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Since I don’t really feel like I have anything worthwhile to write about, here comes another food-centric post.

A couple weeks ago, the good people at Coca-Cola released the product you see before you: Coke Blak. Though it doesn’t say it on the bottle (why the hell not?), Coke Blak is Coke mixed with coffee. Why they felt the need to produce this is beyond me, but I felt the need to try it.

I sort of have an interesting relationship with coffee. I don’t really like to drink it at all, but I typically enjoy coffee flavoring in stuff. Haagen-Dazs’ coffee flavor is my absolute favorite kind of ice cream, I’ve enjoyed chocolate-covered espresso beans on the occasions I’ve had to try them, and I greatly enjoyed the short-lived coffee flavored Oreos. I can be an odd duck.

I started checking gas stations and convenience stores shortly after the product launch for any sign of it, but apparently you can only buy it in four-bottle packs right now. It comes in 8 oz. bottles, and the four-pack will set you back $4.99 (it did me, anyway, at my local SuperTarget). “That’s a bit steep,” I thought, but I was undeterred. “This had better be really good.”

I finally got around to trying it later that evening, after it had had plenty of time to chill in my refrigerator, and I have to say…

…it’s not that great.

It doesn’t taste bad, per se, I just don’t see any reason to ever drink it again after the amount I already purchased is gone. Plus if I wanted to duplicate the flavor, it would be much more cost-effective to just mix coffee and Coke on my own. The only conceivable downside to the homemade version is the dilution of the carbonation, but I think Coke is too fizzy anyway, so no problem there.

As an aside, there was a guy I went to high school with who used to bring a thermos in every day that was a disgusting (I’m assuming) combination of equal parts coffee and Mt. Dew. I don’t think we’ll be seeing that on grocery shelves anytime soon (though Pepsi apparently has a competing product called Pepsi Cappuccino coming out before too long).