Products You Recently Tried, Had High Expectations For, And (Dis)liked

Went to Costco last week and decided to try two new products.

One was dill pickle flavoured peanuts. Same price as regular peanuts. I was surprised by how tasty and addictive they were.

Other one was Bubly, a flavoured water made by Pepsi and advertised quite a bit. I drink too much diet soda and thought it might be a healthier switch. It uses natural flavours. It uses so little of them I would be unable to say which flavour it was that I was drinking. That it had added flavour at all. So disappointing.

I’m surprised by how much I like zero-sugar Schweppes ginger ale. It tastes just like the original to me.

Ooh, thanks! I drink diet sodas, and mix drinks with them… except Ginger Ale (the Canada Dry stuff has no flavor at all).

But I’'ll try some Schweppervescence!
(yeah, I’m old, as are the ads in my head)

I like all the lightly flavored seltzers that are popular now, but I had to laugh when I heard them described as like drinking plain seltzer while someone in another room yells, “Lime!”

In the summer, I love to drink plain seltzer over ice with lots of lemon and salt. You could try that with your seltzer.

A while back, people were having fun making fun of LaCroix’s lack of flavor. Here’s an article with some good ones (which I’m sure would apply to Bubly, too):

Also kicking the diet soda habit, I decided to try Hint. If they hadn’t listed the flavor on the bottle, I’d have no idea which flavor I was drinking. Sorry, I need more than a “hint” of flavor.

I can drink unflavoured soda with whiskey. But I object to the only hint of flavour being a brief smell when you open it. If you claim to be whatever, it should taste at least a little like that.

I think LaCroix tastes fine. If you’re expecting it to taste like soda, you wouldn’t like it, but it has enough fruit flavor. It’s a substitute for sparkling water, not for sweetened soda.

Try spindrift brand. They have much more juice, real flavor - still almost zero calories. I think they are way better than LaCroix etc.

I remember many years ago having a diet soft drink of some kind, and being put off by the strongly bitter aftertaste that was typical of artificial sweeteners back in the day. They’ve come a long way, in part by using different sweeteners that balance each other out. Today Coke Zero is my standard pop.

On the “dislike” side, I’m a big fan of spaghetti and other pastas and thought I would try Truff, a supposedly acclaimed truffle-infused pasta sauce. To be fair, I only tried the Arrabbiata (the red label), not the black-label Pomodoro, but they are apparently fairly similar. I did not like it at all. It was too spicy, and the overall flavour was just … odd. I’m going to stick with traditional well-made pasta sauce, with its subtly rich mellow flavour.

Interesting to see such different takes on Bubly (and La Croix). I love them both, and find them to be quite strikingly flavored. La Croix seems to be stronger in flavor than Bubly. I also quite like lime Perrier.

I relatively recently tried some of the newer “zero” sodas.

I like Diet Dr. Pepper; figured I’d like DP Zero, but… no, not really. The originaly DDP is better.

Mt. Dew Zero though is better than Diet Mt. Dew, weirdly enough (and I LOVE Diet Mt. Dew).

This is where the “almost unflavored” waters have made my pandemic bearable. Lacroix Lime with Plantation rum, or Orange with brandy and bitters.

Ooh, the best is Lemon with Woodford Double Oaked Bourbon and a generous splash of Ginger Beer!

Bubly’s fine if it’s cold. It cuts through the bitterness of the seltzer and lets the flavour show up - at least for the strawberry and orange flavours…was never able to get anything but bitter from the lime, and never tried the other flavours.

I’ve stopped using Maruchan Ramen in favor of Vite Ramen. Sure, it costs more, but nutritionally there’s no comparison. And it comes in interesting flavors [I’m still waiting for salmon/seafood]. I prepare it with all sorts of other ingredients.

Ramen got me through my first two years of university. But Costco sells bowls of just-add-water pho’ that are tastier and more convenient.

I’m always amazed at the number of calories in ramen. Canadian stalwart Mr. Noodles came out with a low-fat, hundred calorie ramen which tasted the same (salty!). But Mr. Noodles Skinny is long gone.

As a quick experiment, try adding small amounts of artificial sweetener to these sparkling seltzers. You may find in many cases that the “flavor” suddenly seems stronger for some brands. This would suggest that the waters are not underflavored but your mental expectations/perceptions don’t recognize it because it’s an unfamiliar profile without the sweetness. For some people sugar may cause this effect but not artificial sweeteners. Psychology comprises as much of our “palate” as physiology/genetics/environment.

I’m not suggesting adding sweeteners as a rule (which would defeat the purpose for many people) This is only a one-off test for each flavor. Your expectations can change with continued use. If you WANT to like a flavored water, and avoid sweets, you may come to perceive more and ‘better’ flavor in that beverage over time due to increasing familiarity with its flavor.

I, too, wonder if that’s what it is. I love a lot of the flavored bubblies. They have, in my opinion, plenty of flavor to them without being overbearing. (I am reasonably good at detecting flavors, but I don’t think I have a particularly sharp palate. It’s probably average.) Of the easily found brands, I like the LaCroix Hibiscus and Grapefruit the most. If you’re not used to tasting fruit flavors without the sugar, it can come across as quite muted. Adding a little sweetener should make it more familiar to your taste buds.

Some years back ( about 10 ) I arrived in the hotel room I booked and found it had one of those ‘Sleep Number’ beds.

I thought “cool!” but when it came time to prepare retire for the night, 15 minutes of fiddling around with the settings seemed to produce not even a fraction of the supposed superiority of comfort the hype touted. Oh, it wasn’t uncomfortable and I did sleep well enough, but my initial “coo!” reaction gave way to a pragmatic “meh”.

Decades ago, before all the kids rediscovered it, in California Calistoga Water offered sparking mineral water in 250ml bottles with “flavors,” mostly citrus. We called it lemon-scented water.

Mine’s that Dawn Powerwash Dish Spray. The commercials make it out like it’s some sort of magic product that dissolves the crud straight off of dishes without any effort on your part.

Not so much… it’s just basically dilute dish soap you spray on, then wash. It’s not better than soaking the same dishes in hot soapy water, or than putting a little of the usual kind on the sponge and washing them the old way.