Dr Pepper is now the #2 soda brand in the US:
Huh. I didn't realize that Pepsi had plummeted so badly. I wonder why?
The other thing this chart reminds me of is my longtime puzzlement that consumption of diet sodas is so far behind their sugary cousins. I know they don't taste the same, but they've never seemed that bad to me. Certainly not bad enough to be worth all the extra calories, and that would be even more true if I were a soda addict.¹
Then again, if the "set point" theory of calories is true—namely that we all have a particular number of calories we crave one way or another—then maybe it doesn't matter. If you drink sugary sodas, you're just going to consume less of something else. Maybe I should test that by switching to regular soda and seeing if I gain any weight.
¹In my case, I generally have one soda with lunch and that's it. Aside from that I drink nothing but water.
I’ll just speak for myself, but fuck, the sugar alternatives leave such a bad taste
in my mouth. There’s an aftertaste from aspartame and all the alternatives that is so objectionable to my palette. Thankfully, I stopped drinking soda regularly when I was 15, so it’s really not a problem. When I have soda, I get the regular sugar stuff. Anything that has alternative sweeteners is just awful on my tongue.
On the topic, when I have soda, Dr. Pepper is my go-to. It’s good stuff.
I was with you until that last paragraph.
Have you tried Coke Zero? Tastes nothing like Diet Coke/Pepsi and I personally prefer it over regular Coke.
Interesting. I find that sugar leaves a bad taste that just doesn't go away. On the bright side, it's a good incentive to brush.
Are you in the USA? How many of the "regular sugar stuff" products that you prefer use actual sugar and not HFCS? I mean, I get it that you may still find the diet sweeteners to taste worse, but as I understand in (Dom Rep and UK resident) in the USA the taste of sugar is rarely an option when it comes to fizzy drinks. Unless you go for "Mexican Coke", which uses sugar.
Plenty of ways to get sugar based pop. But yeah the fake sweeteners all taste far worse than HFCS and far far worse than sugar sweetened.
I’d rather drink my own urine than non sugar pop.
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In principle I would drink diet soda, but I genuinely hate the taste. I'm one of the weird people who drink full-sugar decaf Coke.
Go with 90% diet topped with 10% of the good stuff.
I can't stand any soft drink, but for me it's mostly the carbonation that does it, the sickly syrup only makes it that much worse.
Yeas ago I realized it was the carbonation and feel of the cold can - not the same with plastic bottle - that contributed to my addiction to what I grew up calling Co-Cola.
Dr Pepper is getting distributed in more places alongside Coke, despite being traditionally bundled with Pepsi.
I prefer Pepper, and downright dislike Pepsi. Coke is pleasant enough I'll drink it if it's available, but I don't seek it out as a treat.
I wonder why Pepsi is sliding?
I wonder why Pepsi is sliding?
DJT and diet Coke?
The Diet Coke line shows no upside. It has been in decline since 2009 or so and is lower now than at whatever year starts the chart.
The Diet Coke line has basically matched the Pepsi line for the past 15 years, which is very bad news for Pepsi. In fact, over the past 25 years, Diet Coke has retained more of its market share than even its full-calorie sibling. The big changes are the rise of Dr. Pepper and Sprite, and the decline of Pepsi. Coke and Diet Coke have stayed about where they were.
Same regional bottler distributed Coke and Dr. Pepper so for years I didn't realize they were not the same corporation.
For me, it's the type of sugar.
I want cane sugar, and no high fructose corn sugar (HCFS).
I sat in the bus station in Guatemala City once, where I was able to purchase both an American Coke (in a plastic bottle) and a Mexican Coke (in a glass bottle) and compared.
The Mexican Coke, made of cane sugar, was far superior in every way. The American Coke was bigger, tasted flatter, and lacked body in comparison.
And cane-sugar sodas fills you up. It's weird how soda make of HFCS does not give you a sense of satiation.
Cannot stand the artificial sweeteners.
Full disclosure: I drink water and coffee. A soda about once or twice a month, usually in place of alcohol in a restaurant; though the alcohol-free options do seem to be improving.
Jarritos makes good sodas.
I stopped drinking soft drinks around three decades ago. One of the best decisions I ever made.
"Note, based on volume of case sales."
So it doesn't include fountain.
And for the diet sodas, if you shouldn't have the calories, you probably shouldn't be eating in a way/place conducive to consuming sodas in the first place.
A lot of people have a really hard time digesting fake sugars. It's not worth the stomach discomfort for something that doesn't even taste good. Also, there is more evidence that diet sodas have some negative health impacts.
I enjoy Diet Pepsi; so much more palatable than Diet Coke. Diet Coke has a bitter aftertaste while Diet Pepsi is pretty smooth, even when not ice cold.
Not certain how folks tolerate Dr. P. It smells and tastes like bad perfume. I don’t drink sodas at all. A partner did drink Dr.P and I must confess the smell nearly made me gag. My opinion only.
Surprised Pepsi has fallen so much. I was a long-time drinker of (diet) Coke and somehow started (diet) Pepsi about 20 years ago. I find Pepsi to be lighter and easier to take. Might be due to citric acid, which isn't present in Coke. That's something of a surprise since I dislike all citrus juices except for lime.
I'm okay with Coke, but am a Pepsi drinker now.
As far as the new #2, Dr. Pepper is concerned, that's only good for mixing with Wild Turkey 101.
I cannot believe the sales of Diet Coke didn't go through the roof once news broke it was Trump's daily tipple. His fans are very fickle.
The only carbonated drinks I consume are mixers: Pepsi Max for rum, a local ginger beer for bourbon, Schweppes tonic water for gin, both the last two in non-diet versions. Standard Coca-Cola is the top-selling drink in Australia, but Coke Zero and Diet Coke between them sell 70% as much. Pepsi Max comes in #4; combined with the two no-sugar Cokes it means diet drinks outsell their traditional alternative.
Diet Coke's slow, steady decline since its heyday was utterly unaffected by Trump's candidacy, presidency, and re-candidacy. Unlike with their beers, Trump fans can't seem to affect sales, one way or the other.
Ginger Ale here. The 'Zero Sugar' version tastes just fine.
Not a regualr soda (pop) drinker and never a cola drinker (Coke or Pepsi). I do find diet soda tastes terrible and the health concerns seem to be worse than any minor reduction in calories.
It's actually a significant reduction in calories; 140 calories per can is quite a bit. But you're absolutely right about the taste. As for health concerns, it's up in the air whether real sugar or fake sugar is worse for you, but it's all bad news.
A long time ago I decided to avoid "liquid calories" of any kind. Training myself to get my caffeine from black coffee instead of soda was not fun at first -- coffee is very much an acquired taste, but you do acquire it after a bit. When I want something cold and carbonated, I drink seltzer.
San Pellegrino makes a soda called “Chinotto” la slightly dry bitter version of coke
Think less sweet coke with a little Campari added
What ever happened to Royal Crown???
Consolidation in the grocery industry and in bottling means better profits and less competition. Who ever buys up the most shelf space wins. Not to mention various exclusive contracts or special conditions so that the grocer can not sell competitors for a cheaper price.
> What ever happened to Royal Crown???
Well, it showed up as an answer in today's crossword puzzle at The Atlantic, so apparently somebody remembers it. 🙂
There are a lot of products that I remember from my childhood (late 50’s-early 60’s) that I don’t see around any more but still exist. Royal Crown is one of them, and I was surprised to see Diet-Rite is also still around. I guess they went more regional. I remember a lot of ads for Bosco chocolate syrup when I was young and thought they were OB, but have recently seen they still exist. I remember those Maypo cereal ads (“I want my Maypo”) and recently noticed they still exist. I wonder why they stopped advertising? The box still has the same kid mascot. And looking it up on Wikipedia I see the original animated commercial was drawn by a former Disney animator named Emery Hawkins. I have an original drawing of Donald Duck throwing a tantrum drawn by Mr. Hawkins on my wall.
Royal Crown was also featured in an episode of All in the Family where Mike proved he could distinguish it, Coke and Pepsi by taste alone.
Maybe the reason you don't see commercials for the old products is that you're not a kid anymore and don't watch kiddie programs (except maybe for Sesame Street with your offspring, and they don't have ads)?
I tried exactly that experiment with my son when he complained about me buying store-brand cola (that means the three choices were Coke, Pepsi, and whatchumacallit). He insisted that he liked Coke the best, so I told him I'd give him three glasses of soda, three times. All he had to do was identify Coke two of the three times and I'd switch to buying Coke -- he didn't have to identify the others, and he could get one of the three wrong.
In the blind taste test, he chose the store brand all three times, which was oddly impressive.
I question this entire chart. If Coke is counting both regular Coke and Coke Zero, it makes sense that it is so much higher than Pepsi. Coke Zero tastes so much better than Diet Coke it's hard to even compare them, I doubt I will ever drink either regular Coke or Diet Coke again, just Coke Zero. It also means that if you were to count both Pepsi and Diet Pepsi together, it likely is only slightly lower than Coke.
Indeed. The chart was based on "case sales", which it has been pointed out, leaves out fountain sales, a big thing in the Food-like Product industry.
The Pepsi equivalent to Coke Zero is Pepsi Zero Sugar. It also comes in mango and cherry flavored versions. I think Coke and Coke Zero do too.
I once read that there is something in colas that inhibits absorption of some nutrient or vitamin or something so it's worse than other soft drinks. I get the cherry and mango versions very occasionally (2 liter bottles 6 for $6 at ShopRite recently, if you did the complicated customer torturing app thing.)
Soda for lunch..........ugh.
¹In my case, I generally have one soda with lunch and that's it. Aside from that I drink nothing but water.
So 365 sodas annually? Not great, Kevin!
This year, 366!
I'm partial to RC. There's no accounting for tastes, eh? As a treat, I bought a bottle of Jaritos tamarind - I recommend if you've got a hankering.
I drink only diet soda, and the taste grows on you. It's at the point where when I drink any regular soda aside from Sprite, it tastes gross - it's got this sickly sweet taste to it.
Soft drinks used to be treats. The kids you happened upon selling lemonade on the sidewalk, the coconut milk still in the coconut, the fruit juice prepared by a host. Now they're so regular, the treat has gone out of them and all that's left is the sugar. The only sodas I drink are the ones hard to find where I am, especially guarana which I learned to love in the Amazon. Still a treat to me and I want to keep it that way.
RC Cola FTW. 🙃
Where is Diet Pepsi?
Without Diet Pepsi, the numbers don't make any sense.
Are you saying Diet Pepsi is down there with Diet RC Cola?
Garbage in, Garbage out.
Dr Pepper is, in a word, disgusting. Yuck. And it's weird to me that Diet Coke isn't higher. I know multiple people who have a several-cans-a-day habit of that toxic substance.
My wife and one of my son's are addicted to diet soda. They don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, so I guess its a reasonable lifestyle choice.
Depending on what is on sale, the choice is Coke Zero or Pepsi Zero Sugar, with a strong preference for Coke Zero. They both prefer cans to any other container.
For decaf soda, its really only Caffeine free Diet Pepsi. They stopped making caffeine free Coke Zero and Caffeine free Diet Coke is utterly vile.
Dr Pepper is utterly vile, but my son likes it. Polar Diet Double Fudge mixed with milk tastes sort of like an egg cream, especially when dosed with squirt of Fox's U-Bet syrup.
"Huh. I didn't realize that Pepsi had plummeted so badly. I wonder why?"
I have to wonder if logistics are responsible.
Without getting into the whole unedifying mess of which tastes better, or if diet soda has other side effects, blah blah, let's point out some data.
When I buy soda, in the Los Angeles area, I want to buy Pepsi Max. This doesn't seem especially demanding, but perhaps half the time the supermarket I choose (Ralphs, or Pavilions) doesn't have it, or if they do have it it's in a container not of interest (like those tiny, what 150ml?, cans). If I want to be sure to pick some up, I need to go on the day after restocking.
So this tells me
- there's more unmet demand (at least in LA, at least for Pepsi) for diet soda than for sugar soda AND
- Pepsi is doing a lousy job of logistics.
Now I agree this seems crazy. Aren't these companies populated by MBAs who track demand in every shop to the nearest can and who are well aware of how demand varies by daily temperature? This is what we are told. Nonetheless I see what I see, and what I see is that half the time when I want to buy the product it is sold out.
Which in turn makes me skeptical about claims that the "only" reason more diet soda isn't sold is because people don't want it. I simply don't trust that these companies actually understand their demand very well.
What I would like to know (but good luck ever finding such a setup) is
- some restaurants have the very fancy soda dispensers where you can not just choose, eg "Mellow Yellow" but then add "with a pineapple twist" and other variations
- so it seems like those dispensers could be set up so that, whatever the drink, you could always choose
+ sweetener (sugar, aspartame, splenda, ...)
+ caffeine or not
If we had many more of such dispensers, instead of the much more usual "6 sugar sodas and diet coke/diet pepsi" (never coke zero or pepsi max, even though they are probably the preferred version) maybe these companies would have some accurate understanding of demand...
Right now I'm not convinced they're actually as competent and all-knowing as they wish us to believe.
I always thought Dr. Pepper kept you regular. Sad to learn it has no prune juice in it.
One of the indignities that I suffer in old age is intermittent reflux. My solution is to chug a can of carbonated what ever.
The speed at which the calories hit your bloodstream definitely makes a difference. Sugar, especially dissolved sugar, is legit bad for you and if over-consumed WILL make you fat and eventually diabetic.
I know that I definitely gain weight when I eat too much sugar, and lose weight when I take a sugar hiatus.