OMG, the girls in the dorm used to buy cases of Tab on points.
BLECH! I hated Tab. I need my high fructose corn syrup.
Did you know that there is a kosher Coke bottled around Passover? Because high fructose corn syrup isn't kosher, some bottlers in major metropolitan areas produce Coca Cola made with refined sugar. The bottle caps are yellow and marked for Passover.
I have actually passed that taste test. They tried to tell me it was coke, I KNEW it was pepsi from the taste and told them so. They checked, and they had mixed them up. I was right. I also have the gene that lets me taste the difference between regular and diet, and diet makes me gag, literally. I can also tell the difference between old and new coke.
My dad had a friend who used to work for coca-cola, and he said that new coke was basically the diet coke formula with the no sugar sweetener replaced with the real stuff. I thought that was interesting.
And sorry for ruining the poll, but I REALLY can't stand either coke or pepsi anymore. If a fast food joint does NOT have pibb or DRP, I will get water or sprite w/ a splash of fruit punch, and I will think twice before going there again. Sorry, to me, might as well drink hot sewage. I see your water/milk, and raise you HOT GARBAGE!!!!
Is there anyone who CAN'T tell the difference between regular and diet? I'll admit that cherry coke zero is a vast improvement over previous diet type sodas, but they all taste awful. Whether not you agree that they taste awful or not, I've never met anyone who claimed they tasted the same. That'd just be craziness.
The difference between regular and diet isn't so much the flavor (although that exists). Diet makes my mouth pucker because of the tart-y aftertaste. I don't understand why people think it tastes sweet.
If you are used to DC, then regular Coke is way too sweet.
Friday lunches in the cafeteria - Tab and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
Better than Tab on points - for one brief semester it was beer on points. I always figured some idiot used all their points on beer in the first two months and got everyone cut off.
They had beer on points in my day. The Hideaway closed after my freshman year, but The Loop adjacent to the Great Hall and Armadillo Grill in the Bryan Center both had beer on points.
Also, after they opened the West-Edens Link, the diner in that building had a Yuengling tap, but rather than charge you for a beer, they just left the thing sitting out in the restaurant. It was basically all you can drink for as long as you had the audacity to sit there. And it was free.
2 notes, Coke Zero does taste much more... normal than Diet Coke. I'm not a fan of Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but since overseas that's often the only choice other than water, I go with it(oh, and it really is the only choice, because I'm diabetic). Also, overseas places aren't nearly so exact in their mixes as in the states, so often I'll get a drink served to me that's not tasting normal, but I can have a hard time telling if its regular or not, because it may just be too much syrup or some such. I usually ask a nondiabetic friend to taste it who, not being used to the aspartamene, is usually quicker about noting a nonregular coke. Now if I can just make it to February, when I can get on the US base, and get novel things like... Sprite Zero and other non cola diet drinks. Better living through chemistry.
You bring back memories for me - I remember the days of using my "library pass" to get onto Yongsan and then going to the movies. I only got carded for the movies once. No PX privileges but did do the cafeteria and movies. Does the SFS cafeteria still do the Meadow Gold milk in the boxes?
Sorry, I mispoke. I would imagine 99% of people can taste A difference between regular and diet, since they use completely different formulas because of the different sweeteners. I meant I am one of the people that can directly taste the chemicals of the sweeteners they put in the diet drinks. When I was in high school, our chem teacher brought in little strips with the different "diet" sweeteners on them and had us lick them. She said that if we could taste them, then we had the gene that allowed us to taste the sweetener, and that we'd never like diet sodas. I was one of the few who could taste ALL of the strips (I gagged and almost yakked it was so strong...no one else was QUITE that bad), so I will apparently NEVER like diet sodas or foods. Most people just DON'T have that gene (or have it turned off, I'm still not quite sure how that stuff works), so while they may prefer the flavor of regular to diet, they usually don't find it completely revolting because of the actual taste of the sweetener like I do.
DukeUsul - you probably have the gene like I do, so you are actually tasting the sweetener chemical in that after-taste. People who can't taste it think it's sweet. I can even taste the new sweeteners in diet dr pepper and coke zero, so I pucker at those too. I don't know the percentages on whether everyone who can taste the old ones can taste the new ones or not. I just know I can. So, you can truthfully say "I'm genetically disposed against diet sodas."
Sort of, yes. I used to drink a fair amount of Coca-Cola. When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I figured I'd just stop drinking soda altogether (which is what I should have done), but I started drinking a diet Coke here and there and before I knew it I couldn't tell the difference. That's not to say that I couldn't identify them in a side-by-side test, but that if I just pick up an unmarked glass of cola, I might not be able to tell.
You all are Supertasters. I've never taken the test with the strips, but several nutritionists have told me, based upon my culinary likes and dislikes, that I'm a Supertaster.
I think I'm somewhere on the scale above a moderate taster but below a super-taster. I think I'm a high-taster, for lack of a better term. I also have a very sharp sense of smell, which I know is closely linked to taste. I think I also learned in that class that the ability to taste saccharin and other artificial sweeteners is a separate genetic issue from being a super-taster. I can perceive the bouquet of flavors in things like broccoli, but I'm not disgusted by them. I love strong flavors like tart key-lime pie. I AM a little sensitive to things that are TOO sweet, though.