Diet Cherry Coke Is Finally Coming Back, Here’s the Details

We’ve got a big one today, y’all. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got eyes on the inside who risk life and limb (or at least a stern talking to from their boss) to share information on new product releases with me ahead of schedule. This week, one of those brave soldiers reported back something strange. This summer, exclusively at the Kroger family of grocery stores, Diet Cherry Coke will return to shelves in bottles and cans. In terms of “new releases,” this is as un-new as it gets, considering Diet Cherry Coke launched for the first time back in 1986. That said, there’s still plenty to talk about regarding this new release.

Diet Cherry Coke is back? When did it leave?

Diet Cherry Coke launched almost forty years ago, and it’s been available for damn near that entire time—impressive longevity for a variant of a variant. As you might remember, some stuff happened in 2020 that caused huge ripple effects in the supply chain (particularly, of all things, in the aluminum supply we need to make soda cans). Coca-Cola discontinued multiple sodas throughout that year to ensure they could continue producing the more popular sodas. One of these fallen angels was Diet Cherry Coke, which hasn’t returned to shelves—until now. Well, “now” in terms of this year. Diet Cherry Coke returns to shelves in July.

Is Diet Cherry Coke returning for good?

As of now, this release is slated for a limited time only. That said, the people I’ve talked to on the inside mentioned that this limited-time release might be looked at as a litmus test to see whether it’s worth bringing Diet Cherry Coke back for good. As usual in hyper-capitalist America, you’re going to have to make your voice heard with your dollars if you want something to change.

Is Diet Cherry Coke coming back to Canada?

Congrats, Canadians; for the first time in a long time, I have good news for you regarding an upcoming soda release. Diet Cherry Coke is expected to launch in Canada around that same July timeframe. You’ll find it exclusively in 24-packs at Costco.

Are we getting a new design for this release?

Kinda! I can’t share the images I’ve seen at this time, but the design of this upcoming release is nearly identical to the very first Diet Cherry Coke label designs that were often adjusted to promote events like the Olympics or the Super Bowl. The release as a whole is being described as “retro” which I am definitely all about. Now if we could just get regular Cherry Coke to bring back that cool grunge design they had in the ‘90s.