Sweet tea & Coca Cola...How far from the south is it served?

[The Nature Boy]

Coke is ubiquitous.

Sweet tea is available at any McDonald's, which is ubiquitous.

Yeah, but sweet tea at McDonald's is like a hamburger at McDonalds. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's "meh". One could do so much better.

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

Starbucks, by comparison, has ok iced coffee, but if you take their default, a large is sweetened with ten teaspoons of sugar!  That much sugar in anything is disgusting, in my opinion.  I sweeten my own, with three or four teaspoons, and to me that's just right.

I agree. For some reason, it's in vogue down South to virtually dump a bucket of sugar into sweet tea and I've never understood it. If I wanted that much sugar, I'd take a cup of water and put sugar in it. Too much sugar completely dilutes the taste of the tea.

I do like my coffee sweetened though and the only place I've found that seems to understand how to get the proper amount of sugar in is Dunkin.

[Pete from Boston]

Coke is ubiquitous.

Sweet tea is available at any McDonald's, which is ubiquitous.

Yeah, but sweet tea at McDonald's is like a hamburger at McDonalds. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's "meh". One could do so much better.

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

Starbucks, by comparison, has ok iced coffee, but if you take their default, a large is sweetened with ten teaspoons of sugar!  That much sugar in anything is disgusting, in my opinion.  I sweeten my own, with three or four teaspoons, and to me that's just right.

I agree. For some reason, it's in vogue down South to virtually dump a bucket of sugar into sweet tea and I've never understood it. If I wanted that much sugar, I'd take a cup of water and put sugar in it. Too much sugar completely dilutes the taste of the tea.

I do like my coffee sweetened though and the only place I've found that seems to understand how to get the proper amount of sugar in is Dunkin.

Now if Dunkin' could just add a little more coffee to their water...

[cjk374]

Coke is ubiquitous.

Sweet tea is available at any McDonald's, which is ubiquitous.

Yeah, but sweet tea at McDonald's is like a hamburger at McDonalds. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's "meh". One could do so much better.

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

Starbucks, by comparison, has ok iced coffee, but if you take their default, a large is sweetened with ten teaspoons of sugar!  That much sugar in anything is disgusting, in my opinion.  I sweeten my own, with three or four teaspoons, and to me that's just right.

I agree. For some reason, it's in vogue down South to virtually dump a bucket of sugar into sweet tea and I've never understood it. If I wanted that much sugar, I'd take a cup of water and put sugar in it. Too much sugar completely dilutes the taste of the tea.

I do like my coffee sweetened though and the only place I've found that seems to understand how to get the proper amount of sugar in is Dunkin.

I agree that alot of places down here put WAY too much sugar in their tea. When I make it at home, I put 1 scant cup of sugar in 1 gallon of tea. Anymore than that is too much sugar.

[english si]

Even 7oz is a lot of sugar for 8 pints! I guess it's only a bit over 2.6 tsp per cup, but that's into 'brown sugar water' territory unless you brew the tea strong.

[cjk374]

Even 7oz is a lot of sugar for 8 pints! I guess it's only a bit over 2.6 tsp per cup, but that's into 'brown sugar water' territory unless you brew the tea strong.

I use 3 family-sized bags of Lepton decaf tea.

[The Nature Boy]

Coke is ubiquitous.

Sweet tea is available at any McDonald's, which is ubiquitous.

Yeah, but sweet tea at McDonald's is like a hamburger at McDonalds. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's "meh". One could do so much better.

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

Starbucks, by comparison, has ok iced coffee, but if you take their default, a large is sweetened with ten teaspoons of sugar!  That much sugar in anything is disgusting, in my opinion.  I sweeten my own, with three or four teaspoons, and to me that's just right.

I agree. For some reason, it's in vogue down South to virtually dump a bucket of sugar into sweet tea and I've never understood it. If I wanted that much sugar, I'd take a cup of water and put sugar in it. Too much sugar completely dilutes the taste of the tea.

I do like my coffee sweetened though and the only place I've found that seems to understand how to get the proper amount of sugar in is Dunkin.

Now if Dunkin' could just add a little more coffee to their water...

Eh. Dunkin is better than Starbucks and Tim Horton's. For a chain, it's not terrible.

I still remember stopping for coffee on the New York Thruway and getting a Tim Horton's coffee. Worst cup of coffee I've ever had in my entire life.

[Pete from Boston]

Coke is ubiquitous.

Sweet tea is available at any McDonald's, which is ubiquitous.

Yeah, but sweet tea at McDonald's is like a hamburger at McDonalds. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's "meh". One could do so much better.

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

Starbucks, by comparison, has ok iced coffee, but if you take their default, a large is sweetened with ten teaspoons of sugar!  That much sugar in anything is disgusting, in my opinion.  I sweeten my own, with three or four teaspoons, and to me that's just right.

I agree. For some reason, it's in vogue down South to virtually dump a bucket of sugar into sweet tea and I've never understood it. If I wanted that much sugar, I'd take a cup of water and put sugar in it. Too much sugar completely dilutes the taste of the tea.

I do like my coffee sweetened though and the only place I've found that seems to understand how to get the proper amount of sugar in is Dunkin.

Now if Dunkin' could just add a little more coffee to their water...

Eh. Dunkin is better than Starbucks and Tim Horton's. For a chain, it's not terrible.

I still remember stopping for coffee on the New York Thruway and getting a Tim Horton's coffee. Worst cup of coffee I've ever had in my entire life.

I'm much less picky than some people about what my coffee tastes like, but Dunkin' Donuts's coffee is weak, as in it does not contain enough actual coffee compared to even what I get at a random corner store, meaning a) I'm getting charged for extra water and less coffee, and b) I have to drink an unusually large amount of it to feel like I had a cup of coffee.

[Scott5114]

What I don't understand is, isn't the unsweetened tea and sugar that McDonald's has enough to make your sweet tea just how you like it?

I'm not a sweet tea person, but as I understand it, the sugar doesn't mix correctly with the tea if the tea isn't hot when the sugar is added.

[noelbotevera]

Ah, the cola wars....


Getting back to tea, I consume quite a bit of the stuff.  I'm in a vehicle for work all the time and I like to have something to sip on throughout the day.  Water is way too bland of course.  And chugging sugary sodas all day is a fast way to diabetes.  "Diet" beverages all taste like ass to me.  The sweetness hits the tongue wrong and ruins the flavor.  They make those 'sparkling waters' but the effervescence and the flavor without the sweetness is off-putting for me. Everything else is loaded with sugar.  Way too much for something I want to consume a lot of.

Then I found I liked drinking unsweetened ice tea.  And the best one for me is the Lipton stuff in the square bottles.  I think it's because they put citric acid in it and that tarts it up just a little.  So I go through lots and lots of it and get bummed out when I pit stop at a gas station that doesn't stock it.
I'd make my own, but that's just not convenient for me when I'm living out of hotels.  So Lipton it is.

Someone said Lipton is British?  Maybe at one point, but that's been a Pepsico brand for a long time now.

Trust me, I ADORE sodas. I drink a lot of the stuff, but if they serve apple juice, chocolate milk, or energy drinks, I'll lean towards the healthier kind.

[thenetwork]

I remember back in the 70s, when Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola, was the 3rd cola name in the cola wars.  Yeah, they were never close to Pepsi & Coke to be a real threat to be #2, but there was a lot of radio and TV advertising for RC back in the days in the Midwest, a lot of corner stores had RC Cola signs above their entrances and I can still remember there were quite a few RC Cola-branded vending machines.

Nowadays, RC Cola is nothing but a vanity flavor that may have one slot in the darkened corner of your local beverage cooler, if at all.  Same goes for it's sister flavor, Diet Rite Cola.

[doorknob60]

Up here, Coke and Pepsi have somewhere around maybe a 50-50 or 60-40 split. Somewhere in that ball park. Down in Costa Rica, everything was 90+% Coke. You could find Coke everywhere. Fanta was probably the second most common soda. Sprite, Fresca and Ginger Ale also weren't too hard to find. Pepsi was somewhat common in stores, though I don't think any restaurant I went to had it (though I did notice Burger King I believe had Pepsi, which was weird because they serve Coke in the US; I didn't actually go to BK though). 7 up also was fairly common in stores. I didn't see any Mountain Dew down there. I also don't remember if I saw any Dr. Pepper.

[dfwmapper]

I remember back in the 70s, when Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola, was the 3rd cola name in the cola wars.  Yeah, they were never close to Pepsi & Coke to be a real threat to be #2, but there was a lot of radio and TV advertising for RC back in the days in the Midwest, a lot of corner stores had RC Cola signs above their entrances and I can still remember there were quite a few RC Cola-branded vending machines.

Nowadays, RC Cola is nothing but a vanity flavor that may have one slot in the darkened corner of your local beverage cooler, if at all.  Same goes for it's sister flavor, Diet Rite Cola.

Around here, Dr. Pepper products (including RC) get equal billing on grocery store shelves with Coke and Pepsi.

[hbelkins]

Dr Pepper is distributed by Pepsi in my area.

RC Cola used to be very popular in this region of Kentucky, because we had bottlers and distributors in this area. It's not quite as popular these days.

[Big John]

Odd thing here is that Dr Pepper is available as a fountain drink whether it is from a Coke machine or a Pepsi machine.

[cl94]

Odd thing here is that Dr Pepper is available as a fountain drink whether it is from a Coke machine or a Pepsi machine.

Same in Buffalo. Almost everywhere carries Dr Pepper. Some Coke restaurants (mostly Five Guys) carry Pibb and bottles are Pibb, but fountain soda is almost exclusively Dr Pepper.

As far as Coke/Pepsi goes, I, along with most of my friends, have a strong preference toward Coke. As far as personal consumption goes, Coke is probably bigger around here, partially because they make a big deal about every Coke product sold in the area being bottled in Buffalo and this area is really big on local products. The stuff carried by restaurants around here is quite interesting. Of the locally/regionally owned chains, Anderson's, Mighty Taco, and Duff's are Pepsi, but DiBella's and Ted's Hot Dogs are Coke.

[briantroutman]

RC Cola used to be very popular in this region of Kentucky, because we had bottlers and distributors in this area. It's not quite as popular these days.

Even though The Coca-Cola Company is based in Atlanta, and both Coke and Pepsi are popular worldwide, doesn't RC have a special place in southern culture? "An RC and a Moon Pie"  and all that...?

Growing up in PA, I knew people who quietly regarded RC as superior to Coke and Pepsi–sort of like the outsider watching a tooth-and-nail PC vs. Mac fight and strolls by, saying "Personally, I'm happy with my Amiga."

Pepsi has a slight edge in north-central PA because of the presence of a very large and aggressive Pepsi bottler in Williamsport, and there's a roadgeek connection to it. For years, that company was Confair Bottling, founded by Zehnder H. Confair, who later became a state senator and president of the Keystone Shortway Association–and for whom I-80 in Pennsylvania (the Z.H. Confair Memorial Highway) is named.

[SP Cook]

Personally I find Pepsi to be vile.  I don't really care for cold tea either.

- In North America, Coke has had a slight lead over Pepsi for decades. It is like 55-45 and has been for a long time.  However, internationally is a different story, Coke has a massive lead in most of the world.  Some places close to 90-10.  One exception is Arabia, due to market presence when Pepsi joined the Arab boycott and did business there, while Coke did business in Israel.  Pepsi has kept the lead even though the boycott ended in the 90s.

- At the retail level, Dr Pepper (and generally 7 UP) rights belong randomly to Coke, Pepsi, or independent "third tier" bottlers across the country.  I read somewhere that it is about one-third each across the country.  In my area, you can travel 50 miles and be in places where all three situations exist. 

- At the corporate level, Dr Pepper/7 UP is a separate company owning 7 UP in the USA only, and Dr Pepper in the USA and 20 other countries.  In the rest of the world, Dr Pepper belongs to Coke and 7 UP to Pepsi.    RC is similar, belonging to Dr Pepper/7 UP in the USA and a separate company elsewhere. 

- RC is very popular in the Philippines and you see a lot of Philippine immigrants choose it here.

 

[02 Park Ave]

The Mexican CocaCola, available in some stores here, is less bitter than the domestic version.

[jeffandnicole]

I'll go down as one of those shocked as well then. Never even heard of it.

[jeffandnicole]

That said, if you've fallen for the misinformation campaign and think it is Darjeeling (even though it isn't), it's still seems like the guy who asks for ketchup in Gordon Ramsey's restaurant (look it up - its a good strong reaction befitting a reasonable response to such snobbery that they know better than everyone else when it comes to flavour, while not an ideal one) to make an effort to disguise the flavour of the tea.

This reminds me of the time I found some random, small steakhouse that I went to with my wife for Valentine's Day.  We were seated in there, and I remember the owner was running around nervously waiting for the big rush to come in.  After I got my steak, I asked for A-1 Sauce.  The waiter more/less chewed me out for daring to upset the chef, but he got some sort of sauce for me anyway.

The whole time we sat there, no more than 3 tables were occupied.  When I tried looking up the place later in the year, it had closed down.  Maybe they should've been more concerned with getting people in the door than getting upset about a request for steak sauce.

[thenetwork]

Just saw this cross my FB page.  For those of you who remember Crystal Pepsi...

http://www.businessinsider.com/pepsi-might-bring-back-crystal-pepsi-2015-6

[Big John]

Just saw this cross my FB page.  For those of you who remember Crystal Pepsi...

http://www.businessinsider.com/pepsi-might-bring-back-crystal-pepsi-2015-6

Just don't drink the old stuff (3:50 mark)