Rumor Has It There’s a New Sprite Flavor Coming This Winter

If I’m sure of anything, it’s this: The Coca-Cola Company is going to release Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry every single winter until everything we know is dust in the wind, dude. So imagine my surprise when official images of Sprite Vanilla Frost crossed my desk. Watch out, claymation Lebron James: you may have some competition this winter.

Important note: While having high-quality renders is a great sign that we’ll see this product on shelves in the near future, release plans can and do change regularly. At this time, there’s no guarantee Sprite Vanilla Frost is actually coming out. That said, I’m confident enough to tell you about it, so let’s pretend it’s a sure thing.

Is Vanilla Sprite really new?

This answer will be obvious to anyone who’s ever used a Coca-Cola Freestyle machine: No! Hell, you can order a Vanilla Sprite right now at your nearest Wendy’s. That said, I do believe this will be slightly different from the standard Vanilla Sprite out of a Freestyle machine—if only because the name Sprite Vanilla Frost was first used for a separate Freestyle mix five years ago! What a plot twist! Coca-Cola announced Sprite Vanilla Frost (and a zero sugar variant) as a limited-time holiday Freestyle mix all the way back in 2019. It’s popped back up at least once since then, but this would be the first non-fountain release for the flavor.

What took them so long to release it in a wider format? I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that their network of international spies found out about the upcoming Cranberry Starry, forcing them to break the “in case of copycat” glass containing this formula.

How did you find out about this?

Within the last few weeks, product renders of Sprite Vanilla Frost in 20oz bottles and 12oz cans were posted to a Coke-affiliated source online. Those images then made their way to me pretty quickly. The soda’s label features a very similar lower-third pattern to Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry, in a different color scheme. 

When and where will I be able to buy this new, slightly-different Sprite?

While the name pretty squarely puts this in the Q4 time frame, I haven’t been able to find any official documentation stating exactly when this will hit shelves. As for where we’ll be able to find it, a reliable source said they believed this will be exclusive to the Kroger family of stores (including Fred Meyer, Dillons, Ralphs, and Harris Teeter). I haven’t been able to confirm that just yet, but I’m keeping my ear to the ground for any new information. Kroger has had an exclusive soda flavor before, but this would certainly be a step up from apple-flavored Mountain Dew.