There's a thread for food and recipes, caffeine, and beer drinkers, so I thought I'd start one on non-alcoholic beverages.

For some odd reason, Big Red popped in my head tonight. It's a cherry flavored cream soda, I think. It's been a long time since I had one. I'm generally a Coke or ginger ale man when it comes to soft drinks, but sometimes I get a wild hair and want something different like a Dr. Pepper, which I also haven't had in many moons.

I'm drinking a cold glass of milk right now.

How about you?

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I've had Kroger cola in the past, and it's not bad. I recently compared Mexican Coke with American, to see if I liked or could tell a difference with the real sugar, but I honestly liked the fructose Coke better. I remember when they changed the formula in the 80's, and then reverted back to it and started selling New Coke and Classic Coke. I kind of liked the New Coke better, but you can't get that anymore.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

From my childhood: Dad's Root Beer (from the 1970's)

Squirt Soda

Dr Pepper

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As far as non alcoholic beverages are concerned, just water.

Over the years the the sweetness of all the "colas" etc just turned me off, I do also drink sparkling water but that is all.

Milk
Home made lemonade.

I drank Dad's root beer when I was growing up. That and Orange Crush. They came in 8-pack glass bottles in a cardboard carrying case, and we returned the empties to the store and got some coins back - don't remember how much, but it was certainly better than nothing!

I like lemonade, but haven't made it from scratch in many moons.

Orange juice is actually my go-to favorite beverage. I buy the frozen concentrate and mix with water.

Bernie, I can't believe it's just beer or water for you!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Bernie, I can't believe it's just beer or water for you!

Don't forget wine and coffee, :-)

But no soft drinks of any kind

Bernie, I can't believe it's just beer or water for you!

Don't forget wine and coffee, :-)

But no soft drinks of any kind

True - I did forget about those two.

I like fountain soft drinks from restaurants, but they don't always have the right syrup/water mixture ratio. When I was a kid, and my parents would take me to a nice restaurant with them, I'd get a fountain cherry coke, and it would be served in a cocktail glass with a cherry in it, and I thought I was living the high life.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I can get money back on the soda bottles

I wish we still did. How much do you get?

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

It depends on the size of the bottles and how many, beyond a few they pay by the pound, 3 bags of 2L plastic bottles can become maybe $15 or so.

That's nothing to sneeze at. The returnable bottles we used to get in the 16 ounce 8-packs were glass, and they had the name of the bottling plant embossed in the bottom. It was neat. I can't remember how much we got back. Maybe a nickel per bottle? ~But better than nothing!

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

I used to love R White's Cream Soda. However, since they changed from glass to plastic bottles, I've found that the taste is somewhat different. :-(

since they changed from glass to plastic bottles, I've found that the taste is somewhat different. :-(

Exactly.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

liquid nirvana https://www.tazo.com/us/en/products/herbal/passion-20ct.html

That's nothing to sneeze at. The returnable bottles we used to get in the 16 ounce 8-packs were glass, and they had the name of the bottling plant embossed in the bottom. It was neat. I can't remember how much we got back. Maybe a nickel per bottle? ~But better than nothing!

In the mid 70's Chicago, I recall a cold 16oz glass bottles of soda would cost about 50 or 60 cents at the neighborhood grocery store and had a 5 cent deposit which you got back when you returned them. Then it changed to 10 cent deposit/refund before plastic bottles started to become popular.

In the Mid 70's to early 80's my brother and I would go many summer mornings, but mostly on Sunday's and Monday's around 8 to 9 am to the local park and forest preserve picnic grounds to collect the empty glass bottles laying around and tossed in the trash cans.

Most people were too darn lazy to take the empty bottles back home after their picnics... We usually collected about 30 bottles per weekend - after a big holiday like July 4th, we could easily collect 50 or more bottles! We would "cash them in" at our local mom-and-pop neighborhood grocery store and split the $$$ evenly between us. It was good money for about one or two hours work to us kids.

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It was good money for about one or two hours work to us kids.

It was also very green.

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A simple Espresso from an Italian AutoRoute service station.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I've been trying different colas that I haven't had in years, and am drinking an RC. ~Haven't had that in forever. It's not bad. It tastes kind of like a less fizzy Pepsi to me a little bit. I doubt I'll get it again, but I just wanted to try it. I also have gotten some Dr. Pepper recently, and really like that. It's distinctive, and seems more carbonated than either Coke or Pepsi. At least that's what my nose feels like after a glug.

I found this interesting -

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11772532/This-is-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-drink-Coca-Cola.html

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Just pulled this off that link, above -

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/the-man-behind-the-coke-bottle-sweden-celebrates-its-role-in-the-birth-of-an-icon

Very interesting. I did not know that piece of Swedish history. Thank you, Moomin.

And a quote from the article link you posted is also true -

The famous creative brief was to design a “bottle so distinct that you would recognize it by feel in the dark, or lying broken on the ground.”

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place