Coke Zero or Pepsi Zero: Which zero-sugar soda will fizz its way to the top?
Pepsi Zero Sugar vs. Coke Zero Sugar: Here’s the Difference
Published on Feb. 12, 2025
Coke Zero vs. Pepsi Zero: Both sodas want your drink dollars. I remember the original Pepsi Challenge, back in 1975, when Pepsi shook the soft-drink world to its fizzy, caramel-colored core by proclaiming that more people chose Pepsi over Coca-Cola in blind taste tests.
The ’70s ad campaign was a hit, because who doesn’t love a good taste test? It’s fun to duke it out with your family and friends about why they’re wrong, cough cough. So let’s pit Coke Zero vs. Pepsi Zero, our 2025 take on the Pepsi Challenge.
Are Coke Zero and Pepsi Zero different?
Coke and Pepsi keep their formulas top-secret, but the two zero-sugar drinks taste different. I’ve always thought Coke is smoother, while Pepsi has an almost citrusy tang that can come across as sour.
Coke Zero launched in 2005, 23 years after Diet Coke, and the company has always said Coke Zero tastes more like regular, full-sugar Coke than Diet Coke. (Coke Zero even comes in a bright red can, which is super easy to confuse for regular Coke.) The flavor was tweaked in 2023, supposedly to make it even more like regular Coke. I reviewed the new flavor at the time, and, to me, it tasted like Coke was moving its Coke Zero to be more similar to Pepsi products.
Diet Pepsi has been around in some form since 1964, competing with Coca-Cola’s pink-canned Tab Cola before Diet Coke showed up. Pepsi Zero was originally called Diet Pepsi Max, then Pepsi Max, before it was renamed Pepsi Zero Sugar in 2015. Pepsi tweaked the flavor when it reformulated Pepsi Zero Sugar to reduce caffeine.
Coke Zero vs. Pepsi Zero
Full disclosure: I’ve already compared Diet Pepsi to Pepsi Zero and Diet Coke to Coke Zero. In both cases, I preferred the zero-sugar version to the diet version.
But what about Coke Zero compared straight on to Pepsi Zero? These, after all, are the two drinks that their parent companies claim are the most like the full-sugar Coke and Pepsi.
How I conducted the taste test
I bought and chilled cans of Coke Zero and Pepsi Zero, then enlisted my husband to pour some of each into identical glasses without telling me which was which. He labeled one Cup A and the other Cup B.
Cup A
The first cup I picked up had a darker color and was less fizzy than Cup B. It also had a tangy, artificial scent. (Not that all colas aren’t artificial. While the drinks do contain some natural ingredients, and cola is a real plant, I’m not laboring under the belief that waterfalls of organic cola splash down on an island somewhere.)
Cup A’s harsh scent carried over to its taste, too. It almost stung my mouth. I can imagine that some people might prefer this, and say it’s “lively” or “zesty” instead of harsh. It’s definitely more acceptable with food because whatever you eat cuts the harshness. But I can’t imagine buying this cola to drink by itself.
Cup B
The first time I sniffed Cup B, it barely had any aroma. When I swirled the cola around, I found a gentle vanilla scent. Its taste was full-bodied and a world smoother than Cup A. Both are bubbly and carbonated, of course, but Cup B coats your mouth in a more velvety way.
Which is better, Coke Zero or Pepsi Zero?
Both are definitely zero-sugar colas. Neither of them could ever be mistaken for their full-sugar siblings. But Cup B, to me, is as good as a zero-sugar soft drink can get. Cup A screams diet, from its scent to the aftertaste that lingers after a sip.
I asked my husband to reveal the brands: Cup A was Pepsi Zero, and Cup B was Coke Zero.
This news didn’t surprise me at all, as I’ve always preferred Coke in all its varieties to Pepsi. If you want your zero-sugar cola to be spicy and peppery, Pepsi Zero might be for you. But if you want a cola that’s smoother and closer to its full-sugar version, Coke Zero is what you’re looking for.
