![]() Soda: We Try All 1. Flavors from the Coke Freestyle Machine. Editor's note: Welcome to . Edwards, diet and regular soda loyalists, respectively. It's a pretty remarkable thing. Instead of levers for different sodas, you've got a touchscreen, slick as an i. Pad. It presents you with 2. Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Powerade.. But there's more. Push one of those buttons: you want Coke? Well, you can have Coke. But would you rather have Vanilla Coke? Coke with Lime? Or kinds that don't even exist in bottles, like Coke Raspberry or Orange Coke? It gets pretty dizzying. The first time we saw one at a Connecticut rest stop Wendy's, we went crazy with all the different options and combinations. Is Orange Fanta better than Sprite Orange? What about Diet Coke Lime vs. Coke Zero Lime.. Caffeine- Free Diet Coke Lime? Wondering how much caffeine is in your beverage of choice? The answer may not be so obvious as you think. That's because coffee, tea, yerba mate and chocolate all. Drink Mix flavors are all available in economy sized bottles; Refrigeration required after opening; For longest shelf life, please keep tightly closed and store in a. If you're a Serious Eats reader, you probably know what's coming next. We had to try them all. More than a hundred. But there were two of us, and given that John only drinks regular soda and Carey tends to go for diet, the division of labor was pretty clear. Only 6. 5 or so each, right? So What Flavors Did You Try? Our Plan of Attack. Have you ever wondered how much caffeine is packed in that energy drink you chug down every day? Have you ever felt jittery, panicky or just plain weird after. Learn about Soft Drinks on reference.com and much more. Caffeine Concentration. Mug Root Beer contains 0.00 mgs of caffeine per fluid ounce (0.00mg/100 ml). Shop Beverages Direct for your favorite sodas, root beers, ginger ales, beverage samplers and monthly clubs. Free shipping on orders $35 & Up! ![]() The bright, spacious, friendly Five Guys was the perfect staging ground. There are free peanuts to cleanse the palate. And the burgers are pretty solid, too. Five Guys advertises . But in the interest of fair play and our own beleaguered stomachs, we spaced it out over quite a few. The ground rules? We had to do every member of a vertical (e. Coke Zero Cherry, Coke Zero Lemon..) in one go. We had to taste similar sodas in different verticals against each other (Fanta Grape vs. Sprite Grape; Diet Coke Orange vs. Caffeine- Free Diet Coke Orange) against each other. And we had to try everything, as repulsive—I'm looking at you, Sprite Zero with Vanilla—as it might sound. Ready? Coke. John: Coke was an easy enough place to start; nothing like the good, old fountain soda. Even out of the futuristic machine, it's still the same, classic taste. Cherry Coke: Just like the old Cherry Coke, though when tasted among the others, it seems pretty sweet. Coke Orange: This one felt forced, as if it didn't belong together. Mine tasted like orange pop, but brown—halfway between the original and a straight orange soda, in a strange netherworld. Coke Vanilla: The vanilla tasted a little too flavored. It pushes too hard, and tasted stronger than the Vanilla Coke bottled version. Coke Lime: Ugh, gross. Coke Raspberry: I expected this to be downright awful, and it wasn't. It almost tasted better than Cherry coke. The raspberry flavor works with coke, surprisingly. Coke Cherry Vanilla: Better than I expected, given how awfully sweet the straight vanilla was. The vanilla was mitigated by the cherry for a palatable combination. Coke Lemon: I'm going to say, a lot better than I expected, after tasting the lime. Tart, good amount of acidity, and it just.. Coke Zero. Carey: Of the three diet colas here (Coke Zero, diet Coke, Caffeine- Free diet Coke) Coke Zero is by far my favorite. And it also has the most robust flavor. So let's start there. Coke Zero: True to what's in the bottle (and believe me, I drink a lot of this from the bottle). Coke Zero Cherry: Starting off familiar. Again, true to what's in the bottle or the can, the Coke Zero's robust cola flavor blending well with the cherry flavor, masking the syrup's sweetness. Coke Zero Orange: I don't understand this. It tastes like the . There's a strange bitter taste to this one.. I have a pretty high tolerance for fake sweetener but I find fake- sweetened vanilla pretty repulsive, whether in sugar- free Starbucks lattes or in my soda. It's got a slippery sweetness that makes my skin crawl. Coke Zero Lime: Like the orange, again with the weird bitterness. Coke Zero Raspberry: This works, like the cherry, and really they're quite similar flavors. Not, you know, with regards to fruit.)Coke Zero Cherry Vanilla: Just happy that something helps mask the creepy vanilla. Coke Zero Lemon: See, this works. This actually works quite well. I used to drink my fair share of Diet Coke Lemon before they discontinued it at my college Wa. Wa, and for a time it was my favorite of the Coke family. Maybe because lemon's naturally so tart it can use sweetening up. Maybe because artificial lemon, in lemon drops and such, actually tends to taste pretty good. But for whatever reason, I think this works infinitely better than lime. This round's winner: Coke Zero Lemon. Speckled with syrup. Diet Coke. Carey: I'm a Coke Zero loyalist, but I understand the appeal of Diet Coke: its crisp acidity, its almost metallic sharpness. Less rounded and in a way less cola- like, it works well with different flavors. The cherry is fine, but the cherry flavors comes through a little too strongly, rather than the more balanced Cherry Coke Zero. Ditto raspberry, still one of the better options, if a little more raspberry- skewed. Orange and lime both work better, clashing less with the soda base. But vanilla and cherry vanilla: repulsive. Nowhere for the vanilla to hide. This round's winners: Cherry and raspberry, though . At, say, 9pm? Nothing involving sleep for seven hours or so.) Caffeine- Free Diet Coke. Carey: After a Diet Coke- induced sleepless night, I certainly understand the need for Caffeine- Free Diet Coke. But does anyone like it? It's always tasted to me like the real stuff's scrawny, weaker little cousin. Here, flavor- wise, it was a sliding scale between Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and Caffeine- Free; while Coke Zero hid and balanced flavors best, Caffeine- Free hardly did at all. So the orange and lime weren't bad at all, tasting more of those flavors than anything. But the cherry and raspberry were overpowering, syrupy and just too strong. Vanilla and cherry vanilla? I wish I could erase the memories. This round's winner: None. With a reluctant . Fanta. John: Fanta Orange: Very blah, lacking flavor. Fanta Cherry: Like drinking maraschino cherry juice. Fanta Strawberry: Okay, I'm now convinced that Strawberry just doesn't work as a sweet soda flavor. I'm stunned that the syrup makes this much of difference. Crisp, tart, just sweet enough, the lemon flavor powerful and pungent. But I've never seen the lemon flavor in the States. Even in the Freestyle machine, where you can get peach and raspberry and fruit punch Fanta, there's no lemon. It kills me. Sprite's got a tart bite that the strangely flat Fanta can't compare with. Orange Fanta I've always found disappointing, all syrup- y sweet and hardly tart; cherry tastes like a weak shirley temple, but not too terrible, just not as good as Sprite Cherry. Either's delicious after strawberry—I couldn't even smell it without cringing, and the Bubbalicious- like, Jello- fake flavor was hard to deal with. Peach is similarly horrid, like drinking liquid lip gloss. Yet grape has to be the worst: the fakest, the aspartamiest. I'm not usually a lime soda fan, but this one was surprisingly tasty; it reminded me of decent margarita mix, with some bitterness and acidity. This round's winner: Er.. But we liked the flavor of the raspberry, and the tartness of the lime—so what about a blend? Sprite. John: Sprite itself is crisp, acidic, and refreshing, but not all the flavors fare as well. Sprite Cherry: Kind of meh. I think I like Code Red Mountain Dew better. Sprite Raspberry: Like a better Sprite Cherry. Sprite Grape: This was where I noted the difference between Fanta and Sprite; Sprite is more refreshing, with better acidity. If the restaurant's crowded, no one's going to pay that much attention to whoever's at the soda machine. But at every visit we made, there'd be a lull when someone would notice that each of us had been to the soda machine a dozen times. Two French guys were the least shy about staring, watching us, their mouths hanging open, as we walked back up for soda again and again. You just knew they were going to tell their friends about it later. Sprite Zero. Carey: I'm with John: Sprite fares a lot better than Fanta. It's bubblier, not as single- note sweet, and takes the flavors better. Orange and Lime both benefitted from the lemon- lime kick, and cherry and raspberry I liked, too, their sweetness not as powerful. But peach and strawberry were still too sweet to drink (or even smell), grape didn't mesh too well with the citrus, and vanilla.. I'm sorry, what focus group approved this? Minute Maid. John: By this point I felt my diabetes risk climbing rapidly. Soda's a lot more fun when you're not trying them 2. The Lemon I found both sweet and tart. Add Everclear and it'd be a perfect sorority punch. Cherry and Orange tasted way too sweet, and the Fruit Punch reminded me of elementary school juice boxes. Minute Maid Light. Carey: A genre I can deal with. Minute Maid Light isn't anything you'd mistake for . The regular version is tart and lemony enough to be drinkable on its own, and I quite liked it paired with cherry or raspberry. Strawberry was as always toothachingly sweet, but orange did better here than elsewhere, thanks to the lemonade giving it a citrusy kick others lacked. And while I don't quite understand the reason behind . Dasani and Dasani Sensations. Carey: Yes, Freestyle not only has flavored waters—it has eight of them. And then eight identical versions with bubbles. So let's not pretend they're each deserving of discussion. The theme in this round: the sparkling . I've had flavored Dasani before and there's something about its feeling in your mouth (unless it's ice cold) that creeps me out: it's thick and oily and just strange. But the Sensations? Those I'd drink again. Essentially, it's either flat or carbonated water plus the now- familiar syrups, and the sparkle does an awful lot. Orange actually fared better than Sprite or Fanta orange, the sweetness cut by the bubbles and not amplified by anything else; cherry was a little weak to my taste, but then again, I like the cherry syrup flavor. Strawberry and peach still taste like something made by Bath and Body Works, but they're more palatable here than elsewhere. And the grape and lime. Is Drinking Soda Better Than Alcohol? At a friend's party or backyard barbecue, your beverage choices may be limited. Many times, you can choose between only soda or an alcoholic beverage such as beer or wine. You know that neither option is a good one in terms of hydration, but you may wonder about the better choice. Making this determination depends on several factors, such as your health, age, and the type of alcohol or soda. Pregnant women should avoid alcohol, as well as caffeinated beverages, because of potential risks to the baby caused by these substances. Children should also avoid alcohol and caffeinated beverages because they have a negative health impact on their developing bodies. People with certain diseases, such as hepatitis C, or liver or kidney conditions should also avoid alcohol because it puts stress on the liver and kidneys. Choose caffeine- free soda or, better still, opt for a glass of plain water. If you are trying to stay hydrated on a hot day, neither alcohol nor soda makes a good option. Alcohol is a diuretic, so rather than hydrating you, it encourages fluid loss. Caffeine is a diuretic as well, but its effects are milder than those of alcohol. When consumed in small amounts, such as two cups of coffee and two sodas per day, caffeinated beverages can help hydrate you, according to Paul Insel and the other authors of . Both red and white wine may have anti- inflammatory properties, and they may provide some protection against arthritis, cancer and osteoporosis, according to Judy Beardsall, author of . Preedy, author of . If you drink too much alcohol, you may damage organs like your liver. Alcohol can cloud your thinking, which can lead to poor decision- making as well as slow your physical responses, and this can be dangerous if you plan to drive. One glass of beer or wine or one shot of liquor may not affect most adults, but you should avoid drinking at all if you will be driving, boating or engaging in higher- risk activities like rock- climbing. In these cases, although water is still the best choice, soda is clearly a better option than alcohol.
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