Review of Coca Cola’s new label-less Sprite bottles

If you have been walking around the city centre recently, you may have seen the adverts for Sprite’s new “naked” label-less bottles, an effort by drinks titan Coca-Cola to cut down on packaging and help recycling.

A worthy effort, but are these new trial bottles still as eye-catching as those with the bright green wrapper?

The bottles are currently available in just a few stores across the country – two Tesco Express Stores in Brighton and Hove and some in Manchester, London and Bristol.

While the labelled Sprite on the shelf was clearly identifiable in the Tesco branch in Western Road, the label-less version was hard to spot from a distance. It is only when you move up close that you can see the Sprite logo embossed on the bottle.

Had it not been for the green-coloured cap, I think most customers would be more than a bit confused about what product they were buying.

As I went to pay for my meal deal, I have to admit to having struggled to find the barcode for an embarrassingly long amount of time.

It turned out the barcode is included on the bottle cap itself, but even after discovering it, I found it a bit of a struggle to scan the barcode on the self-service checkout. In the end, I had to resort to typing in the barcode myself.

To my disappointment, the drink was not included in the price of a meal deal, leaving me a bit more out of pocket for lunch than I expected.

The label-less Sprite (green-capped) and Sprite Zero (grey-capped) bottles (Image: Supplied)

My colleagues were keen to see what the new bottles looked like but were confused by the decision to remove such clear branding.

One even thought it reminded them more of the water bottles that you had to strip off their labels when you take an exam at school.

Despite the slightly mixed sentiment towards its overall appearance, the taste did not disappoint and was still the same enjoyable Sprite taste.

Final thought? A great idea, but perhaps some more effort should be made to distinguish the bottle and make it stand out from the crowd.

The label-less Sprite bottles can be found in Brighton Jubilee Street Tesco Express and Hove Western Road Tesco Express.