No, really, no one is going to care. But your concern does remind me of a time at my last job when I wrote a story about a bloodless bullfight. The bulls have a sheet of Velcro strapped to them, and you just touch them there instead of stabbing them to death. Weeks later, I got a letter from the Velcro people, complaining that I didn’t add the little circle-R after the word. They suggested I use the generic term “hook-and-loop fastener,” which is completely weak.
Grr… as a huge iced-tea drinker, I have to take issue with this post. Real iced tea isn’t “low-carb”, it’s no-carb. Real iced tea contains no sweeteners, and thusly contains a whopping zero calories. Good iced tea doesn’t even really need to be sweetened, since the flavors are just masked by the sweeteners. It can be hard to find good unsweetened iced tea, but my two reccomendations are Tejava (conveniently in the 1-liter bottle) and Honest Tea. If you ever find it (it may be difficult- I can barely find it anywhere), I highly reccomend the Kashmiri Chai, or anything else that they put out.
I’m with Moose on this one. Good iced tea requires no sweetener.
The only exception might be a tiny splash of fruit juice, if your intent is to serve a “tropical” iced tea of some sort. But that’s for flavoring, not sweetening. A good “sun tea” made with plain ole’ Lipton tea bags, and served very cold with lots of ice is hard to beat.
And, since you mentioned it, I found Tejava (in the little 12-ounce bottles) a bit too bitter in the finish, and it had a chemical flavor. I’ll have to try Honest Tea.
Crystal Lite is not bad if you’re looking for something non-carbonated. Some supermarkets (like mine, Big Y) even have generic rip-offs of Crystal Lite which are calorie free but lots cheaper.
Any brand of selzer water is good too. It takes some getting used to by itself, but can be mixed nicely with juice, the aforementioned Crystal Lite, or, um, gin.
I always laugh at any diet-cola commercial which claims that “You’ll never be able to tell it’s diet.” Bullshit. There is not a diet cola in the world that tastes like regular cola. There are some good diet sodas, but they’re nothing like the sugared kind.
I agree with those who say that the clear “natural sodas” are pretty tasty too. Wal-Mart has a brand of these, as does my supermarket, under the name “Clear and Natural” or some such.
I have always loathed the taste of soda, and commercial sugar-water in general. I’m just curious (maybe it’s a cultural thing, I did not grow up on this continent.) If I’m thirsty, I drink water.
Or $5.00 quadruple shot iced real-caramel lattes.
Come to think of it, why not iced coffee? Raises your metabolism!
Snooooopy, for times that require more, erm, festive, beverages, diet tonic is your friend. Beer has around the same calorie content as regular soda, but with diet tonic, you only get the calories from the gin. Tastes great, too. Yes, you can be drunk AND slim down!
I don’t really like it all that much. I mean, if I’m at the gym and I’ve been working out for some time, then I have no problem hitting the water fountain – I’m too tired to be picky – but otherwise, I’m just not a water guy.
I’m the queen of diet drinks, as I’m hideously anal about empty calories. I agree with some of the above ideas.
I usually hate iced tea, but Diet Brisk is absolutely my favorite diet drink. It’s brisk, baby!
Diet Mountain Dew is wonderful, as is Diet Root Beer.
I also love Crystal Light, most especially the Raspberry Ice. However, most of their flavors are pretty neat. Right now, as I type I’m drinking Diet Snapple Orange Carrot, which is also pretty cool.
Oh, yeah, and that water stuff’s pretty good for you too.
OK, the diet soft drink for me is still TAB. I mean drink the others and the taste goes away after a few minutes. Not with TAB it lingers, and lingers, and lingers and…
Granted the taste that lingers is awful, but hey nobody’s perfect.
Diet RC Also has splenda.(although I like Dietrite better) Splenda rocks. I had relatives who used to smuggle it in from canada before it was available in the us.
Splenda also has the advantage that you can cook with it, unile nutrisweet. Mrs. Bdgr substitues it in a lot of things she cooks. Some you can tell the differance(from sugar), some you cant. She makes a wicked fried apple pie with splenda, and a chocolate moose(in know its not speeled that way…I like it better).
We hardly use real sugar for anything, now that theres splenda…all hail its name…
I like Diet Pepsi. Not Pepsi One, though, for some reason. They just came out with Pepsi Twist, and there’s a diet version. My f-i-l suggested it, so I tried it. I liked it a lot. It tastes kind of like iced tea, only carbonated. I know that doesn’t sound great, but I find it yummy.
Aspartame (NutraSweet) is not good for you. At all. Check out the Aspartame Toxicity Information Center if you’re interested. Check out a few case studies.
I have avoided it like the plague for several years - I’d much rather go without, than consume it willingly.
In my experience, I did get used to the diet sodas. You just have to drink them exclusively. My favorite is Pepsi One, personally. To me nowadays, the non-Diet ones just seem gross, and leave my teeth sticky.
My supermarket sells generic diet fruit punch which also does the trick. And I can keep it around for when I run out of soda.
And marcus, any link to a site about holistic medicine is not a good source in my book.
I am totally in love with Hansen’s Natural Soda. It’s not diet, but it’s no sodium, no caffeine, no preservatives. It’s got like 140 calories (well at least this can of Cherry Vanilla Creme does). Is that a lot?
I also second the throwing fruit in a blender idea. That’s my breakfast… soy milk smoothies with either strawberry/bannana, pear/bannana or whatever I have on hand. I’m a blending fool.
