Okay, so what was the brand X cola tested ungainst diet coke in your recent column on 8/27/04? I know I’m not the only person who’s bothered physically by the effects of nutra-sweet. Unfortunately i like the taste of diet pop over regular so I drink it anyway. I used to drink the Coke product called Tab, still do when I can afford it, and I definately prefer the taste of it over the other stuff! It’s the only product out that I know of that still uses saccharin. It never seems to give me the side effects that nutra-sweet does. Coke has tried to phase it out the last ten years or so but there is still a loyal following that drinks it. In our area I have to beat someone else to the stores when there is a sale on!
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, beatyruth, we’re glad to have you with us.
When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column that you’re talking about. Yeah, it’s on the front page now, but in a few days it will sink into the oblivion of the Archives and require searching to find it.
In this case, I presume, it’s My Nutrasweetened soft drinks make huge mounds of foam! What gives?
I also want to point out that this is a “classic” column that was first published in 1985, so there may have been significant changes in the sweetener industry since then. Plus, I suspect that Cecil wouldn’t remember what he tasted 20 years ago.
My wife has the same problem with after-taste with any of the artificial sweeteners, but the new product Splenda doesn’t seem to bother her as much.
Fixed link here.
Oooh… I get to be all liquid papery on the admins.
On a related topic, does anyone know why the foam lasts so much longer in the presence of ice cream? I mean, if you combine ice cream with your favorite fizzy beverage, be it Coke, Pepsi, beer (don’t ask!), you get this huge head which refuses to go away. It’s like insulating foam or something.
Is it something to do with the milk or the sugar or is it just the universe trying to tell us that we really do need the “big cup” to make floats in?
Coke hasn’t “tried to phase it out”, it’s just become much less popular, partly because of various saccharine scares comparable to those involving aspartame now (by the way, I think there’s usually a thread about aspartame’s supposed “side effects” usually raging on GD, so if that’s what you’re looking for…).
I’ll bet that it was, indeed, Tab that was tested (though The Master Himself would have to confirm). The thing is, though Tab is produced by the Coca-Cola Company, it is not a direct analogue of Coke. Diet Coke has only minor alterations in the flavor spectrum, mostly to compensate for the change in sweetener. Tab is a different formulation. I think the death knell for direct saccharine analogues was Pepsi, in about 1983: safely before the date of the article.
Let me point out that TaB DOES contain aspartame; it’s listed on the label. Saccharine is listed as well (and first), but the aspartame is definitely there. I’m a TaB lover myself, but I’m under no illusions as to the ingredients. (I have my mother in law ship me cases of the stuff from Indiana; it’s becoming a bit difficult to find here, though not outright impossible.)
The TaB we have today is not the original formulation as far as the sweeteners go. According to TaB Soda Web , the stuff was originally sweetened with saccharin and cyclamates. Nutrasweet was introduced into the blend in 1984.
There are other sodas out there that use this sweetener blend - last I looked, IBC Diet Rootbeer was also using a saccharin/aspartame mix.
Gytha, TaBaddict
I’m sure the Perfect Master wouldn’t have called Tab a Brand-X soda. I suspect it was one of the store brands. And yes, Tab started with just saccharine. In the mid-60s I used to drink it and like it, since it didn’t have the aftertaste.
As for the Nutrasweet after taste: I was at a class once, with someone from the company that makes Nutrasweet. At lunch one day she gave the company line that there is no aftertaste. The other seven people at the table disagreed. An unscientific poll, true.
I remember the first time I drank Tab was from a bottle. It cost two cents more than coke or 7up. We first noticed it in the local washerette when we went to play the jukebox. Who was redhot then: T H E B E A T L E S !!!
Tab was my alltime favorite diet soft drink. Can’t find this in Hawaii currently. Next came Fresca, one of the first to use cyclamates. When cyclamates were banned, they had to reformulate. The current incarnation comes closest to the original. After this came DietRite cola. It’s nice to see it come back to the market here. Diet 7up and diet Dr. Pepper, I think come closest to their nondiet relatives. My current obsession: Diet Coke with Lime - somehow it eclipsed my love for Diet Coke with lemon(no not Diet Coke with Lemon, I mean real lemon). :eek: 