Heck, give me a choice, and I actually prefer RC over the two major brands (or at least, I think I do-- I’ve never done a blind taste test). But rare is the restaurant or bar that offers a choice, and while I have a preference, I’m not picky about it (unless they have good root beer or creme soda, in which case I’m going with that).
They weren’t on tap. The hop water is a Lagunitas product, although others offer it, too. One of the Lagunitas breweries is here in Chicago. I quite like the stuff. I wish it were priced more like the LaCroixs and available in cans, but they just come in 4-packs for about six bucks, I want to say.
The NAs – I know there’s some bars that do have them on tap, but it’s still pretty rare, despite the NA market being a growth sector of the craft brew industry. Lagunitas has a nice IPA called IPNA, which is pretty darn close to a real beer. Athletic Brewing company is another one that is seen at better liquor stores. Brooklyn Brewing has a good one, too. I’ve tried most of the mass market NAs like Heineken, Bud, Pabst, Clausthaler, Krombacher, and I’m not much a fan of any of those. The Clausthaler dry hopped one is okay, though. There’s a British one, Big Drop, that is contract brewed here in Chicago that has a really good stout and IPA. The IPAs, I feel, are pretty easy to do a good NA version of, as you can just load them with hops, and have the background de-alcoholized malt and yeast flavor kind of in the background.
I’d be interested in trying a NA IPA some day, ideally in a blind tasting alongside “real” IPAs. To me, some of the lower alcohol IPAs have a watered down taste.
When I order Coke I expect big fat lines laid out by a large breasted prostitute. Hookers and blow you know. Yes, I would speak to management. 
I have - and no one ever gave me any funny looks. But I’ve never done it in what I would call an “old man bar”, where there is really nothing to do but drink. No food except stale pretzels , maybe a single small TV showing a game for entertainment but that’s it . Bartenders in those places might look at me funny if I order a soda - but they’d also probably look at me funny if I ordered wine.
I don’t drink, so I have. Never gotten a weird look.
The bars that have been hangouts for me over the decades in which I’ve been old enough to drink (or which have employed me) were always just bars. Not restaurants that happen to have a bar. None of them served food at all.
So that’s the kind of place I’m thinking of.
For various reasons, at various times, I’ve ordered non-alcoholic drinks (club soda for me, but to each their own). Never got as much as a second look from the bartender.
At least in the places I’ve frequented, nobody gave a shit what I drank.
At a restaurant:
Me: Diet Coke.
Server: Diet Pepsi OK?
Me: Even better.
At a bar:
Me: Rum and Diet.
Or at a bar:
Me: Diet Coke.
Bartender starts pouring Jack or rum.
Me: No, not Jack And Coke! DIET Coke!
I went over to Tchotchskie’s instead.
Tripler
I know we’re mixing movies here, but I was nowhere near that fire.
wow, ignorance fought. I have never heard of any of these.
I wonder if it is a roestigraben thing… I’ll check my local stores (Canton de Vaud) and see if I can find them.
Cocaine was taken out of the recipe around the turn of the 20th century, so they wouldn’t have been able to detect that post-WWII.
The aromatic oils and spices in Coke and Pepsi differ somewhat, but I think the main distinction is that Pepsi is (or at least was) made with pepsin, hence the name of the product. I would think that was easily detectable.
(I suppose other colas differ in a similar manner.)
Chromatography apparently dates to the 1940s; gas chromatography, to the early '50s. I don’t know how such analyses were performed before WWII.
Actually, come to think of it, it’s even simpler yet. All you need is a pH test, because almost no food or beverage product, at all, has a pH as low as Coca-Cola. And yes, that includes vinegar and lemon juice.
Unless your bartender is cutting its off-brand cola with toilet bowl cleaner, you’d be able to tell the difference.
As an aside, I’m learning a lot about the American food industry (including Coke and Pepsi) watching this documentary series on the History Channel. I hope others here are watching it too, because it’s really good!
This interested me; of course, I had always heard it as well, but it has been one of those things “everybody knows” since I was a kid. So I checked!
pH Of Drinks - American Dental Association
Only two things beat Coca-Cola: lemon juice apparently IS more acidic (2.25 vs. Coke’s 2.38) and, surprisingly, RC Cola (2.32). Vinegar apparently clocks in at 2.5.
Hm, according to that link, while Coke is indeed more acidic than most other beverages, Pepsi is actually very nearly as much so, with the difference between the two being smaller than the standard deviation on either. And looking at various other cites, I’m seeing a much wider variation yet in numbers (I suspect due to inconsistencies in how the syrup is mixed with the carbonated water), some of which do put Coke at more acidic than lemon juice. I also see that, contrary to what I had thought, both Pepsi and RC also contain phosphoric acid.
OK, I learned a few things.
Fritz Kola, plus their other products, is only sold at Manor and Globus, I think, plus beverage centers. I’ve never seen it at Coop or Migros. We buy most of our beverages in returnable bottles at a beverage center, so we don’t usually buy beverages in the grocery store.
I think designated drivers getting free beverages is not very common in Switzerland. Of course, there’s plenty of public transportation, so it’s usually not necessary to drive when going out. For New Year’s Eve there’s even a free taxi service, anything to keep people from driving drunk.
I think I’m the only person who, if given a rum and coke, will ask for more coke. I’m not a fan or rum, and rarely even have any in the house.