(NEXSTAR) — Maybe “permanent” means something else at the Coca-Cola Company.
Coca-Cola Spiced, the last “permanent” flavor to be added to Coca-Cola’s roster of soft drinks in North America, is being discontinued about eight months after its debut.
“We’re always looking at what our consumers like and adjusting our range of products,” a spokesperson for the Coca-Cola Company said Tuesday in a statement obtained by Nexstar. “As part of this strategy, we’re planning to phase out Coca-Cola Spiced to introduce an exciting new flavor in 2025.”
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Cans of Coca-Cola Spiced are pictured during the Sonic Desert event — presented by Coca-Cola Spiced and Topo Chico in partnership with BPM Music — on April 13, 2024, in Thermal, California. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Sonic Desert)
The spokesperson did not say why the beverage was being discontinued, nor whether bottling, production or shipping had already been stopped.
Coca-Cola Spiced, which blended the brand’s cola with “raspberry and spiced flavors,” was rolled out in February and March. Marketing materials at the time said the beverage would be a “permanent addition” to the Coca-Cola lineup in North America, a category that includes only Classic, Cherry, Vanilla and Cherry Vanilla — the last of which debuted in 2020.
In a statement shared with the Associated Press in February, Shakir Moin, the chief of marketing for Coca-Cola North America, said the drink had been formulated in part to help attract “the next generation of consumers.”
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“If you go to the aisles, you’ll see the amount of spiciness has gone up because consumers’ taste palettes have evolved,” Moin told the outlet. “We realized that could be an opportunity for us.”
The AP noted, however, that the drink did not have “a lot of heat.”
As of Tuesday morning, the Coca-Cola website still hosted a page dedicated to its “new” Coca-Cola Spiced variety, but it was not listed among the brand’s permanent flavors.
Coke, meanwhile, still produces limited-edition flavors in addition to its permanent offerings, such as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Oreo, the newest of the sodas in its “Creations” category.
