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The great 'soda' debate

Laura

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Okay all, I know quite a few people here will have been to the states, and we all know nerds like fizzy drinks and 'American soda' (I jest, of course).

I've been having an ongoing row with some friends that Pepsi Throwback is a scam, because it is essentially the same as UK Pepsi made by Britvic except it has a retro can and costs £1.50. The selling point of Throwback is that it contains sugar beet, not high fructose corn syrup. Well the UK version only contains sugar, it doesn't specify what kind, but I am pretty sure sugar beet is the only sugar grown in the UK, so it seems likely it's the same.

Apparently the fact it's made by Britvic means it's inferior, however if this is the case, why do they only sell Pepsi Throwback in American candy shops here and not 'American Pepsi', like they sell 'American Mountain Dew'? I think because it is cool and trendy to have a retro can and people are being conned.

I did some research into this which involved working out the US nutritional info per 100ml for Throwback. The US Pepsi website says the 12fl can (360ml) contains EXACTLY 150kcal and 40g of sugar, which seems really specific to me. Compare this with the nutritional info on UK Pepsi, copied from their website, below:

UK ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Phosphoric Acid, Flavourings (including Caffeine).

Throwback ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Caramel Color, Phosphoric Acid, Caffeine, Natural Flavor

Calories in UK Pepsi per 100ml: 43
Calories in Throwback per 100ml: 41.7

Sugar in UK Pepsi per 100ml: 11g
Sugar in Throwback per 100ml: 13.3g

I don't know if those differences are real, due to the aforementioned distrust in the US website. I don't know much about nutrition but the fact that UK seems to have more calories than Throwback yet less sugar does not make sense to me. I think because the Throwback figures are rounded up, it's making the data look weird.

So could it be the flavourings are different?

I think they taste exactly the same but a few of my friends are insistent that Throwback is much better and go to great expense to import it. As I truly believe it is a scam, I will not pay another £1.50 for a blind taste test.

I understand this thread is ridiculous but I am a ridiculous person frustrated by gullible friends who complain of having no cash, claiming they are 'addicted' to something they can get anywhere in the UK. I even tried posting on /ck/ which is a bastion of junk food knowledge and no one has yet been able to give me a definitive answer.
 
I usually get Pepsi on offer somewhere and drink it. I'd never pay £1.50 unless we are talking a 2l bottle. Is is it a scam? No, but very clever....
 
Not directly compared them one after the other, but Throwback does seem to taste a little different, and it is most likely due to the flavourings (the only bit they don't really break down in the ingredients). Hell, I may be being fooled, but if people are willing to pay that much, then why not sell it :p. As for standard Pepsi from the US, it tends to be the flavoured stuff that's imported in (wild cherry etc) as aside from the hardcore fans, no one really wants to buy a drink that's the same in name as the one they can buy for pennies in the usual shops.

MTN Dew (the US version) isn't sold by a hell of a lot of shops these days. The EU have got a bit uppity about it, and said it doesn't comply to standards I think it's the caffeine content or the colourings more than anything. The stuff you see now is "Mountain Dew" which is actually made in the EU (Poland or Germany I think) and is just based on the US recipe. Naughty!
 
In the Americandy shops they sell 'American' Mountain Dew and 'American' Pepsi Throwback for £1.50 a can, which is 360ml (30ml more than a standard UK can)

I don't personally have a problem but I think my friends are being ripped off, and it's also annoying that they go on about this stuff like it is crack cocaine and they're edgy for having an 'addiction' to it!
 
Well on the plus side, the Mountain Dew is definitely drastically different to the UK one :p
 
UK Mountain Dew is vile. Not even vaguely similar to the US version which is quite nice.
 
I wonder if it's because of the artificial sweeteners in UK pepsi, as well as the sugar?

Doesn't US Mountain Dew have as much caffeine as our Red Bull?

:)
 
According to the label, Pepsi doesn't have sweeteners. It must be the flavourings or the 'brewing' because everything else looks identical to me. My brother claims to be a bit of a 'supertaster' so I'll try doing a blind test...it's going to cost me £1.50...

I think my friends say they are addicted to Throwback because it's not cool to like Mountain Dew since they started selling the knock-off version here. It'd take too long to explain they only like AMERICAN Mountain Dew...much easier to like something easily identifiable as foreign and retro.

Hopefully Tesco start selling it in all their stores and not just in the American section, and this whole Throwback thing will be forgotten...!

Personally I really like Tesco's own brand lemon and lime but they very rarely have it in my store.
 
Saw this today...seems very relevant to this thread:

10527693_735106943202443_2205224436449609075_n.jpg
 
The main problem with all the holier-than-thou water brigade is that water tastes horribly bland. No added sugar squash for me! :p
 
The main problem with all the holier-than-thou water brigade is that water tastes horribly bland. No added sugar squash for me! :p

You're just not used to it! The blandness of water is what makes it the perfect anytime beverage IMO.
 
If you're used to drinking fizzy drinks then obviously water is going to taste bland. If you come from a hot country to live here, you're going to find it cold. Eventually you'll adapt though!
 
Saw this today...seems very relevant to this thread:

10527693_735106943202443_2205224436449609075_n.jpg

Mmmmm sugar! ;)

Can't beat water as a lovely refreshing drink though, I have it with the vast majority of my meals now. Never used to but I can't imagine not now!

:)
 
I'm the same. I used to get through about 4 cans of Irn Bru a day but knew it wasn't doing me any good so decided to stop as part of a New Year resolution. That was at the start of 2012 and now I can't even touch fizzy stuff, it's just too sweet!

That sugar photo is madness! Good old H2O :grinning:

Can someone enlighten me on what Mountain Dew actually tastes like?
 
I used to drink fizzy drinks all the time. Couldn't live without Coke, Pepsi, Lemonade, *insert any other soda here*. I found water to be very bland, who wants to drink something with no taste? Eww.

But the past 6-8 months I've gone from drinking fizzy stuff all the time to now where a fizzy drink is but a rare treat. After drinking water for so long I actually prefer it now to anything else. A cold glass of water feels so refreshing and I feel healthier and cleaner.

It's hard making the transition from sugary drinks to water, but in the long run you get used to it and in the case of myself I'd have water over other drinks any day!
 
The big con right now is Coke reducing all their bottle sizes quite significantly but leaving their prices the same. Cheeky buggers.
 
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