So Long, Vanilla Coke

Due to declining sales, Coca-Cola has decided to pull their roughly three-year-old Vanilla Coke and Diet Coke with Lemon flavors. From the article:

Analysts have said that one of the keys to the company's future is to
innovate new products that will help Coca-Cola capture more consumers who have
moved away from sugary soft drinks to diet versions, or to healthier low-or
no-calorie beverages such as water and orange juices with reduced sugar.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's novel to get a familiar cola flavor mixed with something new, like lemon, lime, orange, vanilla, cashew, spaghetti, or prosciutto. But, after the novelty wears off, you're either purchasing the variant along with the regular flavor, or have forgotten the variant and have moved back to regular cola.

Coca-Cola's #1 in the cola biz. Sure, it feels threatened and wants to match PepsiCo when Pepsi reveals they have a variant cola. But it's new and budding beverage markets where Coca-Cola will make head-way, not drag-racing with other companies on the best way to mix cola and Nutella.

Oh well, if you're truly addicted to the vanilla sugar water, you can always purchase the regular stuff and add some vanilla syrup to it.