The Difference Between Coke And Diet Coke Is In Plain Sight

Going to a diner and ordering a Diet Coke can result in a hit-or-miss experience. Sometimes the waitstaff brings out the right drink, but other times, they bring out a regular Coke that's packed full of sugar! Worse yet, since you can't see the beverage label, it can be tough to figure out whether you really were served the wrong drink or it's all in your head.

What most people don't realize, however, is that you can actually tell the difference between Coke and Diet Coke just by paying attention to the drink's color. Diet Coke is a slightly darker color than regular Coke. So, if you put on your glasses and peer closely at your drink, you should be able to spot the difference, at least when the two are side by side.

If this all sounds like a kooky conspiracy theory, you may be interested to learn more about why that's the case. Here's what you need to know about telling Diet Coke apart from regular Coke.

Diet Coke is a slightly different color than regular Coke, but it doesn't have to do with the drinks' ingredients. Instead, this is most likely caused due to the amount of carbonation in each beverage.

Regular Coke tends to be a bit more carbonated than Diet Coke. The carbonation means that you see more bubbles than you do color, leading to the beverage having a lighter hue than Diet Coke.

One thing to keep in mind, however: this rule doesn't always apply to bottled or canned Coca-Cola. Although you may be able to spot a modest color difference when looking at Coke and Diet Coke from a bottle or can, the contrast is much more subtle. However, when it comes to fountain drinks, you usually are able to see the color difference.

The reason behind this is that in bottles, and especially in cans, carbonated gas can escape the drink while it's sitting on the shelf, causing them to be less carbonated than fountain drinks in general. So, this may account for the difficulty in spotting the color difference between Coke and Diet Coke when you're not dealing with a fountain drink.

Besides the beverages' color, Coke and Diet Coke vary in other ways as well. For one thing, Diet Coke, as we all know, has no calories. It also boasts no sugar, despite its sweet taste. The company achieves this the same way that most diet soda brands do ... they replace the sugar with artificial sweeteners.

Diet Coke contains both Splenda and aspartame, two completely calorie-free artificial sweeteners. These sweeteners also happen to be far sweeter than sugar, meaning that your Diet Coke can actually taste more syrupy than your standard Coke.

Another difference between the beverages? Diet Coke contains more acidic flavor regulators, which can help change the flavor of the drink. Although there's no confirmed reason for this, it could be to help offset the artificial sweeteners in the drink. This helps prevent the soda from being way sweeter than regular Coke would be, although it does mean that there's a bit of a taste difference between the two colas.