The Soda Situation - Succulent Drinks w/o the Sweets?

Ticron asks: "Like most of you, my job and lifestyle revolves around drinking lots and lots of caffeine - usually in the form of soda. I've been trying to cut back on my sugar intake lately, and am interested in what some of you drink that isn't loaded down with the sweet stuff. Diet drinks have little to no flavor, and fruit punches have almost (sometimes more!) sugar than sodas themselves. Is there anything out there that maintains the convenience of a canned drink, but without all the sugar?"

Comments

Re:Coffee?

[hazem]

I'm fortunate that my company provides free tea and coffee. I don't drink much coffee, but I'm a tea-fiend. I have a liter lexan (Nalgene) bottle and I put 1 "english breakfast" and 1 "earl grey" tea bag in, and pour in about 1/5 liter of boiling water (out of the coffee pot - it has a bypass spigot).

Let that sit for a couple minutes, put in a spoon of sugar, fill to 4/5ths full with water and top with ice. A great refreshing caffeinated drink. The sugar's not necessary, but it's a small amount and gives it just the right flavor.

I save tons on the soda I would normally buy.

Soda Club homemade soda

[KingPrad]

Buy a home soda maker from Soda Club. It's basically a plastic case around an aluminum CO2 canister. There's a good selection of flavors with near-replacements for the big ones: coke, dr pepper, mountain dew, root beer. You screw the bottle of tap water on, press the button a few times until it buzzes, unscrew it, and pour in a capful of syrup.

I bought one because the drinks are flavored with Splenda and have 1/3 the calories. The regular ones still have some high fructose corn syrup in. Because you're mixing the syrup and selzter yourself you can adjust the carbonation and sweetness to your taste. I make it quite a bit less sweet and with less carbonation than store-bought, and I've been really happy with it.

There is also a cost savings argument. I haven't sat down and checked it myself, but it's on the site somewhere. Cheaper or not, I'm glad I don't have to deal with recycling two-liter bottles and aluminum cans all the time. Although I mostly drink the diet mountain dew flavor, it's nice that I can make some root beer, orange drink, or something obscure when I feel like it.

Anyway, I love the thing. But let me assure you they are not kidding when the warning says to add syrup only after carbonating the water. God help you if you put any syrup in first. You get a real nice soda fountain when you unscrew it to the great and undying hilarity of everyone around.

Re:uhhh

[Martin Blank]

How bout... nothing?

Seriously, I have never understood the thing that IT people have for sucking down caffeine all day long. I don't drink coffee -- EVER -- and I rarely drink hot tea. Even when I do drink tea, it's decaffeinated (Tazo Passion is my favorite), or it's the once a week or so that I go to a restaurant and get iced tea. I drink maybe eight cans of soda per week, and that includes the five that I have with lunch, which are usually things like ginger ale. I'm cutting down even on that in favor of Gatorade that I buy in powdered format, mix up at night, and take cold to work in the morning in a Thermos. On random occasions, I'll have a Dr Pepper or a Coke, but by and large, from the time I leave my apartment to the time I leave for lunch, I don't drink anything. The same goes for the time from the end of lunch to about the time when I get home, around six hours later.

At one time, I drank a couple of cans a day per eight-hour shift, but then about five years ago, I just decided to not do it. That was it. Productivity isn't hurt, and I don't find myself needing another pickup later in the day (or in the morning, for that matter).