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Non-Road Boards => Off-Topic => Topic started by: bandit957 on May 24, 2022, 08:40:10 PM

Title: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: bandit957 on May 24, 2022, 08:40:10 PM
Ever get a soft drink at a restaurant that tasted like a postage stamp?

I've heard this problem has expanded to iced tea lately too.

Once in a while, you'll get a soft drink at a restaurant that tastes minty, which it shouldn't.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kphoger on May 24, 2022, 09:03:09 PM
No, but my wife once got a milkshake at Spangles that tasted like soap.  We haven't been back to that Spangles ever since.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: TheHighwayMan3561 on May 24, 2022, 11:35:17 PM
Sometimes you can tell as soon as it comes out of the fountain that the pop is bad, and you can try another pop brand as a backup. Other times, you get the nasty surprise of drinking colored carbonated water that looks normal in every way until you try to drink it.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Max Rockatansky on May 25, 2022, 12:42:42 AM
Can't say I've had a postage stamp flavored shake.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: rickmastfan67 on May 25, 2022, 05:45:41 AM
Quote from: bandit957 on May 24, 2022, 08:40:10 PM
Ever get a soft drink at a restaurant that tasted like a postage stamp?

Are you sure your taste buds aren't fried?

I know locally that I've had no issues at the places I frequent, sans the occasional flavor just running out (thus I swap to something different).
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Dirt Roads on May 25, 2022, 08:49:38 AM
Quote from: bandit957 on May 24, 2022, 08:40:10 PM
Ever get a soft drink at a restaurant that tasted like a postage stamp?

No, but diet sodas that have Aspartame sweetener tend to have a relative short [expiration] date and will become bitter in the soda line.  In the grocery stores, diet sodas are stamped with a "Best Before" date.  I'm assuming that the same is now true in the commercial soda supply side, but there weren't any dates on soda canisters back when I worked for a pizza place back in the early 1980s.  There's been a rumor going around for decades about one of the chemicals that Aspartame breaks down into, but I've yet to see substantive evidence of that happening in the bottle (unless a diet soda is exposed to very high temperatures).  Being from West Virginia, I am prone to being able to detect such substances from a long distance away.   :coffee:
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 10:57:51 AM
What do postage stamps taste like?
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Rothman on May 25, 2022, 10:58:42 AM
Yep, diet sodas taste like chemicals that you aren't supposed to drink to me.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:05:24 AM
Quote from: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 10:57:51 AM
What do postage stamps taste like?

Have you seriously never licked a stamp?

[emoji404] → [emoji394] → [emoji104] → [emoji400]
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: JayhawkCO on May 25, 2022, 11:06:14 AM
It's fun that when I see a particular new topic posted, I don't even have to guess who started it.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 11:07:25 AM
Quote from: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:05:24 AM
Quote from: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 10:57:51 AM
What do postage stamps taste like?

Have you seriously never licked a stamp?

[emoji404] → [emoji394] → [emoji104] → [emoji400]

Uh... no. I've used saliva to seal an envelope a few times, but the only kind of stamps I'm familiar with are self-adhesive.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:13:42 AM
Well, that boils down to our age difference, then.

Quote from: Bob Greene, Chicago Tribune, 26-FEB-2002
Yet one wouldn't want to guess about a matter this important, so I got in touch with the United States Postal Service in Washington, where the postal official who knows the most about lickable and non-lickable stamps -- his name is Don Smeraldi -- was only too happy to help me out ... "It's happened really quickly," Smeraldi told me. "In 1995, just under 20 percent of postage stamps were self-adhesive." ... from the 20 percent share that self-adhesive stamps owned in 1995, the number leapt to over 60 percent in 1996, over 87 percent in 1999, and over 90 percent in 2000.

I was a teenager in the 1990s.  You were... umm, well actually you weren't yet.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 11:26:14 AM
Quote from: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:13:42 AM
I was a teenager in the 1990s.  You were... umm, well actually you weren't yet.

I actually was alive for the last few months of the 1990's (which I'm honored by, BTW), but I don't remember doing any stamp licking.  :-P
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: JayhawkCO on May 25, 2022, 11:26:45 AM
Quote from: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 11:07:25 AM
Quote from: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:05:24 AM
Quote from: webny99 on May 25, 2022, 10:57:51 AM
What do postage stamps taste like?

Have you seriously never licked a stamp?

[emoji404] → [emoji394] → [emoji104] → [emoji400]

Uh... no. I've used saliva to seal an envelope a few times, but the only kind of stamps I'm familiar with are self-adhesive.

It tastes the same as the envelope adhesive basically.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: bandit957 on May 25, 2022, 11:28:51 AM
Back in the '90s, people had to mail stuff more.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: abefroman329 on May 25, 2022, 11:45:14 AM
My brother has said that he doesn't like the Coke Freestyle machines because his drink tastes like every other drink the machine offers, but since I'm mixing two or more pops anyway, I don't notice.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: wanderer2575 on May 25, 2022, 11:49:35 AM
The restaurant tastes like a postage stamp?
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kphoger on May 25, 2022, 11:54:53 AM
Quote from: wanderer2575 on May 25, 2022, 11:49:35 AM
The restaurant tastes like a postage stamp?

He could have written 'Soft drinks tasting like postage stamps in restaurants' instead.  Then you'd be wondering why stamps taste different in restaurants than elsewhere.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Rothman on May 25, 2022, 12:43:56 PM
The snozzberries taste like postage stamps.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: vdeane on May 25, 2022, 01:00:46 PM
I wonder why self-adhesive envelopes didn't take off the way self-adhesive stamps did.  I always buy them, but most envelopes I mail are birthday cards or the rare bill that I still get by mail rather than online, so that doesn't help much.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Rothman on May 25, 2022, 02:55:53 PM
Quote from: vdeane on May 25, 2022, 01:00:46 PM
I wonder why self-adhesive envelopes didn't take off the way self-adhesive stamps did.  I always buy them, but most envelopes I mail are birthday cards or the rare bill that I still get by mail rather than online, so that doesn't help much.
Larger envelopes did.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: formulanone on May 25, 2022, 03:29:06 PM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on May 25, 2022, 12:42:42 AM
Can't say I've had a postage stamp flavored shake.

Culver's new Nostalgic Flavor of the Day.

I've had a Lenny's Sub in Memphis that tasted faintly of soap, so I've avoided them since.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: bandit957 on May 25, 2022, 03:32:40 PM
Back around 2001, I remember that French fries at fast food restaurants usually tasted a little bit like soap. Apparently, it was some ingredient they started using at the time.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: jeffandnicole on May 25, 2022, 04:24:26 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on May 25, 2022, 03:32:40 PM
Back around 2001, I remember that French fries at fast food restaurants usually tasted a little bit like soap. Apparently, it was some ingredient they started using at the time.

We were at a restaurant recently where the mashed potatoes tasted way off, like there was some sort of metallic taste to them. We told our server who got the manager. The manager wrote it off as it was too much garlic. Now, we arent newborns. We didnt start eating foods yesterday. Wasn't a garlic issue. The server came by later to tell us she ate the mashed potatoes as part of her meal earlier and she thought they tasted off too but they weren't going to listen to her. She hoped us saying something would be taken more seriously.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: Scott5114 on May 25, 2022, 05:11:22 PM
Quote from: vdeane on May 25, 2022, 01:00:46 PM
I wonder why self-adhesive envelopes didn't take off the way self-adhesive stamps did.  I always buy them, but most envelopes I mail are birthday cards or the rare bill that I still get by mail rather than online, so that doesn't help much.

It always seemed to me like self-adhesive envelopes don't stay closed as well as the kind you lick, so I stopped buying them. Plus, unlike with self-adhesive stamps, which are all stuck to a common backing you don't have to deal with until you use all of the stamps, self-adhesive envelopes have that strip you have to throw away on every envelope you use. That seems like it would become a hassle if you had 20 or 30 envelopes you had to send out.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: GaryV on May 26, 2022, 10:52:11 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on May 25, 2022, 05:11:22 PM
self-adhesive envelopes have that strip you have to throw away on every envelope you use. That seems like it would become a hassle if you had 20 or 30 envelopes you had to send out.
Or thousands of envelopes that are machine-stuffed. Like utility bills and bank statements (for those that don't get them via email now).
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: skluth on May 26, 2022, 07:14:00 PM
Quote from: jeffandnicole on May 25, 2022, 04:24:26 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on May 25, 2022, 03:32:40 PM
Back around 2001, I remember that French fries at fast food restaurants usually tasted a little bit like soap. Apparently, it was some ingredient they started using at the time.

We were at a restaurant recently where the mashed potatoes tasted way off, like there was some sort of metallic taste to them. We told our server who got the manager. The manager wrote it off as it was too much garlic. Now, we arent newborns. We didnt start eating foods yesterday. Wasn't a garlic issue. The server came by later to tell us she ate the mashed potatoes as part of her meal earlier and she thought they tasted off too but they weren't going to listen to her. She hoped us saying something would be taken more seriously.

Reminds me of a restaurant in St Louis Westport years ago where they served toasted bread before the meal. The toasted bread had been made with stale bread. When I complained to the manager, he denied it. So I paid for our iced teas and left without ordering.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kphoger on May 26, 2022, 07:24:10 PM
How does this thread have this many posts already?

Oh, wait...  Dang it!
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: hbelkins on May 27, 2022, 07:44:15 PM
It's been a few years ago, but I was really thirsty when I stopped at the Double Kwik in Jackson, Ky. I bought a fountain Diet Coke and it had a funny taste to it.

Somewhat later, I was at another Double Kwik and also got a fountain Diet Coke. It had the exact same taste.

I can't really remember what the taste was, but it was unusual. Maybe it did taste like the adhesive on an old-style postage stamp.
Title: Re: Soft drinks in restaurants tasting like postage stamps
Post by: kkt on May 28, 2022, 10:16:40 PM
I don't know, it's been quite a few years since I got any postage stamps that needed to be licked I hardly remember what they taste like anymore.