Cola Wars Go Low-Carb

I'm a sucker, apparently, for marketing, because I'm psyched for the arrival of the lower calorie Coca-Cola C2.

Horrible name, but brilliant idea: Replace half of the high fructose corn syrup (sorry, kids, it ain't sugar) content in Coke and replace it with Aspartame. (OK, so it's not a perfect idea. I'm still convinced we're all going to wake up 40 years from now with some bizarre ailment thanks to our diet soda intake.) The regular Coke taste is still there, but your 12 oz. can now boasts 70 calories, rather than 140.

It's pretty much a variant on what we've been doing at soda machines for years: Half and half. Half regular Coke, half Diet Coke. I tried it Wednesday night at the "American Idol" party (Coke launched its C2 ad campaign during the finale) and I must attest, it still does taste like regular Coke. Including the sugary, lingering sweet aftertaste -- you know, the one you really notice when picking up a regular, full-sugared soda after drinking the bland and slightly disgusting diet version for too long.

Pepsi also plans to introduce its own mid-calorie version, Pepsi Edge, this summer. Ahh, trends. (Although, this cola war makes more sense to me than the race to compete with... Vanilla flavored cola.)