Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined topic chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-first day of the month is "Decision."
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Last month, I told all of you about our Pepsi, Coke, and RC Cola cage match in which Coke fared really badly.
This month, let me tell you all about our lemon lime soda breakdown. We had Sprite, 7Up, and Starry, which is the replacement for Sierra Mist. Now, I have not had any of these sodas in years, so I knew I would not be able to identify them, but Dr. BB was confident that he'd be able to identify Sprite. We bought Starry at our regular grocery store, I found Sprite at Walgreen's, and 7Up at a vending machine.
Dr. BB was able to identify Sprite and he preferred it to the others, although he also thought Starry was okay. He said that the 7Up tasted flat and gross.
I wasn't able to identify any of them, but I liked Starry a lot, thought the Sprite was fine, and also though that the 7Up tasted flat and gross.
Bummer for 7Up. I have fond memories of it from when I was a child and sick. But yay for Starry! It's definitely a contender in the lemon lime soda sector.
What should our next blind test be? Diet Pepsi versus Diet Coke? Hm.
I never heard of Starry or Sierra Mist until I heard Food News! I haven't had a soda (feels weird to say "soda" because I've always said "pop") for ages so I would not be able to tell one from another I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI say pop, too. Midwesterners are just wannabe Canadians!
DeleteI have not had any of those in a very long time (well Starry obviously is new, so I have never had it) and would probably not be able to tell them apart at all. Our family was not a soda family and I am still not a soda person. I know some people are team Pepsi or team Coke, but I am team water or iced tea and couldn't care less what brown soda is given to me if I have to drink one.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you are a drinker, but I have heard some interesting podcasts about wine blind tasting. Usually they take a guy who says that he would never drink two buck Chuck because he has a refined palate and only likes the good stuff, but it is really funny that they often choose the wrong one, ie the cheap stuff! I am not sure that I would be able to tell between a $5, a $30 and a $50 bottle myself. However, since they are expensive, maybe this is a taste test you need to do at a dinner, so you don't waste any of it!
I, famously, am not a drinker of alcohol. I imagine I would be just as fooled by the different varieties/price points of wine as I was by the pop!
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I read your post and my new suggestion would be any brand name item vs a Kirkland or other store name item. I have found that Kirkland products are quite good and I think that paying full price for a brand name is usually not warranted, but perhaps some blind testing is needed!
DeleteRe drinking, I did read a different post of yours too where you mentioned it; sorry that I forgot! I have had multiple conversations about this with people because I also drink very little (maybe a glass of wine once every few months), but it is interesting to me how many of my friends will actually also get a non-alcoholic drink when we are together or will just have one (not seven) drink. I don't know what age group you are in, but most of my friends are in their 40s/50s and I feel that people have matured a little and that my 20 year old friends were less forgiving about someone not drinking.
I think I could write a whole post about this -- I had a friend who was in the restaurant industry (a GM) and he said that he would go to the bar early and pay off the bartender to give him soda water with lime when he ordered vodka sodas. That way he could appear to be drinking but still keep his head (a lot of times they would be doing business deals). I thought that was kind of shady, BUT he would not have had any credibility in that business world if they had known he was drinking water.
Interesting that 7 Up did so badly! But it's good to know- my daughter is a Sprite fan. I won't be tempted to replace it with 7 Up. I think your next taste test should be between diet Pepsi, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. I would be interested to hear if Coke Zero really is superior.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to try to get Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, and Caffeine Free Diet Coke and do it myself. I am pretty sure I will pick Diet Coke, but I'm not entirely confident.
DeleteThis reminds me that I *meant* to do the cola test with fam and never did... D'oh. I've never heard of Starry, and wonder if it's a WI thing.
ReplyDeleteStarry is Pepsi's lemon-lime drink that is replacing the recently discontinued Sierra Mist. It's definitely a national rollout for Starry, but we saw 2 liters on sale for 2 for 50 cents (!) at the warehouse grocery store where we shop, so I don't think the rollout is going well.
DeleteI just love that you two do this. So fun. How can I try to translate this into something that will make my child want to try new foods... Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteI can never remember if I prefer 7Up or Sprite. Do you remember Slice? I feel like that was another version but haven't seen it in years.
For next time, if your husband is okay with doing a taste test vs. an identification test, what about fancy rootbeers vs. A&W and Barqs? Does he drink milk? What about soy vs. almond vs. macademia nut? That would be a fun test, I think. Maybe an expensive one, though.
Slice! I do remember it, but I haven't seen it in a long time. According to Wikipedia, it was Pepsi's lemon-lime drink pre-Sierra Mist. So, basically, Pepsi has been trying to compete with Sprite for decades at this point!
DeleteI think next month I'm going to do diet colas, but maybe in June I'll try to get root beers. Not a lot of them are gluten-free, so it might just be me who tries those.
I wonder if the 7Up was past its expiration date. Did you check? Sometimes vending machines aren't the best places for drinks. (Not that I'm a 7Up fan; I don't drink soda.)
ReplyDeleteNext up can be ginger ales. There certainly seem to be several of those, at least around here.
It was not past its expiration date, but maybe it had just lost its fizz through the jostling of getting in and out of the vending machine. Too bad for 7Up, though. I'll probably never buy it again!
DeleteI like Sprite because I like its name. I feel it empowers me! I'm with Nance, how about doing ginger ales next?
ReplyDeleteI don't actually like ginger ale much. It has too many associations with being sick for me. I'll have to do some research on which brands are gluten-free, but maybe I'll do it someday.
DeleteI haven't had a lemon lime drink in a long time! I used to love Sierra Mist, so I'm glad you enjoyed Starry. This was a lot of fun! I'm not a fan of diet colas, so I'll go with regular cola for your next taste test.
ReplyDeleteI did regular colas last month! Coke is gross!
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As always, I am in the dark on these things and have only every heard of 7-Up (which I've never loved; more a root beer/cola gal myself). But I think this is such a fun experiment and I know our kids would LOVE this...
ReplyDeleteAnd I also hate ginger ale. I had it once when I was sick and - ick. I've never liked it since...
I lie...of course I've heard of Sprite too?! But never Starry, that's for sure!
DeleteI tried to remember the last time that I had a sprite or a 7Up and my brain exploded. It just can't crank that far back. I'm going to go for Team Sprite, since that's the preferred lemon lime soda of my stepkids (what the cool kids drink nowadays).
ReplyDeleteYes, it had been quite some time for me. They're all really sweet is all I can say.
DeleteI am enjoying your adventures in taste testing immensely. What about ginger ale? My father in law was definitely a Seagrams person. My Husband too - says it tastes the most ginger-y I was Canada Dry fan, but really I'll drink any ginger ale.
ReplyDeleteOh and orange Soda. I didn't compute that there were a few different orange sodas until I went to buy some for my 11 year old's sleepover and came back with Sunkist and my Husband said, "Where's the Crush?"
I do not care for ginger ale or orange soda very much. We were a Sunkist family growing up, though, and I don't know if I've ever actually had Crush!
DeleteThis is so interesting! I still need to do the Coke vs Pepsi taste test with the family. I don't think I would be able to tell the difference between Sprite/7-Up/Starry!
ReplyDeleteI think you would be able to taste 7-Up. It's very different from the other two!
DeleteI have never heard of Starry! I have fond 7 UP memories too. I think a bland taste test of cherry flavored colas would be fun!
ReplyDeleteCherry flavored colas is a great suggestion! I'll add it to the list after diet colas and root beers.
DeleteI had never heard of Starry! I do not think I would do well at this blind taste test at all. I'm confident that I can tell pepsi and coke apart but I don't drink these kind of sodas very often at all so I'd struggle. What a fun thing to do, though!
ReplyDeleteI know I'm an outlier as I'm a pop drinker in this corner of the blogosphere. I am pretty darn sure I'd get diet Pepsi vs. Diet Coke. DC is far superior. :) I don't drink regular soda, though, so I'm useless on the other ones. I figure, something has to kill me. I'd rather it be DC, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd be successful at these blind tests, although the cola ones possibly, just don't give me diet drinks. I see a few people have suggested ginger ales which I'm also not a fan of, but love Ginger beer ... spicy and sweet.
ReplyDelete