#ThirstyThursday: Coca-Cola CLEAR LIME Review: Like Coke But Missing A Little Something

We’ve seen transparent Milk Tea, transparent Starbucks, transparent coffee, and we actually told you guys before of transparent Coke.

Is being transparent a good thing? Is this a trick so you can pretend to be drinking water so people stop judging you for drinking all the sugar drinks?

Either way, we’re here to review transparent Coke with lime, or Coca-Cola CLEAR LIME if you prefer the official name.

It’s imported from Japan because of course, it’s the Japanese who does all these things.

Opening the bottle had the carbonated drink fizz come out in a burst. I’m not sure whether the fizz can be controlled to make some kind of music, but hey music YouTubers out there, here’s a sound effect that might sound cool.

Pouring it also shows the carbonation.

Smell wise, it is very similar to Coke with a scent of lime. Meaning, it is exactly as they advertised.

But What About the Taste?

Initially, I thought it would taste just like any other transparent drinks; a diluted version that is clearly more gimmick than substance.

But surprisingly, this Coke might actually taste sweeter than black (aka normal Coke) Coke.

If you think of the colour black, you think of the evil, bitterness, darkness, that kind of thing. On the white side, you have nice things like marshmallows, sayings like “sweet as an angel”.

I’m not really sure I’m going with that terrible analogy, but transparent Coke somehow is sweeter and black Coke from my memory is a bit more bitter.

As for carbonation, transparent Coke seems to be less fizzy, which is definitely a minus point for Coke.

But how would I rate this? It’s a sugar drink as advertised; transparent, sugary, carbonated, tastes like Coke, with a decent taste of lime.

Somehow, It’s Missing a Little Something: Bitterness

As they say, Yin and Yang form a balance.

So here’s a life lesson: life isn’t complete without some hurdles.

When you watch Avengers, if there’s no Thanos, Avengers becomes just a cast of people making snarky remarks in weird costumes.

Without Batman’s parents dying, then Batman is just the life of a rich kid living a boring life.

That little bitterness in life makes life, and by this I mean Coke, taste better. Transparent Coke is missing a little of that.

Ingredients: Almost Exactly the Same as Normal Coke

From the ingredients, we see carbonated water, sucrose, flavouring, lime juice from concentrate, phosphoric acid and caffeine.

In comparison, normal Coke has: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavourings Including Caffeine.

Which seems like it’s mostly Colour (Caramel E150d) that is missing.

All makes a lot of sense. Caramel colouring has the odour of burnt sugar and a somewhat bitter taste. Without bitterness, we taste more of the transparent Coke’s sugar, which makes it taste sweeter.

And if we check the sugar level, it looks like it’s pretty similar too:

But if you think about it, this means that save for the original version with Cocaine, this might be what Coke actually tastes like.

Rating: 3.5/5