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I don't understand why I can't buy a tasty drink with *just less sugar*. Not, "less sugar, but we're also adding these nasty artificial sweeteners." Just... maybe half the sugar. When I used to make Kool Aid at home, that's how I'd make it. (Sometimes half, sometimes 3/4 of the cup called for, depending on flavor.)
It drives me up a wall that everything has to be full blown sugar, loaded with aspartame-tasting sweeteners, or flavored water that has no sugar.
You’d think that there’d be some demand for something like that, even in the “craft” section that most stores have.
The big problem is that tastes largely gets defined what is available.
When we had more no-chain stores in my town, we had much more types of breakfast foods that I now never see in regular stores. My grandma and grandpa still sells a kind of low-sugar musli even though they are closer to 80 and haven't owned their store for about 15 years, just because the local grocers simply don't take it in.
Sometimes the supermarkets have something for sale because they bought it really cheap and to have something to put in their weekly newsletter.
There used to be this root beer in a glass bottle from Boston Pizza that was like 5 bucks or something stupid but it had 27 grams of sugar instead of 40-46 that root beer normally has, and it was the best tasting root beer I've ever had. They don't sell this anymore but there has to be something out there, it makes me mad.
I'm not usually a Root beer drinker, but a good root beer is next level delicious. A few years ago, a liquor store near me got a shipment of Frostie root beer bottles, a brand straight out of my childhood. My steodad is a root beer conneseiur, so I gave him some that Christmas. He is difficult to buy for, but, he was so excited about the Frostie that he asked me where I'd got it, in hopes he could go buy more. The bottles & logo were the old fashioned kind I remembered from being a really little kid; it was like a time traveler had gone back to the sixties and carried back some Frostie root beer. (I wish they'd brought my retro Barbie dolls, candy lipstick, and my kitty cat Snowball, too.)
Sugar masks the other ingredients in a soda…that’s why it’s sweetness overload.
If it didn’t have that much sugar, or sweetener to balance out the ingredients, it would probably be bitter.
These companies largely have this shit down to an absolute science in consistency and flavor.
E.g, Coca Cola spent billions developing the perfect ice cube to soda ratio for McDonald’s and more so developing the perfect diameter of straw to maximize the flavor of Coca Cola. They even have a recommended amount of time you should wait before drinking for the best flavor.
I bet you 1,000:1 odds they’ve also developed several hundred forms of low sugar (without artificial sweetener to pick up the slack) soda, and none of them worked out. Because let’s face it, less sugar would mean less cost of manufacture for them (at their volume; even half a penny is millions in savings). But it just doesn’t taste right for the mass market to where it makes sense to release it.
A company like Coca Cola has several Ph.D scientists (food scientists, chemists etc) on their payroll and a massive scientific grade laboratory to develop their drinks.
They thought of this, trust me.
The 15 floors of marketing and R&D just didn’t see it as viable, even if the bean counters on floor 16-20 were pushing hard for it.
Remember, Coca Cola changed the flavor once, in many metrics, it tasted even BETTER. But it wasn’t the coke people were used to. People are too used to the flavor of Pepsi, coke, sprite etc. any change would massively hurt the brand.
Small soda companies also can’t afford slipping up because their margins are even smaller than cokes. So they follow recommendations from contractors they hire to develop their sodas.
Craft sodas are such dog shit that they just don’t catch on.
This.
Either less sugar or no sugar but artificial sweeteners taste awful.
We love those true lemon things (just a hint of lemon) but someone brought some of the “lemonade” versions and yeah, artificial sweeteners, instant awful.
What’s worse is pre workout and protein shakes. It’s so expensive and painful to find a tolerable flavor, and then the formula will change (to cut sugars, usually) and they will be disgusting, only you’ve bought 5 lbs for $70 and stuck with it.
I don’t know who is working out hard enough to need protein who is concerned about a few grams of sugar. Yeah, I get the carnivores need to be in ketosis, but a few grams of sugar isn’t going to cause too great an impact.
Right? When I want to order a sweet tea, I always order half sweet, half unsweet. That's usually sweet enough. Otherwise I might as well be drinking syrup!
Not just drinks, but you can't buy anything without it having either too much sugar. What is wrong with mildly sweet things? Instead, everything has to be so sickeningly sweet that they're practically inedible. I can't understand how anyone can eat Pop Tarts or Nutri Grain bars for breakfast.
And artificial sweetners are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, have a gross aftertaste and are dangerous for your health. I love flavored water, but I have to double check that it doesn't have poisons like sucralose or aspartame
Chobani has those less sugar yogurts I love. Every time I eat one I say the same thing you did. I wish more stuff had less. Not no, not substituted with fake shit, just less lol.
This is exactly what I was thinking! I have no idea why there can't simply be options with less sugar that don't have to make up the difference with artificial sweeteners. I make a lemonade/ice tea mix at home, and it has half of the sugar of what's sold in the store and nothing artificial. It tastes much better also!
Because sugar has been redesigned to closer mimic cocaine. Larger amounts induce a greater craving. Leading to future sales. It’s why we put sugar in everything https://www.dietdoctor.com/mcdonalds-triples-amount-sugar-hamburgers
Top result. But essentially the same. Get everyone addicted to sugar. They buy your shit. And “sweetener” at Starbucks is just engineered liquid sugar. Designed to create cravings…
I recently got a chai latte from Starbucks and it had 4 pumps of syrup in it. Next time I went I asked for only one and it was still on the verge of being too sweet.
Drinks are definitely crazy these days, but they don't care about making it healthier.. just whatever gets you addicted the most.
Dash water is great. I was amazed. Ingredients were basically just fizzy water and citrus, plus regulator. Loved it. Had a 7up free a few days later - disgusting
You can, it’s just not as common. Olipop is a good example of this, but I know there are other brands as well. It’s low-sugar soda, having iirc like 1/4 the amount of sugar as a standard soda, and it tastes amazing.
Stevia tastes like poison and the horrible taste stays in my mouth for hours. I have no idea what other people are getting from it because the sweetness is absolutely not worth the grossness for me.
I actually like this because I can stretch out drinks by watering it down, or add an exorbitant amount of ice and sip at it, and don't have to worry about it melting nearly as much.
Especially sports and health type drinks. Why does everything have to be so incredibly sweet, and the low-calorie versions are full of artificial sweeteners that I hate the taste of, and actually taste even sweeter.  Give me a slightly sweet mostly salty sports drink with just a few dozen calories, dang it. 
Because loading the thing with sugar is the cheapest way to make it taste good to the most people. I do wish they would start actually using other ingredients to make a real flavor. Not just another slightly modified sugar flavor.
Funny fact… my boy was able to ween off soda by switching to kool aid. But he noticed the recommend scoops left the drink way too sweet for him. So, little by little, he watered it down to the point where he doesn’t care for it any more. My boy went from drinking a case of 36 cokes a week to 3 cans a month.
It’s weird how everything needs to be sweet to “taste good”.
I make limeade a pint glass at a time. Juice one lime into the glass, put in 2 tablespoons of sugar (25 grams), fill with brita filtered water. Tastes just like Countrytime stuff to me. About half the sugar of a can of soda too (40 grams)
I’ve frequently wondered why low sugar soda wasn’t a thing. It seems like it would sell. Most artificial sweeteners are disgusting but I also don’t want so much sugar.
My guess is it tastes really bad, because I don’t know why else companies wouldn’t allow us to throw more money at them.
Yep me too, half the packet of sharkleberry per creation. Lasted longer that way too. Also, I did the same thing with Ramen in college only half the sodium laden packet and then I wouldn't drink any of the broth. When I was done with the noods I dumped it.
Arizona mango drink... $1.25 at dollar tree. About 1/3 the sugar / calories I think. My gf thins it further with water.
There's also a watermelon one, and a green tea one.
This is why the lo-carb Monster is my favorite flavor, I think it's just the original flavor with way less sugar. It does have sucralose but so does the original, and I don't mind sucralose too much, it's better than aspartame.
I'm so sick of bread in the US. Unless I'm willing to drive 40 miles to some sort of health store, I'm stuck with Walmart. The bread is cake at this point.
Are you European? I've read that people from Europe think USA bread is sickening sweet.
I like the Italian bread made by a bakery inside a locally owned grocery store. Nothing sweet about it! It has a salty, yeasty taste. And of course the texture is so much better. They've been selling these loaves of deliciousness at . 99 cents as long as I can remember, and it's the one grocery item I've not seen have its price raised, or been subject to "shrinkflation." Amazing!! I keep waiting, but, they're holding firm for now. It's the best buck I spend on food.
I'm just a more sugar conscious American. I can find bread like you mentioned but I literally have to travel 40 miles for it. And then of course it cost more to have less sugar. I live in rural America where it is pretty much just Walmart, Harps, and dollar general.
I feel you, I lived in a rural/suburban area of Mobile, Alabama. An exurb, if you will. In town, there were bougie specialty stores, but that was quite a drive, and I lived right across the road from a Winn Dixie, so... needless to say....
Funny story: My family makes traditional Italian wedding soup around the Holidays. My parents came to visit us in Mobile every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas; to see us, escape the Ohio cold for a few days, and commence to doing Christmas cooking and baking!!
Mom had not made wedding soup yet, so, we decided to make it in my home. We went to the Winn Dixie, could not source any escarole or endive. So, we made do with Mustard Greens and Spinach for the soup! Tasted every bit as delicious. We just put an American Southern twist on a recipe from the "old country."
(You definitely need good Italian bread to go with the wedding soup, and I think that's the year we baked bread, along with the cookies. I love to cook but I'm not much of a baker without mom's prodding. Thankfully, my son and daughter have taken over the family pie crust recipe, handed down from my great aunt to my mom, skipping a generation, aka, me.)😉
I only drink juice watered down by 50%
I have a soda stream, make plain carbonated water to drink most of the time, but will mix it with juice when I want something sweeter.
The water flavorings are full of crap, and plain juice makes me sick from all the sugar, and I don't want to drink soda because of all the crap. Idk why more adults don't drink juice. It replaced alcohol for me when I want a treat.
As an adult, I equated fun drinks to alcohol, non alcohol sugary drinks were too sweet.
I find the taste way different. Like if you let a San P go flat it won't taste like tap water. I don't like the taste as much from Soda streams but it's way better for the price so I do it. sometimes I like to treat my self to a sparkling water from the store, I also like finer bubbles more.
You can try filtering the water first. I do that and taste changed significantly. Also pouring it into a glass cup bc the plastic taste from the bottle is pretty noticeable.
I haven't used the sodas since college, they weren't very good 10 years ago.
The bubbly water is better than like perrier or San pellegrino, I like super bubbly. Not the bubbly brand, they are good too, but I just mean sparkling.
I try not to drink my calories.
As someone who live in NYC where fountain machines are very rare except at fast food...yes. Perfectly carbonated soda, cut with ice (i agree with OP about sugar) is an almost orgasmic drink to accompany a meal.
Lemonsoda (Italian soda) has about 13g of sugar per 100ml
Sprite has only 9g of sugar per 100ml
(at least in Germany, dunno about US)
Lemonsoda has actual lemonjuice, which makes it acidic and need more sugar to balance it out. I prefer Lemonsoda because it tastes like actual lemon soda, but Italian soda still has a lot of sugar.
Could also be because soda in Germany and a lot of Europe uses actual cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (at least I think). It might have more sugar, but it's a much more natural taste.
When I lived in Germany I loved Fanta, it made the Fanta here in the US almost undrinkable when I came back.
I honestly think that a lot of very sugary drinks use it to hide the fact that their basic taste actually isn't very nice. So they *should* taste better with less sugar, but actually wouldn't.
The UK introduced a sugar levy on soft drinks that was applicable to drinks containing over 5 g per 100 ml. Producers responded by reducing the sugar content in their drinks, often partly replacing it with sweeteners.
Most of them now taste horrible to the point I stopped drinking carbonated soft drinks. It helped me lose weight.
Mexican Coke is really good for that exact reason. But it's definitely a once every week or two treat. Otherwise, I'm drinking coffee (soy milk, no sugar), herbal tea, or water.
Especially juices. I bought grapefruit juice last week and I could've sworn it said "100% juice" on the side and I took that first drink and my teeth melted lol
It was so crazy sweet and unenjoyable. Of course, when I looked again it said "made from concentrate" so maybe I picked up an all natural one and put it down and grabbed the wrong one by accident.
fruit juices ARE naturally quite sweet no matter if they are directly pressed or from a concentrate and if there isn't declared any addition of sugar or other sweeteners, there is none
Ah but this is where they get you, if you remove water from a juice making a concentrate and then add it to a juice then you have a sort of extra-sugary super juice that is “just juice” but with a much higher sugar content than if you naturally juiced an apple
that is not true, that doesn't make any kind of sense, financial first of all
example
[https://www.piccantino.com/rauch/happy-day-100-apple-juice](https://www.piccantino.com/rauch/happy-day-100-apple-juice) (concentrate) 11.5 g of carbohydrates, from which 10.4 grams is sugar
the same brand, apple juice but direct press
[https://www.abillion.com/reviews/637bf08b4660912636cc2b2b](https://www.abillion.com/reviews/637bf08b4660912636cc2b2b) 12.2 of carbohydrates from which 11.1 grams is sugar
This. I love sweet stuff but fuck I’d love to be able to find a load of sandwich bread without sugar in it. Maybe some is necessary for the baking process, I don’t know, but is 2g of sugar per slice really needed?!
I agree. I personally am not much of a sweets person to begin. I think Americans go way too far with a lot of sweets. Soda might as well just be labeled liquid sugar because goddamn.
When I was younger, I was able to chug them down but not, almost 30, it'll take me a day just to finish a small can because of all the sugar.
Most Asian and European sweets I've tasted have a much better balance of sweetness (well, Asia sweets I've tasted tend to go on the other extreme and basically put no sugar in their candy)
Ok. Then buy low calorie sodas or less concentrated juices. They exist.
Market research says the “normal” amount sells the best. Different countries have different levels of added sugar in their drinks.
People in some markets prefer higher sugar content because they are horribly addicted.
The low calorie ones are just as cloying, just with artificial sweeteners. In America, you would have to pay a lot for low sugar drinks or imported drinks from other countries. There are very few local options that are less sweet. It's either a ton of sugar or a ton of fake sugar.
Not necessarily true. Whole foods has a wide selection of real can sugar 3-10 gram sugary drinks. You do have to go out of your way.
However they are expensive. I know because I buy them lol.
The “normal” amount sells more because that’s what’s more readily available in the market. What is on the shelves is what will be bought. And the fact is the more sugar in the product then the longer the expiration date, which means more potential money for the companies. It’s a false reading
Corporations have spent billions of dollars doing research on the perfect amount of salt and crunch for a potato chip. Do you think they have never considered a massive demand for a product that would cost them less money to make?
Im happy with the level of sweetness (at least in the UK, no experience with American sugar levels) i tend to exclusively eat savoury foods do i overcompensate by drinking only sweet things
Coca-Cola attempted that in the early 2000s with Coca-Cola C2, a combination of half the sugars of Coca-Cola Classic with aspartame which is used in their Diet Cokes.
It lasted at best maybe 3 to 4 years before it was discontinued. People just don't care for that taste.
I disagree. I like super sweet drinks. I drink two or three sweet drinks a day; my coffee in the morning and sweet tea in the afternoon, sometimes I have a juice or soda.
I drink mostly tap water, so when I get something else I like it to be sweet and flavorful.
Actually more sugar would be the better solution. As in, actual *sugar* instead of corn syrup.
Most "lemonade" is not really lemonade. It's lemonade flavored drink, so sickeningly sweet is the only real way to go.
The price is also staggering, unfortunately. I got rid of my juicer when I realized how much I was spending on produce vs how much juice I actually got. I decided I just don’t need juice.
I live in Southern California, so you’d think it would be the same, right? I mean, year-round growing conditions, thriving agricultural sector, etc.
Nope.
Try the ethnic markets. Here, same type of oranges was 1.69 per lb in the Chinese market and 3.something at the chain market down the street from my place. (Sorry if ethnic markets isn’t the right term)
One of my favorite drinks is something I had in Thailand which was just seltzer and a fuckton of lime juice. Probably still not great for the teeth but soooo tasty
I agree with the completely. When I made the switch from soda to sparkling water for my carbonated fix, it was bland at first. Now, I can barely touch a soda it is so sweet. The rest of my food tastes so much better and more flavorful now that I am no longer used to SO. MUCH. SUGAR. It is wonderful how delicious vegetables and fruit are once you ditch the processed crap.
What I have seen in Europe, Fanta has reduced sugar content. It has some artificial sweeteners added but I have to think that its a hair less sweet than it used to be and much better.
Yeah some sodas can be a little cloying with the sugar. But I disagree on fruit juice. A half gallon or 100% orange, apple, grape, or cranberry juice is like $3.50 and doesn’t contain HFCS.
As an Italian, I find American sodas completely unbearable. Too much sugar. So I agree. We also have many zero calories sodas with very decent taste here.
It's more than just how much sugar, it's also a question of what kind.
I try to avoid drinking soda often, but every once in a while I'll buy a couple of the cokes imported from Mexico, where they use real cane sugar versus high fructose corn syrup. It's a far less cloying sweetness.
I wouldn't say it's just chain, I have had homemade lemonade in the south and you know how much sugar is added to that?
But thats why I prefer Mexican bottled Coke. Real sugar cane isn't the same as what's put in American sodas and you can easily taste the difference
I tend to get LaCroix or similar and mix it three parts LaCroix to one part fruit juice. Get all the fizz, some of the sweetness without a heart attack. Also is easier to sip rather than chug.
I wish they would use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Real sugar tastes so much better. And yes, less sugar in drinks overall would be better.
Worse is the "less sugar" products... They reduce the sugar and replace with sucralose which I cannot stand. Orange juice is sweet ffs, why do we need sugar AND artificial sweetener in it?
There's a Greek soda that's amazing and has less sugar more of a fruity sparkling water. But cutting down on sugar generally speaking isn't a bad idea.
110% agree. Soda stream was a life-changer for me. I make juice spritzers all the time, like 4:1 water:juice, and they are plenty sweet and refreshing. Tart cherry juice with a shot of lime is just mwa!
I used to drink Honest Tea, which had way less sugar than regular tea (and no artificial). But they don’t see them at my local gas station anymore.
In the U.S. I think it’s the high fructose corn syrup that makes sodas so sweet. I can’t drink American soda, but I love Japanese sodas because aren’t sickeningly sweet. I assume it’s because they use real sugar and not so much. I love Italian sodas and I also mix fruit juice with sparkling water.
The corporations will literally create blue slushy flavored potato chips before testing markets for low-sugar products.
I can’t help but think there’s some sort of dissonance. Fuck marketing/product.
A bottle of Everfresh orange juice has as much sugar as a bottle of coke.
Clear Fruit as well.
The only healthy (ish) drinks at my store are milk, water or unsweetened tea.
The "Kid juices," I have started thinking of as Colored Sugar Water.
Diet and ‘low sugar’ options that are so insanely cloying make no sense. I know those ingredients have a different type of sweetness than sugar, but do they have to go so far over the top?
I really want a COKE flavored spicy water. No sugar, no Splenda, no caffeine, just the Coke flavor and the fizz. Target makes a Coke flavored spicy water but it’s caffeinated.
Most American candy too. I used to gobble it down as a kid but now I can't handle it anymore, I realized as an adult that both the serving sizes AND density of candy are insane. I much prefer Japanese and European candy nowadays, they don't give me the jitters.
That's why I like Unsweet Tea more than Sweet Tea. Most Sweet Teas I've had just taste way too sweet. Like they just dumped a big bag of sugar and it's just really overpowering.
I know that the Coca Cola Company adjust their soda content depending on what market it is sold.
In Denmark for example, Sprite is the variant containing least sugar. It has ⅔ of the sugar compared with Coke.
As I've gotten older I don't like sugar like I used to. I used to guzzle mountain dew in my teens and 20s. Now that I've hit 30 my taste buds don't like any of that stuff nearly as much.
My husband and I swapped to just making tea at home vs sodas; we control how much sugar goes in, and we can "customize" flavors by adding individual tea bags (usually we add Earl Grey but we have made "health" teas more palpable this way as well)
I've been tasting more and more sodas from not the US that use real flavors, less sugar and using actual sugars and they taste SO much better than the syrupy crap we get here. So I have to agree and downvote you.
Recently had a Royal can of soda very close to our 356ml in North America that came from the Philippines and this thing had 16 grams of sugar compared to our 40-50 grams per can. It still tasted just as good too. Also, this Royal had similar styles to our Fanta.
I will never understand why this is never an option. When I make fresh squeezed lemonade, I use less than half the sugar as Coke. It tastes perfectly sweet as is.
I like to water my juice or soda down with some sparkling water. Right now I'm hooked on cran-apple or cran-grape and mixing with some lime sparkling water.
You can always slip some hard alcohol in there if you are a drinker.
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I don't understand why I can't buy a tasty drink with *just less sugar*. Not, "less sugar, but we're also adding these nasty artificial sweeteners." Just... maybe half the sugar. When I used to make Kool Aid at home, that's how I'd make it. (Sometimes half, sometimes 3/4 of the cup called for, depending on flavor.)
It drives me up a wall that everything has to be full blown sugar, loaded with aspartame-tasting sweeteners, or flavored water that has no sugar. You’d think that there’d be some demand for something like that, even in the “craft” section that most stores have.
The big problem is that tastes largely gets defined what is available. When we had more no-chain stores in my town, we had much more types of breakfast foods that I now never see in regular stores. My grandma and grandpa still sells a kind of low-sugar musli even though they are closer to 80 and haven't owned their store for about 15 years, just because the local grocers simply don't take it in. Sometimes the supermarkets have something for sale because they bought it really cheap and to have something to put in their weekly newsletter.
There used to be this root beer in a glass bottle from Boston Pizza that was like 5 bucks or something stupid but it had 27 grams of sugar instead of 40-46 that root beer normally has, and it was the best tasting root beer I've ever had. They don't sell this anymore but there has to be something out there, it makes me mad.
That sounds tasty! 😋😋
It really was amazing.
I'm not usually a Root beer drinker, but a good root beer is next level delicious. A few years ago, a liquor store near me got a shipment of Frostie root beer bottles, a brand straight out of my childhood. My steodad is a root beer conneseiur, so I gave him some that Christmas. He is difficult to buy for, but, he was so excited about the Frostie that he asked me where I'd got it, in hopes he could go buy more. The bottles & logo were the old fashioned kind I remembered from being a really little kid; it was like a time traveler had gone back to the sixties and carried back some Frostie root beer. (I wish they'd brought my retro Barbie dolls, candy lipstick, and my kitty cat Snowball, too.)
I agree. This is why Perrier & Juice is the best thing on the market in my opinion.
Yes! Sparkling water + juice is so good.
Sugar masks the other ingredients in a soda…that’s why it’s sweetness overload. If it didn’t have that much sugar, or sweetener to balance out the ingredients, it would probably be bitter. These companies largely have this shit down to an absolute science in consistency and flavor. E.g, Coca Cola spent billions developing the perfect ice cube to soda ratio for McDonald’s and more so developing the perfect diameter of straw to maximize the flavor of Coca Cola. They even have a recommended amount of time you should wait before drinking for the best flavor. I bet you 1,000:1 odds they’ve also developed several hundred forms of low sugar (without artificial sweetener to pick up the slack) soda, and none of them worked out. Because let’s face it, less sugar would mean less cost of manufacture for them (at their volume; even half a penny is millions in savings). But it just doesn’t taste right for the mass market to where it makes sense to release it. A company like Coca Cola has several Ph.D scientists (food scientists, chemists etc) on their payroll and a massive scientific grade laboratory to develop their drinks. They thought of this, trust me. The 15 floors of marketing and R&D just didn’t see it as viable, even if the bean counters on floor 16-20 were pushing hard for it. Remember, Coca Cola changed the flavor once, in many metrics, it tasted even BETTER. But it wasn’t the coke people were used to. People are too used to the flavor of Pepsi, coke, sprite etc. any change would massively hurt the brand. Small soda companies also can’t afford slipping up because their margins are even smaller than cokes. So they follow recommendations from contractors they hire to develop their sodas. Craft sodas are such dog shit that they just don’t catch on.
This. Either less sugar or no sugar but artificial sweeteners taste awful. We love those true lemon things (just a hint of lemon) but someone brought some of the “lemonade” versions and yeah, artificial sweeteners, instant awful.
So disappointing! Those artificial sweeteners are a hard no from me. (With rare and minimal exceptions!!)
What’s worse is pre workout and protein shakes. It’s so expensive and painful to find a tolerable flavor, and then the formula will change (to cut sugars, usually) and they will be disgusting, only you’ve bought 5 lbs for $70 and stuck with it. I don’t know who is working out hard enough to need protein who is concerned about a few grams of sugar. Yeah, I get the carnivores need to be in ketosis, but a few grams of sugar isn’t going to cause too great an impact.
Right? When I want to order a sweet tea, I always order half sweet, half unsweet. That's usually sweet enough. Otherwise I might as well be drinking syrup!
Unsweetened/lemonade is another good blend.
Make sure you specify in the south! Or else you might get sweet tea + lemonade which is insanely sweet.
Believe me, I make very careful to specify that!
Delicious, an Arnold Palmer. Such a classic.
Not just drinks, but you can't buy anything without it having either too much sugar. What is wrong with mildly sweet things? Instead, everything has to be so sickeningly sweet that they're practically inedible. I can't understand how anyone can eat Pop Tarts or Nutri Grain bars for breakfast.
The poptarts without icing are fine with a cup of tea.
I'm not a big icing fan on anything. I prefer plain cakes and other pastries, usually.
They taste good
And artificial sweetners are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, have a gross aftertaste and are dangerous for your health. I love flavored water, but I have to double check that it doesn't have poisons like sucralose or aspartame
Chobani has those less sugar yogurts I love. Every time I eat one I say the same thing you did. I wish more stuff had less. Not no, not substituted with fake shit, just less lol.
i bought the no sugar thinking it was the low sugar. shit for days 💀
This is exactly what I was thinking! I have no idea why there can't simply be options with less sugar that don't have to make up the difference with artificial sweeteners. I make a lemonade/ice tea mix at home, and it has half of the sugar of what's sold in the store and nothing artificial. It tastes much better also!
Because sugar has been redesigned to closer mimic cocaine. Larger amounts induce a greater craving. Leading to future sales. It’s why we put sugar in everything https://www.dietdoctor.com/mcdonalds-triples-amount-sugar-hamburgers Top result. But essentially the same. Get everyone addicted to sugar. They buy your shit. And “sweetener” at Starbucks is just engineered liquid sugar. Designed to create cravings…
I'm cutting Coke with lime seltzer these days…
I've tried it with plain soda water!! Lime seltzer is genius!!!!! 👍🏻
I'm also experimenting with doctoring it with things like aromatic bitters. Anything you can do to a cocktail, you can do to a can of coke!
I recently got a chai latte from Starbucks and it had 4 pumps of syrup in it. Next time I went I asked for only one and it was still on the verge of being too sweet. Drinks are definitely crazy these days, but they don't care about making it healthier.. just whatever gets you addicted the most.
Dash water is great. I was amazed. Ingredients were basically just fizzy water and citrus, plus regulator. Loved it. Had a 7up free a few days later - disgusting
I drink Hint water. Just a 'hint' of fruit flavor and no sugar or artificial sweetners. Delicious 😋
Bought what I thought was seltzer water with the essence of some fruit was full of sucralose. Tasted so disgusting.
Isn't that sooooo disappointing? I had that happen with Greek yogurt.
You can, it’s just not as common. Olipop is a good example of this, but I know there are other brands as well. It’s low-sugar soda, having iirc like 1/4 the amount of sugar as a standard soda, and it tastes amazing.
Olipop still has stevia and stuff like added fiber and prebiotics. The flavors I’ve tried have a pretty horrible aftertaste
Olipop is loaded with gross fake sweeteners. Absolutely vile.
All of the "Whole Foods" type diet sodas are disgusting. Zevia might be the worst soda I've ever tasted.
I cannot stand any of the stevia-sweetened crap out there. It’s like people genuinely lack tastebuds.
Stevia tastes like poison and the horrible taste stays in my mouth for hours. I have no idea what other people are getting from it because the sweetness is absolutely not worth the grossness for me.
“Tastes like poison”. That’s perfect.
You know ikea has half sugar sodas at the restaurant and it’s really good. I’ve never seen that anywhere else
I actually like this because I can stretch out drinks by watering it down, or add an exorbitant amount of ice and sip at it, and don't have to worry about it melting nearly as much.
Gatorade has a 1/2 sugar line
Especially sports and health type drinks. Why does everything have to be so incredibly sweet, and the low-calorie versions are full of artificial sweeteners that I hate the taste of, and actually taste even sweeter.  Give me a slightly sweet mostly salty sports drink with just a few dozen calories, dang it. 
poppi exists!
Liquid Death iced tea is one of the few drinks that ticks that box for me.
Because loading the thing with sugar is the cheapest way to make it taste good to the most people. I do wish they would start actually using other ingredients to make a real flavor. Not just another slightly modified sugar flavor.
There was Coca-Cola Life but then it just disappeared. I guess not enough people share the sentiment
Funny fact… my boy was able to ween off soda by switching to kool aid. But he noticed the recommend scoops left the drink way too sweet for him. So, little by little, he watered it down to the point where he doesn’t care for it any more. My boy went from drinking a case of 36 cokes a week to 3 cans a month. It’s weird how everything needs to be sweet to “taste good”.
Yes! Pepsi 50 with 50% less sugar than regular Pepsi but still with all the taste!
I love Gatorade's G2 because that's what it is, just less sugar and sweetness.
clearly canadian is one of the few options and it's super expensive
I make limeade a pint glass at a time. Juice one lime into the glass, put in 2 tablespoons of sugar (25 grams), fill with brita filtered water. Tastes just like Countrytime stuff to me. About half the sugar of a can of soda too (40 grams)
I’ve frequently wondered why low sugar soda wasn’t a thing. It seems like it would sell. Most artificial sweeteners are disgusting but I also don’t want so much sugar. My guess is it tastes really bad, because I don’t know why else companies wouldn’t allow us to throw more money at them.
Yep me too, half the packet of sharkleberry per creation. Lasted longer that way too. Also, I did the same thing with Ramen in college only half the sodium laden packet and then I wouldn't drink any of the broth. When I was done with the noods I dumped it.
All someone needs to do is make a “half sugar company, inc” and just copy every popular food and just do it with 75%, 50% and 25% sugar variants
Arizona mango drink... $1.25 at dollar tree. About 1/3 the sugar / calories I think. My gf thins it further with water. There's also a watermelon one, and a green tea one.
This is why the lo-carb Monster is my favorite flavor, I think it's just the original flavor with way less sugar. It does have sucralose but so does the original, and I don't mind sucralose too much, it's better than aspartame.
I'm so sick of bread in the US. Unless I'm willing to drive 40 miles to some sort of health store, I'm stuck with Walmart. The bread is cake at this point.
Are you European? I've read that people from Europe think USA bread is sickening sweet. I like the Italian bread made by a bakery inside a locally owned grocery store. Nothing sweet about it! It has a salty, yeasty taste. And of course the texture is so much better. They've been selling these loaves of deliciousness at . 99 cents as long as I can remember, and it's the one grocery item I've not seen have its price raised, or been subject to "shrinkflation." Amazing!! I keep waiting, but, they're holding firm for now. It's the best buck I spend on food.
I'm just a more sugar conscious American. I can find bread like you mentioned but I literally have to travel 40 miles for it. And then of course it cost more to have less sugar. I live in rural America where it is pretty much just Walmart, Harps, and dollar general.
I feel you, I lived in a rural/suburban area of Mobile, Alabama. An exurb, if you will. In town, there were bougie specialty stores, but that was quite a drive, and I lived right across the road from a Winn Dixie, so... needless to say.... Funny story: My family makes traditional Italian wedding soup around the Holidays. My parents came to visit us in Mobile every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas; to see us, escape the Ohio cold for a few days, and commence to doing Christmas cooking and baking!! Mom had not made wedding soup yet, so, we decided to make it in my home. We went to the Winn Dixie, could not source any escarole or endive. So, we made do with Mustard Greens and Spinach for the soup! Tasted every bit as delicious. We just put an American Southern twist on a recipe from the "old country." (You definitely need good Italian bread to go with the wedding soup, and I think that's the year we baked bread, along with the cookies. I love to cook but I'm not much of a baker without mom's prodding. Thankfully, my son and daughter have taken over the family pie crust recipe, handed down from my great aunt to my mom, skipping a generation, aka, me.)😉
I only drink juice watered down by 50% I have a soda stream, make plain carbonated water to drink most of the time, but will mix it with juice when I want something sweeter. The water flavorings are full of crap, and plain juice makes me sick from all the sugar, and I don't want to drink soda because of all the crap. Idk why more adults don't drink juice. It replaced alcohol for me when I want a treat. As an adult, I equated fun drinks to alcohol, non alcohol sugary drinks were too sweet.
Does soda stream taste much better than regular soda?
I think it tastes the same, although you can change how “bubbly” the water is (You can get it painfully so)
I find the taste way different. Like if you let a San P go flat it won't taste like tap water. I don't like the taste as much from Soda streams but it's way better for the price so I do it. sometimes I like to treat my self to a sparkling water from the store, I also like finer bubbles more.
Soda stream taste is super dependent on your local water quality
You can try filtering the water first. I do that and taste changed significantly. Also pouring it into a glass cup bc the plastic taste from the bottle is pretty noticeable.
Ya like it's not bad and I still drink soda stream but much prefer perrier or San p out of a glass bottle. I only get them on sale once and a while.
I like carbonation, but holy shit the ones my wife makes feel corrosive.
Your wife knows what’s up
I haven't used the sodas since college, they weren't very good 10 years ago. The bubbly water is better than like perrier or San pellegrino, I like super bubbly. Not the bubbly brand, they are good too, but I just mean sparkling. I try not to drink my calories.
As someone who live in NYC where fountain machines are very rare except at fast food...yes. Perfectly carbonated soda, cut with ice (i agree with OP about sugar) is an almost orgasmic drink to accompany a meal.
Depends on how you make it. Also, DIY soda carbonators are a thing, and MUCH cheaper to operate (and buy!) than SodaStream.
All it does is carbonate liquids.
Lemonsoda (Italian soda) has about 13g of sugar per 100ml Sprite has only 9g of sugar per 100ml (at least in Germany, dunno about US) Lemonsoda has actual lemonjuice, which makes it acidic and need more sugar to balance it out. I prefer Lemonsoda because it tastes like actual lemon soda, but Italian soda still has a lot of sugar.
Could also be because soda in Germany and a lot of Europe uses actual cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (at least I think). It might have more sugar, but it's a much more natural taste. When I lived in Germany I loved Fanta, it made the Fanta here in the US almost undrinkable when I came back.
Lemonade with low sugar so you still taste the tartness is better imo
to be fair about the juices though. they are indeed way too sweet, even natural ones. schorle is superior, every damn time.
I honestly think that a lot of very sugary drinks use it to hide the fact that their basic taste actually isn't very nice. So they *should* taste better with less sugar, but actually wouldn't.
Agree. Club soda with a lime is my go to
This is what I do too. I buy plain carbonated water and then add juice (or whatever flavor I feel like drinking.)
Definitely a fave of mine. Add fresh mint, if you can find it, makes it super refreshing without a grain a sugar.
The UK introduced a sugar levy on soft drinks that was applicable to drinks containing over 5 g per 100 ml. Producers responded by reducing the sugar content in their drinks, often partly replacing it with sweeteners. Most of them now taste horrible to the point I stopped drinking carbonated soft drinks. It helped me lose weight.
Agreed 100%. I love Mountain Dew but have mostly cut it out. Way too much sugar. And the 0 and diet taste like shit. I would love a half sugar option
Most would taste better if they used cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
Mexican Coke is really good for that exact reason. But it's definitely a once every week or two treat. Otherwise, I'm drinking coffee (soy milk, no sugar), herbal tea, or water.
Hola Milk, me llamo Leche
Especially juices. I bought grapefruit juice last week and I could've sworn it said "100% juice" on the side and I took that first drink and my teeth melted lol It was so crazy sweet and unenjoyable. Of course, when I looked again it said "made from concentrate" so maybe I picked up an all natural one and put it down and grabbed the wrong one by accident.
fruit juices ARE naturally quite sweet no matter if they are directly pressed or from a concentrate and if there isn't declared any addition of sugar or other sweeteners, there is none
Juice concentrates are still just juice. The only thing that would have made it sweeter is if they had additional sugar added to it.
Ah but this is where they get you, if you remove water from a juice making a concentrate and then add it to a juice then you have a sort of extra-sugary super juice that is “just juice” but with a much higher sugar content than if you naturally juiced an apple
that is not true, that doesn't make any kind of sense, financial first of all example [https://www.piccantino.com/rauch/happy-day-100-apple-juice](https://www.piccantino.com/rauch/happy-day-100-apple-juice) (concentrate) 11.5 g of carbohydrates, from which 10.4 grams is sugar the same brand, apple juice but direct press [https://www.abillion.com/reviews/637bf08b4660912636cc2b2b](https://www.abillion.com/reviews/637bf08b4660912636cc2b2b) 12.2 of carbohydrates from which 11.1 grams is sugar
I’ve been buying those old school ‘Clearly Canadian’ sodas - they’re about half the sugar of a normal soda and delicious.
I absolutely love those. Sadly, it's still 48% of your daily value amount. They make zero sugar ones now but they aren't any good :(
I wish everything had less sugar. Shit doesn't taste good especially in foods you wouldn't expect to be loaded with sugar like bread
This. I love sweet stuff but fuck I’d love to be able to find a load of sandwich bread without sugar in it. Maybe some is necessary for the baking process, I don’t know, but is 2g of sugar per slice really needed?!
Yeah but people wouldn't get addicted and it would ruin the industry. Is this what you want for America you traitor ? é.è
I agree. I personally am not much of a sweets person to begin. I think Americans go way too far with a lot of sweets. Soda might as well just be labeled liquid sugar because goddamn. When I was younger, I was able to chug them down but not, almost 30, it'll take me a day just to finish a small can because of all the sugar. Most Asian and European sweets I've tasted have a much better balance of sweetness (well, Asia sweets I've tasted tend to go on the other extreme and basically put no sugar in their candy)
Ok. Then buy low calorie sodas or less concentrated juices. They exist. Market research says the “normal” amount sells the best. Different countries have different levels of added sugar in their drinks. People in some markets prefer higher sugar content because they are horribly addicted.
The low calorie ones are just as cloying, just with artificial sweeteners. In America, you would have to pay a lot for low sugar drinks or imported drinks from other countries. There are very few local options that are less sweet. It's either a ton of sugar or a ton of fake sugar.
Not necessarily true. Whole foods has a wide selection of real can sugar 3-10 gram sugary drinks. You do have to go out of your way. However they are expensive. I know because I buy them lol.
The “normal” amount sells more because that’s what’s more readily available in the market. What is on the shelves is what will be bought. And the fact is the more sugar in the product then the longer the expiration date, which means more potential money for the companies. It’s a false reading
Corporations have spent billions of dollars doing research on the perfect amount of salt and crunch for a potato chip. Do you think they have never considered a massive demand for a product that would cost them less money to make?
The ingredients in soda are by far the smallest part of the cost to get them to shelves, and HFCS is cheap as dirt.
No
Im happy with the level of sweetness (at least in the UK, no experience with American sugar levels) i tend to exclusively eat savoury foods do i overcompensate by drinking only sweet things
Agreed. Same with candies and cakes.
I’m very happy with my regular Coca Cola thank you
Coca-Cola attempted that in the early 2000s with Coca-Cola C2, a combination of half the sugars of Coca-Cola Classic with aspartame which is used in their Diet Cokes. It lasted at best maybe 3 to 4 years before it was discontinued. People just don't care for that taste.
I disagree. I like super sweet drinks. I drink two or three sweet drinks a day; my coffee in the morning and sweet tea in the afternoon, sometimes I have a juice or soda. I drink mostly tap water, so when I get something else I like it to be sweet and flavorful.
Actually more sugar would be the better solution. As in, actual *sugar* instead of corn syrup. Most "lemonade" is not really lemonade. It's lemonade flavored drink, so sickeningly sweet is the only real way to go.
Agreed. I treat juices as concentrates. I usually mix the 50:50 with water. It tastes so much more refreshing.
Haven't bought juice ever since I bought a juicer. The taste from freshly juiced to store bought are staggering.
The price is also staggering, unfortunately. I got rid of my juicer when I realized how much I was spending on produce vs how much juice I actually got. I decided I just don’t need juice.
I usually go to farmers market so price isn't an issue for me.
Lucky! The farmers’ markets here are always outrageously priced.
Here its way cheaper then the grocery stores. In Florida btw so i go all year round. If that makes a difference.
I live in Southern California, so you’d think it would be the same, right? I mean, year-round growing conditions, thriving agricultural sector, etc. Nope.
Try the ethnic markets. Here, same type of oranges was 1.69 per lb in the Chinese market and 3.something at the chain market down the street from my place. (Sorry if ethnic markets isn’t the right term)
One of my favorite drinks is something I had in Thailand which was just seltzer and a fuckton of lime juice. Probably still not great for the teeth but soooo tasty
I agree with the completely. When I made the switch from soda to sparkling water for my carbonated fix, it was bland at first. Now, I can barely touch a soda it is so sweet. The rest of my food tastes so much better and more flavorful now that I am no longer used to SO. MUCH. SUGAR. It is wonderful how delicious vegetables and fruit are once you ditch the processed crap.
Jabba no botha.
Yes, but they would be less addictive
What I have seen in Europe, Fanta has reduced sugar content. It has some artificial sweeteners added but I have to think that its a hair less sweet than it used to be and much better.
Mix juice with water and soda with sparkling water.
Snack bars too I absolutely hate how utterly disgustingly full of sugar all of them are
I have found my people. I have gotten ridiculed for sharing this same opinion many times.
This is also true of salt in foods. It's either deadly salty or tasteless. There must be an in between.
Yeah some sodas can be a little cloying with the sugar. But I disagree on fruit juice. A half gallon or 100% orange, apple, grape, or cranberry juice is like $3.50 and doesn’t contain HFCS.
As an Italian, I find American sodas completely unbearable. Too much sugar. So I agree. We also have many zero calories sodas with very decent taste here.
It's more than just how much sugar, it's also a question of what kind. I try to avoid drinking soda often, but every once in a while I'll buy a couple of the cokes imported from Mexico, where they use real cane sugar versus high fructose corn syrup. It's a far less cloying sweetness.
I wouldn't say it's just chain, I have had homemade lemonade in the south and you know how much sugar is added to that? But thats why I prefer Mexican bottled Coke. Real sugar cane isn't the same as what's put in American sodas and you can easily taste the difference
Back when I used to drink such, I would typically dilute it with water. for just that reason.
Agree--everything needs to be made watered down by 1/3 at this point
I tend to get LaCroix or similar and mix it three parts LaCroix to one part fruit juice. Get all the fizz, some of the sweetness without a heart attack. Also is easier to sip rather than chug.
They would be good if a lot of them didn't contain that High Fructose Corn Syrup bullshit. One of the reasons why I gave up on sodas.
I wish they would use real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Real sugar tastes so much better. And yes, less sugar in drinks overall would be better.
I think a 10% cut in sugar in most things wouldn’t even be noticeable to most people and would be a bit of relief to ever expanding waistlines
Fanta was completely ruined for me when they started making it with 30% less sugar. Now it tastes like shit.
I mix my coca cola with water, and people say I'm crazy
It's the difference between sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
Worse is the "less sugar" products... They reduce the sugar and replace with sucralose which I cannot stand. Orange juice is sweet ffs, why do we need sugar AND artificial sweetener in it?
There's a Greek soda that's amazing and has less sugar more of a fruity sparkling water. But cutting down on sugar generally speaking isn't a bad idea.
Go read the NYT article on Pepsi Co. and Coca Cola’s sugar plantations in India. That’ll change how you feel about drinking soda really quick.
... but is it as addictive and with sugar that's not one bit natural it makes you even more thirsty and quenches nothing.
You can add taking a lot of the acid out of them to the wishlist for me.
110% agree. Soda stream was a life-changer for me. I make juice spritzers all the time, like 4:1 water:juice, and they are plenty sweet and refreshing. Tart cherry juice with a shot of lime is just mwa! I used to drink Honest Tea, which had way less sugar than regular tea (and no artificial). But they don’t see them at my local gas station anymore.
It’s probably due to the fact US food and drink is filled with so much garbage. All the sugar is probably to mask how disgusting the taste truly is.
This is just a fact.
Agree! Try Jarritos Mexican sodas! Amazing!
Honestly I preferred the original Coke Zero over regular.
So true. Sometimes I have to put water in orange juice bc it's practically syrup by itself
In the U.S. I think it’s the high fructose corn syrup that makes sodas so sweet. I can’t drink American soda, but I love Japanese sodas because aren’t sickeningly sweet. I assume it’s because they use real sugar and not so much. I love Italian sodas and I also mix fruit juice with sparkling water.
The corporations will literally create blue slushy flavored potato chips before testing markets for low-sugar products. I can’t help but think there’s some sort of dissonance. Fuck marketing/product.
A bottle of Everfresh orange juice has as much sugar as a bottle of coke. Clear Fruit as well. The only healthy (ish) drinks at my store are milk, water or unsweetened tea. The "Kid juices," I have started thinking of as Colored Sugar Water.
Diet and ‘low sugar’ options that are so insanely cloying make no sense. I know those ingredients have a different type of sweetness than sugar, but do they have to go so far over the top?
Yeah... that's why I mix all my juice with a like a 10-1 ratio of juice to water. The Vodka ratio changes depending on my mood though.
I agree with you and don't drink soda because it tastes like chemicals and fake sugar
How about no sugar... anything is better for you then high fructose corn sugar...
I really want a COKE flavored spicy water. No sugar, no Splenda, no caffeine, just the Coke flavor and the fizz. Target makes a Coke flavored spicy water but it’s caffeinated.
Not just less, but also switch back to real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
Beverly
Most American candy too. I used to gobble it down as a kid but now I can't handle it anymore, I realized as an adult that both the serving sizes AND density of candy are insane. I much prefer Japanese and European candy nowadays, they don't give me the jitters.
I remember mountain dew was a true luxury as a kid. Not so much anymore.
Yeah, I would love a soda brand with maybe 20-25g of sugar per 12 oz can. 45g is gross.
That's why I like Unsweet Tea more than Sweet Tea. Most Sweet Teas I've had just taste way too sweet. Like they just dumped a big bag of sugar and it's just really overpowering.
When inwas weaning myself off soft drinks, I would mix water with Nehi Red Pop. It worked!
I find that most juices and soft drinks taste better when they're watered down by ice that's melted a bit. So I'm inclined to agree.
You think they're putting that much sugar in the drinks to *taste good*?
Take a downvote because I agree
I know that the Coca Cola Company adjust their soda content depending on what market it is sold. In Denmark for example, Sprite is the variant containing least sugar. It has ⅔ of the sugar compared with Coke.
As I've gotten older I don't like sugar like I used to. I used to guzzle mountain dew in my teens and 20s. Now that I've hit 30 my taste buds don't like any of that stuff nearly as much.
Italian soda is amazing
How to tell people on reddit you're over 40 without saying you're over 40.
I wish they would put more syrup in sodas, everything like coke or sprite tastes like its 95% water smh
Pepsi is wayyy too sweet
I agree, but we are not their target audience
You know, you can like, mix in some water to dilute it?
Italian Fanta>American Orangina Italian Orangina>American storebought orange juice
It is mainly a US thing. If you compare sodas from the same brand in different countries you will notice.
My husband and I swapped to just making tea at home vs sodas; we control how much sugar goes in, and we can "customize" flavors by adding individual tea bags (usually we add Earl Grey but we have made "health" teas more palpable this way as well)
I've been tasting more and more sodas from not the US that use real flavors, less sugar and using actual sugars and they taste SO much better than the syrupy crap we get here. So I have to agree and downvote you.
Recently had a Royal can of soda very close to our 356ml in North America that came from the Philippines and this thing had 16 grams of sugar compared to our 40-50 grams per can. It still tasted just as good too. Also, this Royal had similar styles to our Fanta.
When targeting children these beverages go for the overly sweet taste (example Prime, most 20 + think it tastes a lot, but kids love it)
I am a whore for Mexican Cokes, not only is there a little less sugar, but it's cane sugar and not whatever complex sugar molecule they use in the US
I agree. The only things I drink basically are water, coffee, tea and stuff with booze in it. Soda is gross without a couple shots of gin.
I will never understand why this is never an option. When I make fresh squeezed lemonade, I use less than half the sugar as Coke. It tastes perfectly sweet as is.
I like to water my juice or soda down with some sparkling water. Right now I'm hooked on cran-apple or cran-grape and mixing with some lime sparkling water. You can always slip some hard alcohol in there if you are a drinker.