Report: Coke developing vanilla-flavored cola

ATLANTA - Coca-Cola is reportedly developing a vanilla-flavored version of its best-selling flagship cola, extending the company's palette of flavorings from Cherry Coke and Diet Coke with lemon.

The nation's largest soft drink company has prepared samples of packaging for the new drink, which will be sold initially only in North America. Beverage Digest reports on the vanilla flavor's pending introduction in its current issue.

Coke officials declined to comment on the report.

``It is not yet an absolute certainty, but I think it's very likely that they'll launch a line extension of Coke Classic," Beverage Digest editor John Sicher said Monday. "It's become very clear in the last year or two that new products and innovation are an important component of marketing and drives growth.''

The magazine first reported on the vanilla Coke research in November.