Why does pop taste nasty from time to time?

Water quality varies from region to region. It influences the taste of drinks. Period.

In the case of fountain drinks proportions of syrup to carbonated water are easily skewed.

Some drinks are packaged in glass, aluminum, and plastic???

Some drinks are sweetened with corn syrup or with the brighter tasting sugar.

Coca Cola’s official stance is that it’s flagship product tastes exactly the same, all the time, everywhere, period. We all know this is impossible.

Water tastes different in different places. When you get fountain pop they’re using the local city’s water. That’s why, in the town I grew up in, they had to put filters on their fountains because the water is so nasty and hard,

@SecondHandStoke do you have something to back that claim up? I’ve never heard it. Maybe their canned and bottled drinks taste the same, but the fountains don’t.

I read an article recently (can’t find it), which stated that Coca Cola used different sweetening in different regions. In the U. S. it’s corn syrup, I think…Europe uses sugar beet, and Asia cane sugar.

Edit: Oh…cities…in that case, never mind.

That’s an interesting note, @longgone. The guy who told me that they tap into local water to impart a local taste, which the locals prefer.

Do Europeans use more sugar beets for sweetness, and Asians cane sugar? Is that what they’re used to?

^ Good question. Either that, or it may just be availability – lots of corn in America, so…

Is it true that only Mexican coke is made with old-fashioned sugar?

I think Mexican coke is made with cocaine. HA HA! I crack myself up.

Wait…this is a General question. Maybe ask a question about sugar and where it comes from? Because the “old fashioned sugar” you’re referring to comes from tropical places, like Hawaii I think.

Done. Thanks, I didn’t realize we were in General.

Fountain or packaged?

Fountain depends entirely on the local water source. Packaged should have some quality standards.

What you ate just prior to drinking is also a major consideration.

Packaged…. the last part it is tasting better. I don’t know why the last bit tastes better. With bottled water the last bit tastes horrid.

@talljasperman when it tasted horrid was it something you ate right before it? I find that eating a mint or chewing gum makes most drinks taste horrid afterwards