More Vanilla… Or is It Less?

It’s interesting to see all of the various flavors of Coke at this point. I’m showing my age but there was a time when it was shocking to see Cherry Coke on shelves. Coke Classic and Diet Coke were all you got in the way of flavors, and then Cherry came along and it seemed so different, so magical. Years later (when I was in college) Vanilla Coke came out and it, too, seemed strange and different. Coke with a bit of cream soda flair. My friends and I drank a lot of Vanilla Coke back then, and the great debate was over whether Cherry or Vanilla Coke was better.

Of course now we have a ton of flavors that cycle in and out. Coke Lime, Coke Lemon, Coke Raspberry, Coke Cherry Vanilla, Coke Orange, Coke Ginger, Coke with Coffee… Just about any flavor you can think of in soda form eventually gets added to coke. Some are better than others (Spiced Coke was honestly pretty terrible), but it seems like the various flavor varietals have helped to give the soda brand even more life than it saw before. Still, it’s hard to find flavors that are really better than Cherry and Vanilla.

For the holidays, though, we might just have a contender. For 2025 we have a new version of the Vanilla favor, Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke, and it might actually be better than standard Vanilla. I will admit I’m not certain what makes an extra creamy version of Vanilla coke especially “holiday” themed, but I don’t think that really matters. What does matter is that this soda tastes good, and while I don’t drink nearly as much soda as I used to (and I’m horrified at just how much I drank back in college), this is one I’d go back to once in a while if it comes out against past this year’s holiday season.

Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke is, at its core, Vanilla Coke with just a little extra. Its flavor is very close to standard Vanilla Coke, but there’s a little hint of something extra. It looks like Coke, but if I had to guess I’d bet that there’s a bit of cream soda flavoring put in. So it’s like vanilla plus cream soda, which makes for, yes, Creamy Vanilla. That’s basic science right there, mixing two great things that taste great together, and the only thing I find shocking is that it took this long for Coke to put out this flavor mix.

It does taste great. It has the smooth yet sweet up front flavor of vanilla and Coke, and then the finish and after taste reminds me of cream soda. It’s like a full flavor profile that ends up tasting like the best of both worlds. Straight out of a can, warm or cold (and I tested it warm first because I absolutely broke open the case the second I got home with it), the flavor is solid and delicious. As I said, this is a soda I’d drink regularly if I regularly drank soda anymore.

One thing to note, though: I found that the flavor really gets muted when it’s poured over ice. Straight from a can or bottle, the soda’s flavor is strong and true. Ice, though, seems to dilute it a lot and it loses the creamy aspect. I’m not sure why this is or why it specifically mutes the creamy flavor of the soda so much, but when I poured it over ice it tasted like bland sugar water. It was really weird, but it taught me to put my cans in the fridge if I wanted it cold as ice was an absolute faux pas for this soda.

Of course, once I had it straight I then had to go for the very obvious flavor mix: an ice cream float. I like Coke floats, finding that the bite of the Coke pairs well with smooth and creamy vanilla ice cream. Naturally I had to figure that vanilla ice cream with Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke would be a winner. And it was, no surprise. The flavors mix well together and it makes for a very tasty, smooth and creamy, ice cream float.

With that said, I do think that this one once again loses some of its zest when it’s poured over something. Like with the ice, ice cream somewhat mutes the flavor down. It’s not as noticeable as with the ice since ice cream melts in and adds its own creaminess, but I did think that the Coke zip was missing a bit more here than when I use standard Coke in a float. The Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke clearly has more delicate flavors and it doesn’t pair as well with other things in just about any form.

In the end, then, this is a soda that you should drink straight up. It’s great on its own, mixing the best of both Vanilla Coke and cream soda together into a delicious, unified experience. While it works fine on ice cream, I think there are sodas that pair better (like standard Coke or the old standby of root beer). On its own, though, this soda is delicious. Anyone that likes Vanilla Coke should absolutely try Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke. It’s hard to see how you’d be disappointed by this flavor combination.