Is Aldi’s Diet Cola Really a Dupe for McDonald’s Diet Coke?

If you ever meet me in person, chances are that I will mention Aldi within the first five minutes of conversation. I mean, how could I not? It makes my favorite freezer meal and my favorite condiment. And that’s not even counting all of the goodies I’ve picked up walking down “The Danger Aisle”—you know, the one where all the Aldi Finds live.

Despite my love for the chain, there is one aisle I’ve never been interested in: the one with Aldi’s house brand sodas. If the Aldi Finds aisle is my kryptonite, then the tonic is the beverage aisle (pun very much intended). Sure, call me a snob, but I prefer a Diet Coke over any store’s house brand version. Call me a sucker for marketing and branding—I don’t care. Diet Coke is life.

I was curious, though, when I started to see chatter online about Aldi’s Diet Cola being a dupe for the king of all Diet Cokes: a McDonald’s Diet Coke. Well, I scoffed, this certainly can’t be possible. Aiming to prove the internet wrong, I went and bought a case of the Summit Diet Cola.

Is Aldi’s diet cola a dupe for a McDonald’s Diet Coke?

Generic sodas are nothing new. Brands take well-known products and try to imitate them at a lower cost—both visually and in terms of taste. The result is often just fine. In this case, the packaging for Aldi Diet Cola is freakishly akin to that of a Diet Coke: It’s a light silver can with red lettering.

But when I took a sip of the Aldi diet cola, I was immediately blown away. I actually said, “Wow!” and then took a second sip just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Yes, this generic cola is good. And not just good, it tastes better than a can of Diet Coke. My first impression was that it tasted like someone had canned a McDonald’s fountain Diet Coke.

Real Diet Coke fans know that what sets the McDonald’s version apart is an unmistakable, almost proprietary balance of flavor and carbonation that you usually can’t get anywhere else. So, I decided to take my testing up a notch. I poured a can over ice, and drank it with a straw. It was perfection.

I am convinced that if you poured the Aldi Diet Cola into a McDonald’s cup, I wouldn’t know the difference. Consider me impressed yet again by Aldi, because I will now be buying its Summit Diet Cola in bulk. It really is a super dupe for McDonald’s Diet Coke!

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