nearly every country.
Despite this, it's not a cheap drink and can easily push up your bills if you buy it every week. With the cost of living crisis continuing to place immense pressure on people's finances, many may be considering finding an alternative to their favourite cola.
However, with a wide array of cheaper alternatives at supermarkets, it can be hard to actually find out which one comes closest to the signature taste of Coca-Cola. In order to find a cheaper alternative that could rival the giant that is Coca-Cola, Dayna Farrington, a reporter at our sister site Birmingham Live, enlisted her partner and the rest of her family to do a taste test of all the popular supermarket alternatives.
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She chose Colca alternatives from Asda, Co-op, Aldi, Morrisons, and Tesco. Here's what Dayna discovered...
Coca-Cola
£2.25 (from Tesco) for 1.75 litre bottle
What first struck me was the price. £2.25 for a 1.75 litre bottle. All the supermarket bottles were 2 litre - this was smaller AND a lot more expensive. I guess you really do pay for the brand. I could have bought 5 of the cheapest supermarket bottle compared to one Coca-Cola.
But you can't go wrong can you? I didn't put Coca-Cola first in the taste-test, I actually sandwiched it in the middle of the others to try and trick my tasters.
Let's skip to the point. I failed. As soon as all three tried a sip they immediately knew it Coca-Cola. No more comments needed, it was a 5/5 from them all.
But are any of the supermarket versions better? We tasted them all...
Asda
70p for 2 litre bottle
First up on the taste-test was Asda. The joint second cheapest out all the supermarkets. As I opened the cap I first noticed a lack of fizz as I twisted. Unusual.
And not like the real deal. I poured away and handed the three glasses over and tried one myself. Immediately there was a distinct lack of fizz - it wasn't flat, but it wasn't as bubbly as you expect. There was a strange after-taste too.
Not awful, but not great either. We scored it a 2/5.
Co-op
80p for 2 litre bottle
I couldn't even open the bottle of Co-op Cola. Fail. I had to enlist my partner to help, while urging him not to look at the bottle to spoilt the experiment. Anyway, this one was not enjoyable. It had a real ginger taste, like too overpowering. Not nice.
Then the after-taste hit. Not pleasant. We were all in agreement, it was a 1/5.
Aldi
45p for 2 litre bottle
This was the cheapest out of all the supermarket alternatives we tasted. We were really hopeful for high things.
And like I said previously, I could buy five bottles of Aldi Cola compared to a similar size bottle of Coca-Cola. On first sip, we all remarked how it tasted like fizzy Cola bottle sweets.
Nice enough, there was a good fizz to it too. But then there was a slight liquorice taste afterwards, not the worst but not the best either.
We were going to give it a 3/5 but for the price we bumped it up to 4/5.
Morrisons
79p for 2 litre bottle
This had a fantastic fizz when I opened the bottle cap and it continued to fizz away nicely as I poured the liquid into four glasses.
But before I could even sip, the smell hit me. It was a kind of bleach, cleaning fluid smell. My step-children also recoiled at the smell.
We all tentatively took tiny sips but it was an immediate no. It didn't taste pleasant at all - and we poured it away.
And we washed our mouths out with water straight away. It was a 0/5, sorry Morrisons.
Tesco
70p for 2 litre bottle
And last, but by no means least, we come to Tesco. Again, another bottle I failed to open so enlisted the help of my partner again.
There was a good fizz to it, so I poured away. I had high hopes for Tesco for some reason, it kind of resembled Coca-Cola in colour and look.
But I guess that's where the similarities ended. It wasn't a great taste. It wasn't the worst we had tried, but by no means the best.
We all remarked it lacked the sweetness of Coca-Cola. We gave it a 2/5.
Overall
The blind taste-test didn't work, or it was a success - whichever way you decide to look at it. My test subjects (family) immediately knew which was the real deal.
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