Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
New and Improved my ASS! This is what I say to the change in formula to my drink of choice the past few years, Pepsi One. I'm not sure when it happened, but around the beginning of the year, Pepsi One changed the design of their can (from silver to black). Nowhere on the can did it say they had changed the flavor, but all it took was one swig to know it wasn't the same.
My soda history is that I grew up drinking Coca-cola from a glass bottle. For those of you that have been deprived of this, it's the best way to drink cola, much like beer is better from a bottle. Around 1991, bottles started to become scarce, so it was either cans or 2 liter bottles, as options. Since this was also the time I knew I needed to cut some calories, I used this change to start drinking diet soda. Diet Coke has always had a strange aftertaste, so I switched to the (Diet) Pepsi generation. When Pepsi One hit the stores in the late 90's, I tried it and it became my carbonated beverage of choice. Much like when Coke introduced New Coke and at the same time, took Classic Coke off the shelves, Pepsi One's change for the worse, left me in a predicament.
I went back to Diet Pepsi the past few months and then last week, tried a new product called Coke Zero. Well guess what, this soda maven is back on the Coke payroll. I highly recommend Coke Zero and Sprite Zero, as they are the best diet drinks I've tasted, as their aftertaste is nearly non-existent.
So that's what happening to me in my exciting life. Look for in the future, my tale of how my favorite cereal, Cinnamon Life, changed it flavor formula a couple of years ago, and I haven't been able to eat it since.
It's good to know that our society has put it's collective scientific knowledge to work on something so important. With any luck, we'll get this Diet Cola mystery figured out pretty soon, so we can get crackin' on the whole curing cancer thing.
And on a not so rant-like note...I feel for you. They did the same to me with Trix cereal quite a while ago. Those bastards at General Mills.
I will admit that I have recently tried the diet pepsi with lime and it's a refreshing change of pace, but a little too funky to eat with a regular meal. Maybe I should have a website where I discuss soda choices depending on what food you're eating, then I could have TFD tell you what wine you would drink with it.
What coke did was a bit more insidious. You see Diet Coke's formula is actually not really related to Coke at all. It was developed from the ground up doing blind taste tests. What was interesting is that people seemed to prefer this forumla to regular Coke. This is what led to New Coke. New Coke was just Diet Coke with the aspartame swapped out for sugar. What Coke has done now is swap the aspartame for splenda in the Diet Coke but introduced a whole new product in Coke Zero. Coke Zero is the Classic Coke recipe, but with aspartame instead of sugar.
The fact that I know all of this kind of makes me sad.
On a completely unrelated note, I picked up Radiohead's The Bends last night. Thanks for the tip.
What I really like these days is the new Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi. Good flavor. I was drinking the dier lime for awhile, but got tired of it pretty quickly.
I tried Coke Zero at the Food Show in Chicago: Tastes almost spot on like Coke Classic. They should market it that way: As Diet Coca Cola Classic. But "zero," I guess, researched better.
I read Scott's comment and I tried Coke Zero today. Decent. Won't replace my Diet Pepsi when I'm done with this diet, but it was decent. However, the greatest thing out here in Scottsdale is that the SuperPumpers (yes, that's the name) put Diet Mt Dew in all of their soda fountains. Now that is truly God's nectar.
Just seeing The Bends typed in made me play that disc again all day. Got me thinking what my favorite cut is off of that disc - has to be either Iron Lung or The Bends, with High & Dry and Fake Plastic Trees battling for Show.
I want answers - - trade secrets be damned!
BTW, DP man all the way.
Be careful when you say "DP man all the way". Us porno afficiandos think of DP as something else, as if I didn't hear it in proper context, I would ask you, what other guy do you work with?
Equal (Aspertame) is a product developed and marketed by Searle, that was developed under the "leadership" of Donald Rumsfeld, one of the architects of our current Iraq policy.
Sweet and Low (Saccharin) is distributed by the Cumberland Packing Corporation. Previously a big corporate backer of former NY Senator Alphonse D'mato (R-Made), and currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gambino crime family.
Splenda ... well, they say it's made from sugar.
Pick your poison ... carefully!
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