Coca-Cola Move Tastes Like 10 Things At Once

Coca-Cola Creations, the "global innovation platform" launched by the brand in 2022, has spent the past year rolling out new, limited-time-only flavors inspired by, ugh, random expressions like dreaming, gaming, and space? With names like Starlight, Dreamworld, and Zero Sugar Byte offering no clue as to what's in these drinks, you have to taste them to see what they're all about. Year two of the platform is kicking off with Coca-Cola Move, a collaboration with pop star Rosalía that launched February 20.

Here's what the brand's official press release has to say about the new soda:

Together, Coca-Cola® and Rosalía have set out to capture the spirit of change and movement through their new collaboration, offering fans a taste inspired by transformation. Its unique taste pushes the limits more than any other Creations drop to date – as fans sip the new drink, a familiar Coke taste they know and love will evolve in a surprising way.

If you're like me, you're probably wondering, "What the fuck does all of that mean?" How does a drink made from high fructose corn syrup and phosphoric acid capture the spirit of change and movement? You can put a fun, bright label on it and call it Move, but it all seems pretty static to me, or at least no more "transformational" than a fizzy, bubbly bottle of regular Coke.

Nonetheless, I have been tasked with purchasing and tasting this new Coca-Cola product, and it's been a while since I've had a full-sugar soda, so, screw it—let's boogie, Move.

This product is vanilla forward and has a strawberry-ish flavor to it. It's hard to articulate exactly why, but this also feels like I'm drinking a rum and coke. There's a fruity bitterness to it, like somebody spiked my drink with just a dash of awful-tasting Bacardi.

There's also an unpleasant fragrance here, one that I can taste. That's right, I'm tasting a smell here. It has a perfume quality, like a candle melted down and mixed with Coca-Cola, or soda with a spritz of Febreze. I'm drinking the liquid from an air freshener, goddamn it, and it's giving me a headache.

Now, this all might sound bad, but there's at least a little bit of fun in trying to guess what exactly the flavor is. I get the appeal of it all. I decided to scrounge Twitter to see what people were saying about Coca-Cola Move, and what they thought it tasted like.

It's a mixed bag: Users made countless guesses that included caramel popcorn, coconut, coconut medicine, strawberry, sunscreen, and some more votes for buttery popcorn. Coconut seems to be the prevailing taste here, and I even saw some people say coconut-vanilla-strawberry, which more accurately describes what I initially tasted. The theme here seems to be coconut—which would also include that guess for sunscreen.

Maybe that coconut flavor is where the rum and coke vibes started to set in for me. If that's the case, that's an awful decision, Coca-Cola. One thing you don't want to do when designing a new flavor of soda is to remind people of an alcoholic drink they could be having instead.

But, to me, the biggest tell that Coca-Cola Move might not be the most beloved product in the portfolio is that so many consumers reference popcorn in their reviews. Popcorn tells the story, friends. The Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly is notorious for having an out-of-place, off-putting, polarizing flavor. If large groups of people are saying your product tastes like popcorn, that's how you know it doesn't taste good. And with plenty of awesome Coke products already available—particularly Cherry, Cherry Vanilla, and Classic—you can safely move on from this new flavor.