Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper: The Verdict

About a month ago, I blogged about my longing for Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr Pepper and the fact that the product was impossible to find in our area.
Turns out, it’s a limited edition drink, being tested in only a few markets. I’m a fan of ordering chocolate cherry cokes at Sonic, so I was excited to see Dr Pepper (which I find a bit too sweet, but enjoy on occasion) bottling my two favorite flavors.
Well, just when I had accepted the fact that I’d never try it, Kevin and Kelly Klug (our friends in Sanford) arrived at our house Sunday with a 12-pack they’d found in Asheville. My surprise turned to excitement … then quickly turned to a nervous feeling. You see, I’d hyped trying this SO much (heck, I wrote a blog about it), that I was afraid I’d set myself up for bitter disappointment.

The test
I tried it over ice with Easter lunch, and upon pouring it, discovered it was more red than “cola colored.” The fizzy smell that usually comes from pouring soda on ice revealed a hint of chocolate.
So how’d it taste? Well, the first word that comes to mind is “different.”
I’m not a huge fan of diet colas, mostly because my palate can very easily distinguish artificle sweetener from sugar. And I much prefer sugar. So had Dr Pepper included this with its “regular” Dr Pepper, it would have been better.
That said, for a diet drink, it’s pretty good. I had to get used to it at first, but it grew on me.
My wife, who took a sip of it this morning, said the chocolate tasted like the chocolate-flavored Necco wafers. She’s exactly right. And I’m a fan of Necco wafers.
If you haven’t had a Necco wafer (one of the oldest candies around), then I can only describe it as the same kind of chocolate you smell on a scratch and sniff sticker. Yeah, it kind of smells like chocolate, but it’s very different as well.
The cherry flavoring is a little overpowering at first also … but maybe I was just off-put by the drink’s red coloring. Maybe I just imagined the extra cherry taste.
And Dr Pepper, like I said earlier, is too sweet to me to begin with, so you can imagine this is a very sweet drink.
But I DO like it, and I plan on drinking the entire 11 pack (Kelly took one home to try herself, telling Jennifer she wans’t a big fan).
Now, will I go out of my way to Asheville just to find my next case? Probably not, but at least it wasn’t a complete disappointment.
Thanks, Klugs, for the generous gift. I’m sorry that the best I could come up with was “it’s not a complete disappointment,” but I do appreciate the gesture.
I’ll keep with my cherry chocolate sonic cokes. Either way, my teeth will rot out by the time I’m 40.