Does bacon-flavored Coke really exist?

Is bacon-flavored Coke on the way? That's what some Twitter users are wondering, after an image of a Diet Coke can emblazoned with the words "with Bacon" below the logo appeared online.

"Timeout," the user @coolmaterial wrote. "This actually exists?"

Turns out, it doesn't. At least, not yet.

"To answer your question," Scott Williamson, vice president of public affairs and communication for Coca-Cola told BaconToday.com, "No, there is no Diet Coke with bacon."

According to the site, claims of testing bacon-flavored Coke date to at least 2008. And a quick online search reveals the image of the purported "Diet Coke with Bacon" prototype is just as old.

But the soda is not hard to imagine in what has become the Summer of Bacon.

In June, Burger King introduced a bacon sundae as part of its new summer menu. The 510-calorie sundae—vanilla soft serve topped with fudge, caramel, bacon crumbles and a piece of bacon—has 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of sugar. That's healthier, so to speak, than Jack in the Box's 1,081-calorie bacon milkshake, which debuted in February.

In July, California burger chain Slater's 50/50 introduced a burger made of 100 percent ground bacon. The Fourth of July-inspired 'Merica burger was topped with a slice of thick-cut bacon, bacon island dressing, and bacon flavored cheddar cheese. (Its only non-bacon topping was an impressive sunny-side-up egg.)

And earlier this month, an Iowa State Fair vendor rolled out double bacon corn dogs--hot dogs wrapped in bacon, deep-fried, dipped bacon-bit batter and deep-fried again.

In other words: pork paradise.

It's worth noting, too, that bacon-flavored soda does, in fact, exist--it's just not made by Coca-Cola. Hopefully it tastes better than the Bacon Maple Ale concocted by Oregon's Rogue brewery last fall. Beer lovers panned it, as did maple syrup connoisseurs.

"It generally tastes like a dirty, ashy smoked beer," the Maple Daily declared. "The maple syrup notes pop up now and again, but the smoke flavor, along with fatty hits of unwanted bacon, dominate."