Diet Pepsi Jazz

What the huh? Ok, my first thought on this one was "what the hell is going on here?"

Diet Pepsi has come out with a new line of soft drinks called "Jazz." Well, I'm not sure if they're officially a "line" of drinks (there are only 2 flavors), but they are from Diet Pepsi. Okay, before even tasting these things, I can guarantee you the following:

This will not end well.

This venture is already a lock for the "Crazy Cola Experiments Hall of Fame," whose current members include such legends as Crystal Pepsi, Pepsi Blue, and New Coke. This "Jazz" is also probably not getting turned away at any meetings for "food products with names that have nothing to do with what they taste like."

But I digress.

Diet Pepsi Jazz comes in two flavors - Black Cherry Vanilla and Strawberries & Cream. Strawberries & Cream is the (slightly) better of the two here, with a slight similarity to the recent "berries & cream" addition to the Dr. Pepper family - but not quite as good. Black Cherry Vanilla is very ordinary. Strangely, it has a taste that says "hmm, yeah, I've been here before" (even if you haven't).

The big factor with these two is the fact that they are DIET sodas, which both helps and hurts.

• It hurts because the sweet, creamy, fruity, flavor goodness that you're looking for is not quite there - b/c there isn't enough sugar and most of the flavor doesn't hit you until the aftertaste (a classic trait of most diet sodas).
• But, the flipside of all this is that the creamy, berry flavor goodness helps overcome some of the "diet-ness" of it all. In other words, there is so much added flavor (even if it's not as sweet as you'd like it to be), that it's a lot less of a bummer for all of those people that grab the diet soda (to be good), but don't really want to.

One more thing to add - see if you can go to the website without laughing (www.dietpepsijazz.com). They've got this cheeseball, generic "jazz" music playing and every few minutes, a guy that sounds like Little Richard attempting a "quiet storm" voice pipes up and says "Do you like Jazz?" - it's very surreal.

Okay, final grades:
C- ...Taste (compared to other sodas)
A- ...Taste (compared to other DIET sodas)
D ...Name/Branding
7 months ...Time before the following conversation takes place:

• "Hey, remember Diet Pepsi Jazz?"
• "No, what the hell was that?"