Soft Drinks....

[Sir Calumn]

A follow up to the alcohol thread, what are you guys' preferences when it comes to soft drinks?

In my circles, it is often considered quite childish and unmanly to drink soft drinks. A lot of my friends only drink water. However, I buck this trend. I particularly enjoy trying soft drinks in different countries.

I drink a carton of fruit juice every morning to cure my hangover, I find Tropicana to be an excellent fruit juice company, I particularly enjoy their 'Orange Creations' range - the best being Orange and Lemon and Orange and Lime. I also very much enjoy Tesco's bargain brand Apple and Raspberry, it's the only from concentrate juice I really like. Minute Maid Orange is also great but hard to find in this country, and I find Capella Apple Juices slightly overrated. Some of those M&S three for five pound juices are excellent, especially the Pink Lady Apple and the Pomegranate and Raspberry

When we get to fizzy, I have a slight preference for pepsi over coke and much prefer regular pepsi to pepsi max. However, I am the only guy I know who LOVES pretty much all those coke flavour spinoffs, not coke zero, but Cherry Coke, Coke with Lemon, even Orange Coke (a commercial disaster) I loved. However, my favourite of all was Vanilla Coke, maybe my favourite soft drink of all time. They pulled it from the shelves here years ago but sometimes I can still find it very overpriced at US import stores. I know some people have their own vanilla coke recipes? I also love Dr Pepper for the americaness of it.

Other than dark drinks, I dont care too much for Fanta, on occasion I will drink the original orange but never any others. Lilt I reserve for really rough hangovers. Cant stand Vimto, dont really like lemonades (though I like cloudy and 'traditional' lemonades and love Still Lemonade). However, another thing that I envy the US about is that over there you have an abundance of pink lemonades, which are just great, whereas here there are none bar the occasional imported Snapple. All Snapple flavours are great despite the obscene prices.

Erm.... I also enjoy grenadine syrup and some of the higher end diluting drinks, because I can guzzle them. I have a thing for raspberries so I love that new Raspberry ribena. I like Peach and Raspberry ice teas but not the lemon, mango or tropical kinds. I kind of like the good energy drinks like Red Bull, I even like the taste, but not the **** ones.

And yeah..... I cant stand those extra extra sweet South American drinks like Inca Kola and that Guarana drink..... and Irn Bru makes me want to vomit.

 

[1966+2006]

Red Bull for when I'm studying, but only the original. The others suck. It's also quite cheap in Holland compared to where I used to live.
I generally don't go for soft drinks though, occasionally Fanta (lemon, preferably).

 

[Filipower]

Coca-Cola, Ice Tea, Guaraná, 7Up

 

[clash]

Dr. Pepper, **** yeah! I also used to drink different types of energy drinks, a lot, but have been holding myself back on those for awhile now.

Just recently I discovered...Cola, lol. I didn't care about them before but now I'm sort of addicted.

Also a big fan of orange and grapefruit juice.

Btw, Sir_Didier_Drogba, did you try this?

No idea how you call it in english.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Hmmmmm I dont think I have seen it - is it like Shandy (mixed beer and lemonade) or is it just very low alcohol beer? If it's Shandy I might try it, but in my experience low or no alcohol beers never seem to get the taste right..... I have drunk quite a few in arabic countries and they just make me feel bloated and gaseous!

Also I love the import cans of Dr Pepper in Estonia with the sticky labels on - may be placebo but I think they taste better.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Coca-Cola, Ice Tea, Guaraná, 7Up

Is there something that connects people who speak Portuguese with liking this Guarana drink? Because the only people I have ever met who like it are Portuguese and Brazilians.

Also was this the company that Neymar did that really anti-British ad for? If so, then double **** it!

 

[clash]

Hmmmmm I dont think I have seen it - is it like Shandy (mixed beer and lemonade) or is it just very low alcohol beer? If it's Shandy I might try it, but in my experience low or no alcohol beers never seem to get the taste right..... I have drunk quite a few in arabic countries and they just make me feel bloated and gaseous!

Also I love the import cans of Dr Pepper in Estonia with the sticky labels on - may be placebo but I think they taste better.

It's not quite a non-alcoholic beer, but it's a bit similar. I think the most widespread word for it is "kvass", from russian. Wiki defines it as "a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread". It might taste weird for someone outside the eastern-europe but we love it, lol. If you ever decide to try, make sure you get the A. le. Coq one (with yellow or black label) or the one by Tanheuser, others are cheap, utter **** copies.

 

[Filipower]

Is there something that connects people who speak Portuguese with liking this Guarana drink? Because the only people I have ever met who like it are Portuguese and Brazilians.

Also was this the company that Neymar did that really anti-British ad for? If so, then double **** it!

Well, the drink is Brazilian, so I'm assuming it is much more known (if not ONLY known) in Brasil and Portugal. I was actually surprised when you mentioned it.

 

[Sir Calumn]

I saw it being drunk a bit in Spanish speaking South American countries but few seemed to really like it - not that their drinks are any better. But it is available in the UK, if not widely available. My dad bought a few cans of it for me over Christmas thinking I would like it because it was weird and foreign, hence why it is new in my memory.

Also, does ANYONE like, or even manage not to vomit at the taste of, the majority of those Chinese tins of drink - the oolong teas and the bamboo waters and the lychee juice and the drinks with strange lumps in etc etc

 

[Sir Calumn]

It's not quite a non-alcoholic beer, but it's a bit similar. I think the most widespread word for it is "kvass", from russian. Wiki defines it as "a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread". It might taste weird for someone outside the eastern-europe but we love it, lol. If you ever decide to try, make sure you get the A. le. Coq one (with yellow or black label) or the one by Tanheuser, others are cheap, utter **** copies.

Ok...... I will give it a try. Tartu is an A Le Coq town so I should have no problem finding that variety.

Also there are a couple more Estonian beer styles I had not really encountered before - one is called 'Porter' and is kind of like a chocolate flavoured beer, was nice over Christmas especially. The other is one they mix with what I think was honey and ginger, I cant remember the name of it, but I quite enjoyed it?

****, already this is going into beer discussion - dont forget, this is the soft drinks thread people!

 

[leungtl]

Nothing beats a Frozen Coke on a 40 degree day or after a game.

 

[Mandieta6]

Coke, Nestea, and I really don't mind specific companies, so I'll get the cheapest a lot of times, and sometimes the big ones like Coca Cola. No preferences really. Like Guarana, but it's not easy to find here.

Redbull is nice, but it's expensive and I rarely drink it.

Doctor told me to cut out the iced tea because of some enzyme problem I got for only drinking that **** for years. So I had to switch to fruit juices which generally suck balls but they're better than water.

The main problem is no one but Prigat, a company in Israel, seems to know how to make good grape juice. Which is ******* frustrating because that ****'s brilliant. There's some South American drink, Postobon, that gets the taste down quite well but it's a fizzy drink so it's not as smooth.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Interestingly I got told by my dentist to severely cut down on the fruit juices because of the acid erosion and that I would actually be better off switching to products like Ice Tea even though they have a lot of sugar...... anyway I tried it for a few weeks but I need my morning carton of juice to kill my hangover or I will not get out of bed, so **** it I can get new teeth.

I wasnt aware of the existence of frozen coke, but generally I am opposed to those frozen\'slushy' drinks.

 

[Back Door Skip]

I mainly drink Dr. Pepper and Snapple iced tea. I'm not very adventurous.

 

[Jaboldinho]

In Madeira I got some delicious soft drink, Briza Maracuja, I believe. Passion fruit soft drink. Really good.

Other than that, I like the usual beverages, coke, sprite, fanta, mountain dew, ice tea... Rarely drink energy drinks these days.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

In my circles, it is often considered quite childish and unmanly to drink soft drinks. A lot of my friends only drink water. However, I buck this trend. I particularly enjoy trying soft drinks in different countries.

Pretty much this. But I can't help myself all the time and usually go for a cherry cola when I get a soda.

Also, there are some pretty interesting "water additives" around these days. Mio is pretty good, so is the propel powder from Gatorade.

Also there are a couple more Estonian beer styles I had not really encountered before - one is called 'Porter' and is kind of like a chocolate flavoured beer, was nice over Christmas especially. The other is one they mix with what I think was honey and ginger, I cant remember the name of it, but I quite enjoyed it?

Wait, seriously? Porter is English and widely available from all kind of microbreweries over here.

 

[Alex]

Dr Pepper and Frozen Coke are awesome.

Also like Cherry Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and normal Coke.

Coke is much much better than Pepsi. In fact I don't like any of that low calorie stuff, but I'd rather Coke Zero than Pepsi.

Sir_Didier_Drogba, you should try frozen Coke. It's available everywhere here. I don't like most slushies, but it's different because it's actually a frozen drink, not ice with syrup. And it's the only one that actually tastes like real Coke.

 

[Alex]

Wait, seriously? Porter is English and widely available from all kind of microbreweries over here.

Yes, it certainly is British. In fact, technically a stout is a type of porter (though these days generally when people say Porter they generally mean non-stout -or slightly lighter bodied- Porter)

I love Porters, they're one of my favourite beer styles.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Haha I guess I'd just never encountered a Porter before. Weird.

Dr Pepper and Frozen Coke are awesome.

Also like Cherry Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and normal Coke.

Coke is much much better than Pepsi. In fact I don't like any of that low calorie stuff, but I'd rather Coke Zero than Pepsi.

Sir_Didier_Drogba, you should try frozen Coke. It's available everywhere here. I don't like most slushies, but it's different because it's actually a frozen drink, not ice with syrup. And it's the only one that actually tastes like real Coke.

Hmmm maybe I would enjoy it, but I have NEVER seen it in Britain. Dont forget we dont have seven-eleven franchises in Britain, convenience stores just dont have slushy machines or any fountain drinks at all really, the most I ever see are a red and a blue Slush Puppy machine in cinemas, which look horrible. Next time I am in the States I will make an effort to try one.

If I recall correctly, you are a bit of a soft drink expert? Like in terms of the corporate history of the major companies and the differences in franchising across the world and that kind of thing?

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Slush Puppy is delicious