The age old question. Coke? Pepsi? Store brand? Any other?
I’m personally a Dr Pepper guy myself.
Do yourself a favor and trick yourself into liking the Zero or Diet versions of your chosen soda. Notably, the Zero formulations have less and less aftertaste. I have found Zero versions of Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Pepsi, Coke, etc. I even found Cherry Dr.Pepper Zero, which if you know what that means is just nonsensical. I go back to the regular sugar sometimes and it doesn’t taste any better. I enjoy my acidic spiced cherry lemon Dr.Pepper without the diabeetus.
Calorie rant: Why? 1.5 cans of soda is 250 kcal. That is equivalent to 30 MINUTES OF EXERCISE. PER DRINK. 3500 kcals (or calories) is equal to 1-0.5 pounds of fat gained or lost. Stop drinking or substitute soda for 2 weeks and lose a pound/0.4kg. Stop for a year and lose 25 pounds/12 kg FOR NO EXERCISE. Do you know how disheartening to know that all of my exercise is wasted by just chugging a large soda? Do the inverse and save an hour of jogging with a large DIET/ZERO soda.
Another important note about diet soda is that they can often increase appetite, so try to avoid drinking them before or during a meal. Of course water is better but we all know damn well nobody is perfect lol. With thoughtful timing and good moderation you can enjoy diet drinks without worry (water still better though).
Well as long as you’re doing yourself favors, try to go with water, and cut out soda for most of your diet.
But of course this isn’t really an answer to the question at hand.
Water is best but unsweetened tea has a nicer flavor and the only thing I can find that makes it worse than water from a health standpoint is the caffeine.
You can also get a decaffeinated tea as well to drink
In the winter months, I live off of unsweetened herbal tea with no caffeine.
I agree! I have also found carbonated water to quench my need for texture. I can’t find it sold as a drink in the drive-thru, though. But when I partake, I can’t get enough of it when I take a big, painfully acidic and bubbly sip.
As for just water, I find the water/ice dispenser in my new apartment’s fridge to be the #1 health device I can use. I imagine diet and zero soda to be stepping stones to sparking water, which is a stepping stone for still water.
Already way ahead of ya! Zero only for me, unless there is no other option mind you. :P
I went to artificially sweetened sodas. I started getting these gnarly tension headaches. (And sometimes my jaw would hurt too.) Bummer. I bit the bullet and just went with drinking less soda instead.
Ice really makes water taste a lot better at least.
For anyone wondering difference between zero sugar and diet. Diet is meant to taste ‘lighter’ so it’s supposed to taste different where as zero sugar soda attempts to taste the same as the original.
I can’t stand replacement sugars and sweeteners. I do enjoy sodas, but I try to drink mostly water. They all have a metallic, chemical flavor that makes me feel queasy.
My wife introduced me (53M) to Coke Zero on our honeymoon 18 years ago.
I dropped 10 pounds just from that one change. It didn’t take me any time to “get used” to drinking it, like Diet Coke, which to this day still tastes metallic.
Adults really should minimized any and all calorie intake from drinking. So that means water, or zero calorie sodas and drinks.
Soda is great for energy if you’re doing crazy exercise though. On the Seattle to Portland ride, I was able to up my calorie intake by about 800 kcal just by drinking full sugar soda when I stopped to eat. I still wasn’t able to consume enough calories, but it got me a might closer.
I wouldn’t say it’s “great” since it’s so sugary, but they had soda at an ultra marathon I did last Saturday. It was a great pick me up to drink a cup of coke. Supplimented the soda with other food, but it helped recover some calories quickly and has caffeine. I really try to stay away from the stuff otherwise.
When you’re burning many thousands of calories, it could be the difference between making it to hour eleven or crashing at hour nine.
Water! You can even carbonate it yourself!
That’s exactly my answer to “Which carbonated soft drink is the worst?”
Sparkling water ftw. Do you have a CO2 tank to carbonate?
Yeah a soda stream!
Sometimes… no all times, I wish I also couldn’t taste Bitter 2. Unfortunately when you carbonate water, that is literally the only flavour it has. And it has alot of it. It’s one of the most disgusting flavours to people that can taste it, and completely non-existent to everyone else.
Fellow super taster I share your anguish
My wife got me a kegerator a couple years ago. It’s amazing! Like $700. Fill up the keg with tap water when you run out (my keg is like 10 gal), refill the CO2 tank every 100 gals or so. I did a math a while back and it’s like 6 cents per glass, not including upfront costs.
Or you can get an adapter to use with a standard CO2 tank with a soda stream machine. Refill those CO2 tanks at your local home brewing supply store, which again is way cheaper than the sodastream CO2
SodaStream user here, that seems like a way better way than building it all from scratch!
Correct answer!
Water
Carbonated water
I uses to hate it but finally cave in. It’s my favourite sparkling drink. It tricks my brain into thinking I’m drinking a sweet drink.
Maybe with a little fruit flavor
No!
When I was a kid, we had a drink called “suicide punch”. You mix equal parts of every drink in the fountain.
It is definitely not that.
ooooh man I had forgotten about “suicides”, high fructose corn syrup makes kids do crazy shit
Idk. That’s more a case of kids making high fructose corn syrup doing crazy stuff.
Baja blast zero by a mile
I have to drop my daughter off at dance class for 45 minutes every week. Fortunately there’s a Taco Bell nearby that led me to discover the wonder that is Baja Blast Zero. Now it gives me something to look forward to every week.
For some reason the zero versions of mtn dew give me a headache. Which is sad because I love mtn dew but refuse to drink the sugar versions
Yes! It’s so good. I always pick up a few 12 packs when I see it because it only comes around every once in a while
Its finally back for good!
Is it really? Oh, finally!
I never see it, though. I’ll have to look around.
Dr Pepper!
But I have to say Jarrito Tamarind soda is really good
I remember when Jarritos was this exotic little mandarin drink, only stocked in one row at my local super market. I’ve loved them since then, and now I see them everywhere in all flavors. Like watching a child grow up :')
I know I’m going to be in the minority here, but I’ve been on a carbonated flavored water kick for a few years after I realized sugar was killing me. It was a two fold realization that I just really enjoy the fizz and not the sugar.
That said, Polar seltzer-ade with lemon or lime juice is just 🤌 if you’re into carbonated waters
yaaaas queen
Water.
Fevertree ginger beer. Strong ginger flavor, not overly sweet like many other ginger beers I’ve tried.
Second! I always like the strong bite of ginger. Im finding it harder and harder to get good ginger beer or even birch beer, they seem to have the tendency to be too sweet, like Reeds.
Add some lime 👍
I like cock and bull, especially with a squeeze of lime
Moscow Mule hold the Moscow. Been making these a lot lately. Not decided on what my preferred ginger beer for it is though.
Have you tried Buffalo Rock ginger ale? I’m pretty sure it was a civil war era tonic. They still sell it in parts of Mississippi. It hurts to drink, but mixes well with bourbon.
deleted by creator
There’s so many cliches, but despite them all, Mountain Dew. Not because it makes me feel Xtreme while I’m playing Call of Duty and eating Doritos on my skateboard, it’s just a much better flavor.
I miss Canadian mountain dew. It was just the pop, no caffeine. Turns out caffeine doesn’t taste very good. I mean you would assume that, but it really hit home when the pop I loved all of a sudden added it. Wish they continued to offer a caffeine free version. But I know in the states the caffeine is like their whole marketing thing.
I’ve been into vanilla coke zero sugar for a while now.
Sprite zero sugar if you want no caffeine.
Both work well with alcohol. Bourbon or spiced rum with the coke. Vodka with the sprite.
On those funky Coke machines in some restaurants, there was an option to get Raspberry Coke Zero for a long time. I grew to love it. Now it looks like they’re taking it away in most places.
The prices for coke and pepsi products has gone up an absurd amount the last few years. Unless they drop back down a bit in price (unlikely) I’m sticking to my sodastream for all my home carbonation needs.
That’s fair enough. Tbh everything has gone up by absurd amounts, at least where I am.
Beer. It’s… soft?
The word “soft” in “soft drink” is contrasting “hard” as in “alcoholic” (eg. “Hard cider”). Beer is decidedly not a soft drink.
Whoooooosh
If we were including beer, that might of been top of my list XD.
Bundaberg ginger beer! It’s the only answer