DailyDirt: Do You Want To Sell Sugar Water For The Rest Of Your Life?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The famous Pepsi Challenge was reportedly introduced by John Sculley, but despite the conclusion that more people prefer Pepsi, Coke still seems to outsell Pepsi in most (not all!) parts of the world. The original formulas for both colas seem to be in the public domain, but copycat colas haven’t exactly caught on. Here are a few other drinks that have a long way to go before getting into a cola war.
- A moonlighting chemist makes some unique soda flavors when he’s not developing prescription drugs. Sounds more legit than developing recreational drugs in his spare time… [url]
- Dr. Pepper doesn’t want you to drink Dr. Pepper with real sugar in it. No more Dublin Dr Pepper if it wins its lawsuit. [url]
- There may be a new category of beverage that is not quite hard or soft — containing synthetic alcohol. And it won’t be reserved just for Starfleet officers anymore. [url]
- To discover more food-related links, check out what’s floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: alcohol, drinks, soda, synthale, synthehol
Companies: coca cola, dr. pepper, kickstarter, pepsi
Comments on “DailyDirt: Do You Want To Sell Sugar Water For The Rest Of Your Life?”
Apparently, At The Opening Of The First Coca-Cola Plant In Russia ...
… President Boris Yeltsin is reputed to have sampled the product and proclaimed ?Tastes like Pepsi!?.
Re: Apparently, At The Opening Of The First Coca-Cola Plant In Russia ...
Some kind of citation is needed for that quote… (preferably not from the Pepsi marketing division.)
From the 'big issues' department
Do You Want To Sell Sugar Water For The Rest Of Your Life?
I dont know, but I expect it is better than selling snake oil for the rest of your life.
Really, anyone who thinks Coke and pepsi taste even close to each other has lost their ability to taste. (give up smoking).
More people prefer pepsi ?? funny that reality does not agree with you 🙂
Re: From the 'big issues' department
Really, anyone who thinks Coke and pepsi taste even close to each other has lost their ability to taste.
You have to qualify that with whether they were tasting Coke & Pepsi out of factory packaging or out of a soda fountain. I can taste the difference in cans and bottles, but out of a soda fountain, they both taste pretty much the same. Of course there’s no guarantee than the place isn’t just filling up both dispensers with generic cola.
Yuck
I’ll have to remember to avoid Dr. Pepper next time I’m in the US then… I can’t stand the taste or the texture of anything made with HCFS and the bigger portions you guys have over there aren’t worth the pain.
Re: Yuck
> I can’t stand the taste or the texture of anything made with HCFS
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is chemically the same as sugar. Sugar (sucrose) is one molecule of glucose bonded to one molecule of fructose. HFCS is simply a (approximately) 50-50 mix of glucose and fructose. The only difference is HFCS is missing the extra oxygen atom that bonds the glucose to the fructose. I’m pretty sure you can’t taste that.
In summary,
Sugar = glucose + fructose
HFCS = glucose & fructose
Re: Re: Yuck
Well, maybe it’s the whole recipe rather than just the use of HFCS but I can definitely taste the difference. I tried Coke, 7-up and Dr Pepper last time I was in the states and there was a distinct difference in flavour (especially regarding a strange, dry aftertaste) as well as the drinks being very sticky in comparison to what I’m used to if I spilled any while walking around.
Other travellers with me commented on noticing similar differences, and I’m pretty sure those people weren’t as aware of the differences in ingredients as I am. Meanwhile, I’ve never noticed any difference in taste or texture when travelling in areas that use sugar-based recipes, be that in Mexico, Europe or North Africa.
As I say, maybe it’s more than just the use of HFCS, but there’s definitely a difference and I will be avoiding the HFCS recipe as I find it noticeably inferior.
Re: Re: Yuck
I can taste the difference. Plus a missing atom can make a difference. Look at lead its just one electron from gold.
Re: Re: Re: Yuck
Yea, but does that electron make lead and gold taste different?
Re: Re: Yuck
All sugars are NOT created equal.. There definitely *can* be a variation in how different sugars taste!
The summary that “Sugar” equals glucose+fructose and HFCS = G&F doesn’t capture the whole story.
Different sugars can have different “sweetness” factors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Relativesweetness.png
So soda companies could be using different concentrations of different sugars to achieve a desired level of sweetness, but the different concentrations could make the sugar water more/less viscous or syrup-like and affect how people perceive the taste of the overall beverage…. It’s not a simple thing to change a formulation of Coke (ahem, New Coke!).
Who's really to blame
Archer Daniels Midland is in this knee-deep, right? Studies are finding that high-fructose corn syrup is a big part of the problems we’re having with weight and health-in-general. http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
Yet, there has been a HUGE push to keep this particular poison around to keep their sales high. So much so, they’re trying to confuse things by changing the name!
I’m dying to try this Dr. Pepper. Did anyone taste the retro-Mt. Dew when it made its limited debut last year? It was AWESOME.
So, why do these idiots not just change from HFCS to sugar? Seems to me they’d sell a TON of it, and maybe kick Coke and Pepsi to last place!
I guess Archer Daniels is doing whatever it can to kill off innovation and the return to more natural products that won’t kill you as fast as theirs.
synthehol!
I sure hope it’s as unpalatable to me as to commander riker!
Dublin Dr. Pepper
My wife is a long time Pepper drinker. There is no doubt in her mind that Dublin Dr. Pepper tastes much, much better. This may make her quit drinking Dr. Pepper.
HFCS sucks!