Here’s another log on the fire - I have experienced three distinct kinds of Dr Pepper in my life - not counting diet, caffeinne free, etc.
There’s the standard Dr Pepper that is the soft drink I grew up enjoying and remains my favorite. Coke has too much caramel flavor, and Pepsi just tastes…wrong…although the new Pepsi with lemon added is kinda tasty.
There’s the Dr Pepper you get in Dublin, Texas from the bottling plant there that’s still made with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar. Vast difference. Very tasty. Sold in the classic glass 10 ounce bottles.
And then there’s the Dr Pepper that my wife and I bought at a grocery store in Inverness, Scotland. Tastes a lot like Dublin Dr Pepper, except with fruit flavor added (maybe cherry and grape?) The label declared it to be “Dr Pepper - the fruit-flavored soft drink!” Tasty, but not what we were looking for.
Kilt- you have a point. In fact, some conspiracy dudes would have one believe that that was the whole point about “New Coke” it was designed to fail, but conceal the switch from sugar to high fructose corn syrup. There is a small taste difference, and definately some can tell the 2 apart. There is also a “mouth feel” difference. And of course, glass bottles do make a taste difference in almost any beverage.
TheNerd. A large portion of what we call taste is what you expect, from other senses than the taste buds, such as vision. They do fun things with this sometimes by feeding you stuff blindfolded. As a WAG, I’d say you expected Pepsi to taste worse, so it did. You already took the taste test, and with visual clues ommited, you admit you picked Pepsi- but later you prefered Coke.
I remember one time I greabbed a grape sode in a can. Drank a few sips and noticed nothing really odd. Then I let one sip roll around in my mouth for a bit- and it tasted odd. I re-examined the can, and it was really the can of creme soda that had been next to the can of grape. And I REALLY hate creme soda. So- since I EXPECTED grape (as my freind said: “had my mouth all set for grape soda”), I didn’t taste the despised Creme at once. And grape & creme are radically different, not like 2 colas.
One of my buds worked at a 7-11. Accidentally, the Coke syrup tube got switched to the Pepsi, and vice versa. Thus, Coke drinkers were getting Pepsi, and Pepsi drinkers got Coke. No one complained for 2 days and hundreds of sales. True, I’ll admit this was for fountain drinsk, which rarely taste right anyway, but you see my point. The few who did notice something odd likely chalked it off to a poor syrup mixture. But most- likely tasted Coke because they EXPECTED Coke.
Can’t do that. Dr. Strangelove already had a Sellers. [mumbling under breath] Blast copyright laws always getting in the way of a good brand name. [/mub]
So the only way to perform a truly objective taste test would be to find someone who had never drunk either Pepsi or Coke, and therefore had no expectations as to the specific flavor.
Actually, you can still buy Coca-Cola with cane sugar every year around the Jewish Passover holiday. Since many Jewish people are particular not to partake from anything that is a derivative of corn (i.e. corn syrup), Coca-Cola makes a line of “kosher for Passover” 2-liter bottles every year. They don’t change the label (note that label all year long hedges on the type of sweetener they use, perhaps so that they have the option of switching in this instance and still comply with the FDA), but they do change the cap. The cap is always yellow when they do this. And I think there is a slight difference in taste between the teh regular Coca-Cola Classic and the kosher for Passover versions.
Good explanation, except for the fact that after the challenge, I no longer expected Pepsi to taste worse. I had begged my parents to buy the stuff. I was really young at the time, you know how kids are, once they get something in their heads theybelieve it.
I believe the pepsi challenge was stacked. It wasn’t double blind, and it certainly wasn’t unbiased. But hey. I’ve got (a tiny bit of) disposable income now. I’ll do my own damn taste test.
I’ve heard the “made with cane sugar for passover” part before, but this is the first I’ve heard the “yellow cap” part of it. I’ve been thinking about this every night this past week as I pour my Coke from a 2 liter bottle with a yellow cap. Do you (or anyone) have a cite for “yellow cap = cane sugar”? (Although, since I read this, the Coca Cola has tasted particularly good. )
Phosphoric acid is very good at dissolving tooth enamel. Just thought i’d point that out. I always drink a bit of water after drinking an acidic drink, to help wash it off my teeth.
Cleaning toilets - just pour a can in, wait half an hour then flush. Comes up sparkling; and …
If you inadvertantly iron something at too high a heat, and end up with sticky goo all over the iron (we’ve all done it, haven’t we ) just rest the iron (footplate down) in a very shallow bowl of coke for half an hour, and it’ll peel off a treat.
I found some links describing the yellow cap - Kosher for Passover connection. From here, about midway down:
Several other sites agree with this. So the yellow cap is the most visible sign to look for, but not all yellow-capped bottles of Coke were made using sugar–you need to look closer for the O-U-P symbol.
Also, this site warns that the K-in-a-circle logo does not mean sugar was used:
Why on earth isn’t *corn * Kosher?
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