The Coca-Cola Co. simply introduced its latest limited-time soda, and it’s a mixture of Sprite and tea that was initially floated by a crew of interns six years in the past.
Sprite + Tea simply hit cabinets earlier throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is predicted to stay in the marketplace via October. The soda is on the market in each common and zero-sugar varieties, and, in accordance with a press launch, it “blends the crisp, lemon-lime refreshment of Sprite with the classically refreshing taste of tea.” The brand new product arrives only a month after Coca-Cola introduced better-than-anticipated first-quarter 2025 financial results, logging a 2% year-over-year income decline however sustaining its development forecasts for 2025, unlike rival PepsiCo.
For years now, Coca-Cola has been experimenting with new, surprising taste combos designed to draw youthful customers, starting from Spiced Coke to final summer season’s Sprite Chill and the ever-popular seasonal rerelease Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry. Most just lately, the company introduced Orange Cream Coke, citing “rising demand amongst millennials and Gen Z-ers for enjoyable, surprising tastes and sensory experiences” because the inspiration behind the nostalgic taste.
In contrast to these different taste performs from the corporate, Sprite + Tea would possibly already be acquainted to many followers. That’s as a result of earlier than it turned an official product, the soda began as an concept floated by Coca-Cola interns that later turned a viral DIY TikTok development.
TikTok noticed it first
In an interview with Ad Age, Coca-Cola Co. senior artistic director A.P. Chaney defined that Sprite + Tea first landed on executives’ radars again in 2019, when a gaggle of interns pitched a mixture of the 2 drinks.
“It was an R&D venture, and interns had been requested to give you totally different improvements and advertising and marketing concepts for various manufacturers, and Sprite + Tea was an ideation of that,” Chaney informed Advert Age.
From there, the concept appears to have sat on the again burner till summer season 2023, when a DIY Sprite tea began popping up on TikTok. In an initial TikTok by Malaysian chef Hisham Raus, Raus is proven steeping Lipton tea bags in an everyday bottle of Sprite and having fun with the concoction with a slice of lemon. The video, which has since racked up 19.8 million views and 1.3 million likes, has spawned dozens of copycat movies throughout platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Meals influencer @shophocho7798 re-created the concept in a YouTube video with 3.7 million views, calling the end result “actually a carbonated Arnold Palmer.” In one other YouTube quick with 8.3 million views, creator Jordan Howlett declared the hack “delicious” and inspired his 4.4 million subscribers to offer it a strive.
“When [the trend] blew up on TikTok with tens of millions of views, it was a intestine test that we had been heading in the right direction,” Chaney stated within the firm’s press launch.
Whereas it’s unlikely that Coca-Cola is definitely utilizing the tea bag hack to mass-produce Sprite + Tea, the discharge does be aware that Coca-Cola’s North American R&D crew “accomplished a number of rounds of shopper testing to fine-tune the formulation for the amber-colored glowing beverage.”
For Coca-Cola, Sprite appears to be a dependable base for taste remixes: In 2024, the limited-time Sprite Chill turned the corporate’s best-selling drink innovation, and Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry has returned a number of occasions as a vacation fan favourite since 2013. In the meantime, the current Spiced Coke experiment was phased out after just six months when it didn’t land with clients.
TikTok is already flooded with videos of followers attempting Sprite + Tea, with some critiques commending the drink’s “strong tea flavor,” whereas others recommend that viewers stick with the DIY version.
