Strawberry Guava Diet Coke? Coca-Cola gets creative in refreshing its flavors

Coca-Cola continues to go after new diet soda drinkers with the launch of two new flavors of Diet Coke – Strawberry Guava and Blueberry Acai.

They’re the first additions to the soda giant’s line of new flavors, which launched last January to attract millennials.

Like the inaugural flavors, these two will also come in 12-ounce, skinny cans. 

The pair will hit store shelves across the U.S. next week and will be available as single cans or in eight-packs, Coca-Cola said Wednesday. The suggested retail prices are 99 cents and $3.99, respectively.

In January 2018, the classic zero-calorie soda morphed into Ginger Lime, Feisty Cherry, Zesty Blood Orange and Twisted Mango. The original flavor remains, too.

Other flavors that Coca-Cola said it had tested but ultimately nixed included Oro Blonco Grapefruit and Vanilla Chai.

“We focused on modernizing Diet Coke to appeal to a new consumer base while at the same time connecting with our core drinkers by preserving the essence of what makes this brand so special,” Rafael Acevedo, Diet Coke's group director, said in a statement. "Different consumers have different favorites, so it’s important to offer a range."

Coca-Cola found that when new drinkers try one of the flavors, they’re also more likely to reach for original Diet Coke, which first launched in 1982.

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The Atlanta-based beverage maker said that the Diet Coke refresh helped turn sales around after at least half a decade of decline.

The soda industry continues to face criticism over what carbonated beverages may do to Americans' unhealthy diets and obesity rates and opposition to its products in the form of so-called soda taxes in various municipalities across the U.S.

For the first time ever, in 2016, bottled water topped Americans' list of favorite drinks, beating soda 12.8 billion gallons sold to 12.4 billion gallons sold, according to the research and consulting company Beverage Marketing.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Zlati Meyer on Twitter: @ZlatiMeyer