Posted on 06/28/2005 6:53:32 PM PDT by quidnunc
Fiends. Fiends! Not even Pottery Barn has had the gall to mail the first Early Late Summer 05 catalog. Well, let's restore our sense of perspective with a true summer topic: summer drinks. I'm not going to do this feature-section style and trot out some fancy recipe that requires mashed mangoes, truffle juice, Spanish sea salt for the rim and Peruvian tequila pressed from Inca mummies. I'm talking about the stuff we buy at Target because it's three bucks for a 12-pack.
Usually I stock up on lemonade and cola, and that's it. But on my last trip I saw an entirely new variant on the Coca-Cola paradigm: a black-and-white can called Coke ZERO. At first, you're wary; what if the can's empty? Can't say they didn't warn you. Then you're happy: finally, something that puts Pepsi One in its place. Hah! You thought you were so cool, with your one-calorie drink, but little did you know that the eggheads at Coke had managed to eliminate even the final, stubborn calorie, the one that always hung on the side of the can and wouldn't let go. You can almost imagine the moment they perfected the formula, and the lone calorie squirted out of the test tube like a watermelon seed expelled by a yokel: ptui! Then they beat it with their shoes. Evil, nasty calorie! You die now!
It's a mystery to me why people drink regular soda, frankly; if you're supposed to consume no more than 2,500 calories a day, it doesn't make sense to take half of them in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. You might as well just implant those jiggly liter bottles in your belly and take the stuff through the stomach lining. Of course, not everyone likes diet soda, because:
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Every time I fill out a comment cart, I add a comment to this effect. Still waiting for it to become the norm (I know of one place where I can get a regular or C/F Diet Coke, but, as a pizza joint, it's particulaly Atkins-friendly...)
In the US, unless it specificly says "Cane Sugar" on the package it is probably beet sugar. They're both sucrose.
Glucose and Fructose (fruit sugar) are monosaccharides. They have the same chemical formula (C6H12O6) but different shapes.
Two monosaccharides combine to form a disaccharide and a water molecule is released. For example, one glucose and one fructose combine to form one sucrose (table sugar). Other disaccharides are lactose(milk sugar) and maltose(precursor to beer).
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Somebody set you up the bomb.
Not likely. All the beet sugar plants in the area I grew up in went out of business long ago. The more productive cane sugar is cheaper to import than beet sugar is to produce domestically. Corn syrup is even cheaper.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
See this article. In part: "To ensure high sugar prices, the Department of Agriculture constrains the supply by designating the overall domestic sugar consumption in advance. FY 2005's allotment is about 8.1 million tons. The 2002 Farm Bill set the foreign import ceiling at 1.53 million tons, but the administration only allowed 1.23 million tons for FY 2005, which is the amount determined by the WTO Uruguay Round Agreement. As Kudlow suggested, CAFTA's 109,000 tons increase is nothing compared to the 300,000 tons the administration could add. The Farm Bill also mandated a fixed proportion between the cane sugar and beet sugar production of 54.35 percent to 45.65 percent, respectively."
In short, domestic beet production is being propped up by subsidies and import controls on foreign cane sugar.
I approach the subject from a culinary standpoint. Either way its not as sweet as a winning lottery ticket.
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Now you're talking. But I just got five 12-packs for five bucks this weekend at Shaws, including a 12-pack of Coke Zero. I like it. Hard to tell the difference between it and Diet Coke, except the initial sip tastes a little bit more like real Coke.
I watched my 16-yr-old nephew down a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi and half a blueberry pie at a family gathering last Thanksgiving. You might be surprised that he's a fat pig.
I hope he will shape up some day. I can't believe that schools now allow vending machines on the premises, but I suppose they make some money from it.
I tried the Diet Coke with Splenda recently. (It was on sale, and I had a coupon, so it came out free.) It wasn't bad, but I still like the regular diet Coke better. Have you ever noticed that the caffeine-free stuff doesn't seem to have as much carbonation?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.