Europe ruined soda

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French person here. I never drink soda in France. I drink Perrier-menthe, or similar, if I'm not drinking water or coffee, although I do have lovely memories of Orangina, mainly due to the old ditty associated with it, and the fun round glass bottle.

Here in the US when I drink soda it's Coke, regular. Pepsi is gross everywhere, and diet anything is never good.

when I traveled around Europe, I lived on Orangina and water, but man those tiny bottles are expensive, pricier than a glass of wine. I don't drink.

[Anonymous]

I can't stand Pepsi of any kind and only drink real Coke with a lot of ice. I wouldn't do well in Europe apparently, although I often just get lemonade or iced tea, would they put some ice in that for me in Europe or do they actually not have any ice in restaurants? I'm poor so I've never been there.

[Anonymous]

You can get Coke Zero in Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would you ever ask for a Pepsi anywhere?

Honestly Pepsi needs to go away. Agree that it’s gross everywhere. Who drinks it?!

Me. Pepsi>coke

Cherry 🍒 Pepsi trumps all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To answer some questions …. One family member doesn’t drink coffeee and was having trouble with jet lag so got a Pepsi at a museum cafe. They did not have Coke. But when I googled, it appears Coke does not have the same issue.

And I have such fond memories of drinking Fanta Limon in Europe — it’s honestly was my favorite soda and used to be quite popular in Europe, especially Spain. I drink wine but only 1-2 glasses a day and a lemon Fanta is perfect on a hot day. Really sad that it is now so gross. It also seems so pointless — I drink maybe a couple dozen sodas in a year. That’s not the sugar that’s going to kill me. I also always liked that the European sodas used real sugar and not HFCS. Anyway, I did want to warn people. Next time we go to Europe, I may just bring caffeine pills for my non coffee drinkers.

Just don’t go to Europe anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't drink soda often, but were in Europe recently and got a pepsi. It tasted gross -- like diet pepsi, so I checked the ingredient list. It had sugar, but also sucralose. After googling a bit, I learned that the soda companies were under EU pressure to reduce the sugar in their sodas, so replaced about 20% of the sugar with sucralose. It's so disgusting! I'd rather drink 20% less soda, than have 20% of the sugar replaced with a gross chemical. Or maybe they could just make it with less sugar, and it would probably still be sweet enough? I was also excited to drink Lemon Fanta again -- it's really impossible to find in the US. But sadly, I could only find sugar-free Lemon Fanta anywhere that I looked. (It was gross, but actually not as gross as the Pepsi, because it turns out that lemon covers the sucralose taste better.)

Normally I think the EU food regulations are so much better than America, but they really dropped the ball on this one. Just say no to sucralose, Europe!!!

+1000

It’s revolting. We’re in the UK often to visit family, and I won’t let my kids drink it. Most juices (especially those marketed to kids) have this as well.

Yes! The fake sugar in juice thing! Juice isn’t good for you but adding fake sugar—now that’s dumb.

Why is it dumb?

NP. Also because you’re feeding artificial sugar to kids—potentially cancer causing.

[Anonymous]

But their Fanta is way better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand Pepsi of any kind and only drink real Coke with a lot of ice. I wouldn't do well in Europe apparently, although I often just get lemonade or iced tea, would they put some ice in that for me in Europe or do they actually not have any ice in restaurants? I'm poor so I've never been there.

Many restaurants don’t have ice, but even if they do, they might not put it in your drink. Or if they’re unusually nice, they’ll put like one piece of ice in.

The idea of ice-cold drinks is a very American thing. They also don’t put ice in their water usually, even at restaurants. They just drink a lot of room temperature drinks. Often they don’t even store sodas in refrigerators, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand Pepsi of any kind and only drink real Coke with a lot of ice. I wouldn't do well in Europe apparently, although I often just get lemonade or iced tea, would they put some ice in that for me in Europe or do they actually not have any ice in restaurants? I'm poor so I've never been there.

If you ask for ice in tea in Europe they will probably kick you out of the cafe.

"lemonade" in Europe = sprite of some kind.

Go with Orangina, or ginger ale if they have it. Or Fanta limon.

[Anonymous]

No one drinks Pepsi in Europe. You should have ordered a Coca Cola.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Thank you for saying it! I also find this infuriating. The problem extends to mass market packaged baked goods and sweets. This law has turned all these items into fake sugar crap, destroying the taste. You basically have to go to artisanal bakeries, which are exempt from the low sugar laws, to get anything that tastes halfway decent.

Do you live there? I can't imagine visiting Europe and buying mass produced baked goods. Eating at bakeries and cafes (lol "artisanal bakeries") is one of my favorite things about traveling in Europe -- so much more plentiful than in the US with so many items common there that can be hard to find here. And every country has their own speciality baked goods, it's fun to try the different kinds (I'm actually a bit more fond of Danish and Austrian bakeries than French, though I wouldn't turn down a pain au chocolate from a Paris bakery right this second.

You'd be surprised by how many French bakeries are actually selling mass produced baked goods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one drinks Pepsi in Europe. You should have ordered a Coca Cola.

As noted above the museum cafe only had Pepsi no coke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: But their Fanta is way better.

It used to be. Now it’s got sucralose. I think you need Latin America to find the good Fanta now.

[Anonymous]

Was just in Europe. Exclusively drank cappuccinos, sparkling water and red wine. Best week of my life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand Pepsi of any kind and only drink real Coke with a lot of ice. I wouldn't do well in Europe apparently, although I often just get lemonade or iced tea, would they put some ice in that for me in Europe or do they actually not have any ice in restaurants? I'm poor so I've never been there.

Many restaurants don’t have ice, but even if they do, they might not put it in your drink. Or if they’re unusually nice, they’ll put like one piece of ice in.

The idea of ice-cold drinks is a very American thing. They also don’t put ice in their water usually, even at restaurants. They just drink a lot of room temperature drinks. Often they don’t even store sodas in refrigerators, either.

Ok, that's it then. Europe is now off my bucket list.