Is there a soda that's not too syrupy or too diet tasting but in between?

Have you tried Squirt? It’s refreshing. Even the diet version doesn’t have that odd taste.

New diabetic here, and I really like Cherry Coke Zero and I think it fits your bill. In fact plenty of cherry-“edition” diet sodas are very good, i.e. diet Pepsi Cherry and Diet Mtn. Dew Code Red.

Mix half coke half diet. Or, add a little club soda to your coke.

Polar makes a nice line of sodas and flavored sparkling waters that you may like.

I like the sparkling waters as they are naturally sugar-free, but their diet sodas are also good – very little “diet” taste.

Try mixing pure orange juice with carbonated mineral water.

The best soda I’ve ever had was Virgils root beer. Its a bit more expensive than normal bottled soda but god is it worth the price. Instead of syrup crap like most soda is, this is all microbrewed with herbs and spices to give a truly unique and flavorful root beer. Each sip is like a bunch of different flavors coming out and hitting your pallet and then giving away to the next flavor. Quite an experience….. shit… I really want one now….

I like Diet Rite Cola. It has no aspartame and no sodium. It tastes like an old-fashioned cola.

Before everyone switched over to corn syrup, soda wasn’t too sweet. Moxie was a very cool beverage, when it was sweetened by sugar. You can still get Coke sweetened by sugar. It is imported from Mexico, and it does taste different from coke in cans, which is also slightly less sweet than Coke in plastic bottles, I think.

There are microbrewed sodas, and you can find these at touristy places in most locations. Here in Philadelphia, we even have a brewing company that brews draft root beer that is dispensed from a tap in a bar. It’s called Victory Brewing Company. They also make a very hoppy beer, which is quite nice.

But mostly, I think you’re out of luck. I blame corn syrup and Archer Daniels Midland.

Um Bongo….......they drink it in the congo you know?

Either San Pellegrino Aranciata or Limonata are good, not too sweet, and refreshing.

Or Izze brand sodas. Izze has a tremendous variety.

I’m so in love with Cherry Coke Zero it’s kind of scary.

Also, if you don’t want HFCS, try the Mountain Dew Throwback – it’s made with sugar instead of syrup. Awesome.

Pepsi has a new “One” that’s made with Splenda. Haven’t had it yet, but I love Splenda sodas. My local grocery store brand is made with Splenda, and it rocks.

I don’t know if it is still made, but Orangina was great.

@anartist: In the pear-shaped bottle.

@Seek_Kolinahr Isn’t it horrible that we have limited time “throw-back” sodas that are actually made with real sugar. It should be like that all the time and instead of the HFCS. Its just a tease like “oh hey yeaaa this is what soda is actually supposed to taste like, ya know, back before this country got addicted to corn…”

YES THERE IS a soda available all the time that’s made with SUGAR instead of HFC. I drink it all the time but dilute it approx. half and half with water.

SIERRA MIST (made by Pepsi). Check out the label.

It used to be made with the typical HFC but about 3–4 years ago they came out with a limited edition with sugar. Evidently it was popular enpugh that they switched. So, about a year later it was ALL made with sugar. Now, you can no longer get Sierra Mist with HFC, which is fine with me.

Diluting it with water works for me since they put in enough of the lemon lime flavor that it tastes quite similar to Vitamin Water (but at a fraction of the price) which is also refreshingly absent of tons of sweetness.

Experiment a bit for yourself to find the dilution strength which works for you. Maybe start out with ¼ water to ¾ SM and pregressively add more water till it’s to your liking.

It’s really very refreshing.

I can’t find a soda here that is not HFC so I buy diet Sprite and mix it half and half with club soda. I tried that with coke but I didn’t like the taste. So when I need a coke, I go for the real thing but I do like it out of a glass bottle.

Get diet soda and add just a splash of the regular version. Just a little bit goes a long way toward cutting the diet flavor.

@JLeslie, did you ever have C2? It was basically a premixed version of Coke and Diet Coke. I was disappointed to see it go.

@Supacase I vaguely remember that. If I tried it I don’t remember. I never drink diet (except to have a sip of my husband’s drink on rare occassion, or because someone asks me to try a particular drink).

My mom mixed Tab and Coke for years. She still drinks Tab, but mixed with diet caffiene free Coke now. When we are at a restaurant she gets ¾ diet Coke with ¼ Coke, since tab and caffeine free is almost never available.

I do sometimes drink halk caffeine free Coke half Coke, but the truth is a love Coca Cola, the real thing. I quit for over 10 years, and the last few years I have cheated a lot, and then when I go back off a suffer a few days to a couple weeks. I still love it, I drink it straight, no ice, just like I did practically my whole life.

http://www.coca-cola.com/en/index.html

This should help in the taste area.

If you’re looking for anything else in your cola. just stop.

@Crashsequence2012 Coke in the US tastes like crap HFCS and plastic bottles/aluminum cans. Mexico/Central American coke is a million times better. Fresh soda with sugar in a glass bottle. Yum.

I really like sprite zero.
and crystal light

If we are going to include the light colored sodas Squirt and Fresca are not very sweet.

Preaching to the choir @uberbatman

@Crashsequence2012 I really miss it. I’d honestly drink at least a bottle of coke a day when I was down there cause it tasted so damn good. I hardly drink soda at all up here anymore cause I know what real soda tastes like lol

@uberbatman Don’t know where you live, but “Mexican” Coca Cola is readily available in Northern California.

We have Mexican Coke to in the Memphis area.

You guys are lucky. I’m all the way in NJ and have never seen it. :(

How much does the Mexican Coke cost in your areas? Same as normal or more expensive?

@uberbatman I don’t remember what I pay. It is more expensive per ounce for sure, but not too crazy. It is in the glass bottles, 12 oz I think. I want to say they are $2 each? But, if you buy a 6 or case of 24 it must be less.

I just looked it up, and Walmart has it on line, if you have a Walmart near you maybe you can buy it there? I think maybe I saw it at Costco too? I don’t usually go to Costco, so my memory might be wrong. Did you google Mexican Coke and your city?

Thats insane. Don’t think I could pay 2 bucks for a soda(and probably the small bottles too). I was paying 66 cents for a half liter bottles before. I understand US will be a bit higher but thats too much for soda. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait till I go back down there.

You can try Italian sodas. We have a store brand up here in the great white north “Frizzante”. Comes in orange, grapefruit, & lemon. Personally I like fruit juice with club soda & ice.

Here a 600ml plastic bottle of coke here goes for $3.00 to $4.80 per bottle, a can for $2.00 on up! Australia is a very expensive place to live!

@rooeytoo holy crap… thats truly insane…

@uberbatman Are you anywhere near Philly? They sell it all over the place here. Lot’s of places down near the Italian Market sell it. Funny how there are a dozen taquerias around the Italian Market. There are also lunch trucks all over the place that sell Mexican Coke.

@wundayatta And, probably Mexicans working in the Italian market lol. The pizza parlor in my aunt’s building in NYC was bought by Latin Americans. You go in there and they all speak Spanish. 20 years ago it was an Italian family owning and running it.

@wundayatta yea, Philly isnt that far from me, I’ll have to look for some next time im in the city.

I just checked the ingredients on a can of coke, there is no mention of hfcs. It only says sugar. I am also very enamored of A & W root beer and that has hfcs on the label. Does that mean coke is better for me than root beer? Is it different in USA?

@rooeytoo you’re in Australia right? In the US coke doesnt have sugar, its all HFCS. I find it kinda funny actually that coke is an American brand yet everywhere else in the world its higher quality than it is in its country of origin.

“Does that mean coke is better for me than root beer?” Honestly I don’t know how bad for you the other ingredients in coke or root beer are to make a call on that, but from the sugar aspect alone, yes the coke would be better to drink than the root beer.

I went on a hunt the other day and managed to find some Mexican coke. Its $2.30 for a 375ml glass bottle. FARRRRRRR to expensive for my liking, guess ill just stick with shitty coke/not drinking soda.

@uberbatman – thanks for the info. That is interesting that it is still sugar here in Australia but not in USA. And now I feel less guilty for having one now and again!!!

@rooeytoo actually I was just thinking about it, do you guys produce sugar cane in Australia? That may be why they still use sugar there. Here we produce so much friggin corn that it just becomes cheaper to go with the HFCS

@uberbatman – you are spot on, according to www.canegrowers.com.au, here are the facts

Sugarcane | An important rural industry for Australia

3rd largest raw sugar supplier in world
7th largest agricultural exporter in Australia
80% exported
$1.5 – $2.5 billion value of production
32–35 Mt cane
4.5–5 Mt raw sugar
4000 cane farm businesses
24 sugar mills
6 bulk storage ports

And as I have traveled around this amazing country, I see very little corn growing. Interesting subject, I am intrigued now, why don’t we grow more corn here. Cattle production is excellent but mostly grass grown but feed lot finished. I’ll off to googleland now!!!

The American government subsidizes corn farmers. Corn has become very political for many reasons.

Quite a bit of table sugar in America is beet sugar not cane sugar. At my univeristy we exclusively used beet sugar. I can’t remember if it was because we grew it on our campus (I went to Michigan State University, which has a very large ag program) or if it was to support local growers and the state. Michigan produces a significant amount of beet sugar.

Also interesting, when talking about bio fuels in America usually it is brought up how Brazil has most of their cars running on bio fuels. But, Brazil’s ethanol is made from sugar cane, while in America it is made from corn. The cane based fuel burns much more efficiently than corn, and so the MPG is still very efficient relative to petroleum gas, while the corn fuel gets something like 30% fewer MPG’s.

We had a lot more cane sugar in Florida until it became way more profitable to grow Condos in the fields than sugar cane.

I drink more tea than soda, but I think Coke here in the great white north is still made with sugar.

If I had my choice between working my butt off in a cane field for fluctuating amounts of money or the ability to sell my land and get rich, I know which way I would go. Or better yet climb off the tractor and get a job in an office where I can fluther all day long!!!