"Spiced" Coca-Cola canned after just 6 months

Spiced was pitched as a permanent new beverage from the company behind the world's most successful cola. After six months, the company is already planning to pull it from the shelves.

Interesting and exotic spinoff flavors are the in-thing, but this one suffered from the vibe marketing of its name implying a flavor it didn't have. It was not in fact spicy, but the raspberry flavor you can get from those make-your-own cola machines in the liminal tiled lobbies that are replacing dining rooms in fast food restaurants. Check out the research and marketing brain damage that led to the Bradley Fighting Vehicle of soft drinks:

But Coca-Cola intended Spiced to become a permanent addition to its lineup because its research found that an "increase in consumer willingness to try a spiced beverage" and that raspberry was selected more than 5 million times on its Freestyle drink machines in 2022, which the company "often uses for inspiration" for new flavors, according to Sue Lynne Cha, the company's vice president of marketing for North America.

"Raspberry is a spice" sounds like something from an alignment chart meme about white cuisine, located somewhere in the "Evil" row. I read that nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people. But the quote is suspect, and someone surely just got canned for it at Coca Cola.

Question: anyone else mostly stopped drinking carbonated beverages with sugar? I never liked "Diet" anything but the Zero variations nail it for me.