Pepsi Next - The Next New Coke?

I am definitely a Diet Coke person, but I am overall not opposed to drinking Pepsi when it is the brand served at a particular place or is only brand on sale when I want to buy more soda.  Usually I really do not mind Diet Pepsi other than it seems to get flat fast and I actually prefer the Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry to the Diet Coke with Cherry.  Thus I thought why not give Pepsi Next a shot.

Since I mostly like soda with artificial sweeteners because they tend to be less sweet, I knew maybe I would not like Pepsi Next with it having some sugar.  However, it actually does not seem too sweet, but from the first sip I did not like it.

The main issue I have with Pepsi Next is that it seems rather flat.  I thought at first it was because the can I got was mailed to me, but then I got a 2-liter bottle from the store and it was just as bad.  If you prefer less carbonation than Pepsi definitely is better than Coke, but the main thing I like about soda is carbonation so seeming flat right from the start is not good.

Beyond just the lack of carbonation, I also did not like the taste.  Not that the taste was bad, but it just seemed very bland.  I thought maybe it is because I am used to drinking Diet soda, so I had my brother try it without giving him my opinion first.  He said it was boring and while he usually drinks Coke he actually does like Pepsi the same or more.  At the same time he also dislikes some artificial sweeteners, so I would have expected him to say something more like this tastes bad rather than this tastes like nothing.

So not surprising that a Diet Coke fan like me is not into this new product, but I really expected my brother a fan of full calorie colas to at least think it was at least okay.  As it is, to me Pepsi Next is a failure like New Coke was.

Disclosure: I received a free sample from BzzAgent.