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]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: alcohol, drinks, soda, synthale, synthehol
Companies: coca-cola, dr pepper, kickstarter, pepsi
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Apparently, At The Opening Of The First Coca-Cola Plant In Russia ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Apparently, At The Opening Of The First Coca-Cola Plant In Russia ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
From the 'big issues' department
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 :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: From the 'big issues' department
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yuck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Yuck
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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yuck
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yuck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Yuck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yuck
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!).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who's really to blame
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
synthehol!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dublin Dr. Pepper
HFCS sucks!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]