Not to be confused with Coca-Cola How to zest a lemon Sugar. It contains artificial sweeteners instead of sugar.

When diet colas first entered the market, beginning with Diet Rite, the Coca-Cola Company had a long-standing policy to use the Coca-Cola name only on its flagship cola, and so its diet cola was named Tab when it was released in 1963. Diet Coke is not based on the Coca-Cola formula, but instead on Tab. The controversial New Coke, introduced in 1985, used a version of the Diet Coke recipe that contained high-fructose corn syrup and had a slightly different balance of ingredients. The cans reverted to the conventional shape a year later. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have capitalized on the markets of people who require low sugar regimens, such as diabetics and people concerned with calorie intake. In the UK, a 330 ml can of Diet Coke contains around 1.

Diet Coke in the US was sweetened with aspartame, an artificial sweetener, after the sweetener became available in the United States in 1983. Early on, to save money, this was also originally in a blend with saccharin. According to the Coca-Cola Company, the sweetener blend is “formulated for each country based on consumer preference”. Diet Coke with a cherry flavor.