Coke plus coffee? What’s not to lik?

FROM an early age, we’ve been programmed to mix drinks. Give a kid access to a soda fountain and see the root beer/orange/Fresca concoction you get. Only rarely does our creativity succeed: Take golf legend Arnold Palmer, who one day will be known only for the iced tea and lemonade mixture bearing his name.

In 2004, Coca-Cola introduced C2, an attempt to blend Coke Classic with Diet Coke. Containing corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, it pleased almost no one, with too many calories for dieters and not enough taste for Classic drinkers.

However, that misstep hasn’t deterred Coke from its desire to become the next Arnold Palmer. Earlier this month, it introduced Coca-Cola Blak. It’s basically C2 with coffee extract, poured into pricey 8-ounce bottles. The surprise? This Coke ‘n’ coffee combo rocks!

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Coca-Cola Blak

Taste - ***

Who knew the tastes of Coke and coffee could coexist without one overwhelming the other? And although there is a slight aftertaste caused by the artificial sweetener, this is by no means the worst fusion beverage out there. (That dubious distinction goes to Budweiser’s BE, a beer/energy drink that tastes as bad as it sounds.)

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Diet Watch - ***

A bottle has only 45 calories, so you may be tempted to drink two. Don’t. The bottle also contains 46 milligrams of caffeine. Compare that with a regular Coke, which has only 23 milligrams of caffeine per 8 ounces. That’s twice the buzz per bottle!

Portability - ****

Coke Blak comes in a nifty little glass bottle that’s shrink-wrapped with cool plastic artwork. It’s almost enough to justify the cost: Four tiny bottles cost 5 bucks at Target. On sale! Are we drinking soda pop or diamond juice?

Hype-o-meter - ***

Before its release, Coke had a great teaser campaign, with a blink-and-you-missed-it 15-second ad featuring the new bottle, illuminated by flashbulbs, and the slogan “Coke effervescence with coffee essence” appearing before the Oscar telecast. It generated some buzz, but not as much buzz as you’ll get from all that caffeine.

Ratings are on a scale of one (lowest) to four (best).