The Sweet, Bubbly Stuff That Comes in a Can

[thegrrrl2002]

Probably just me being wierd, but after living in a couple of different states, I find this stuff fascinating: The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy

And, may I add, the proper term is SODA.

Comments

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I never ran into that, until I had one roommate in college, and another woman who became a best friend, both from Atlanta, and both of them swore by the "coke" as a generic noun for soda-pop thing. "Give me an orange coke" is something that would come out of their mouths, and they didn't mean a Coke with orange flavoring, either (because now that we have Lemon Coke and Lime Coke, you have to specify that), they meant, orange soda-pop. Like, Orange Fanta, or Sunkist, and stuff like that. I think that rootbeer would really be "rootbeer coke". Wacky.

What I really want to know is...what are all the little "other" squares representing? What terms? Things like "soda-pop"? (Or "sodie-pop", as some folks would put it.)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm being goofy and repeating myself, sorry about that! I really needed to say "I prefer iced tea." Because soda gives me heartburn. Because I'm old.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I guess, we have Diet Lemon Coke, and Diet Lime Coke. In addition to Vanilla Coke (which might only be Diet too) and Cherry Coke, etc. etc. Which is fine with me, really, and they really ought to get get over it and put out Orange Coke too. (Since it *was* once common, in the soda-fountain days -- hmm! those were always called "Soda Fountains", too, but it makes me wonder if regions where "soda" was not popular had other terms for them -- to offer colas with flavoring syrup in them. Which is the nostalgia that the release of Cherry Coke was trying to capitalize on in the first place, but while cherry was probably the most popular flavored syrup to add, I hear that vanilla and orange were popular too; and malt, I think. Anyway.)

I've tried the Diet Vanilla Coke, but it's too sweet for me, and frankly I think it just tastes like Dr. Pepper, and if I wanted a creme soda, I would buy a real creme soda. And I tried Diet Lemon Coke, but it's one of those things where to certain people, the smell/taste of lemon flavorings (including cilantro) remind them too much of scented furniture polish or floor wax, and I'm one of those people in regards lemon flavoring (but not in regards cilantro; I couldn't possibly love cilantro more!), so I couldn't drink Diet Lemon Coke because it tasted too much like drinking Lemon Pledge.

However, Diet Lime Coke meets with my approval. Lime appears to be the new lemon, you know. As in, latest flavor sensation for junk food. (See also: Tostitos "Hint of Lime" tortilla chips, which I love with a mad passion.) Anyway, the addition of lime flavoring does an end-run around the furniture-polish problem, and I like it; even though, of course, the whole taste of Coca-Cola is based heavily on citrus notes anyway, so I actually find it a little difficult to pick out the specifically lime-y notes, but whatever, I like it.

(I was also just totally charmed by the radio ad campaign, which consisted of a filk of Nilsson's "Put the Lime in Da' Coconut" -- made famous by the Muppets, of course -- which was quite a good rendition of "You put da' lime in de Diet Coke an' drink 'em both together, you put da' lime in de Diet Coke, den you feel better!")

(Don't feel like you've missed *too* much -- the Diet Lime Coke thing is very recent, like in the last two months.)

All that being said -- I'm an iced-tea girl myself; I drink carbonated beverages pretty seldom. Most of the commercial brands of iced tea are too sweet for me, but I've had good success with Nestea's diet variation, and diluting it by about half. I drink that stuff constantly. Though my favorite is mint iced tea, which I actually have to brew. Mmmm! Why has nobody brought out a commercial mint tea? Except Honest Teas, of course, but they actually err on the side of Too Little Sweetening, for me.

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Lime Coke, now that sounds pretty interesting. Do they make a rum-flavored one, too? ;-)

I'm on board with the whole lime thing. Probably makes the diet version taste reasonable. As for iced tea, I remember a few years back, when I was still living in Boston, Snapple made a mint iced tea. It was just wonderful. Very sweet, but good. I haven't been able to find it since, so it might have been regional, or they stopped making it. I do like Honest Teas, because I've gotten used to drinking iced tea without sweetening. Because, clearly, I'm sweet enough as it is. I'm partial to iced Earl Grey.

Which reminds me, now that it's sort of springtime, I need to start keeping some in the fridge!