Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Favorite Beverage

Diet Pepsi is my beverage of choice. I recognize that there are more delicious drinking options out there, but my taste buds have acquired a taste for Diet Pepsi. I blame my mother. Back in the mid-80s, my mother stopped buying Coke in order to lose some weight. In a rare form of family solidarity (when it comes to food - that is), we all decided to support Mom by no longer demanding she buy Coke.

At the time, I was a growing teenager, so I made due with milk and juice. My mother, however, needed the extra caffeine that Coke provided. Plus, I think she just missed the soothing fizz of a carbonated beverage. So, she went to the grocery store to find the latest in caffeinated, fizzy, yet low calorie beverage. She discovered Tab. And I'm not even certain it was caffeinated then.

Now, I'm not one to knock the power that is Tab. It got my mom through a very tough time of Coke-withdrawal. But I seriously believe that my taste buds started to give out when I forced myself to try Tab. In my defense I believed my mother when she said that the drink tasted better than Coke. Maybe to her it did... but I seriously doubt it. It wasn't soon after that she discovered Pepsi-One.

I was in love with Pepsi-One. It was the first drink to taste something like a regular soda without being high in calorie. Back then the cola companies were using saccharine or something really unhealthy... as opposed to the drinks now which are just somewhat unhealthy.

Anyway, all this talk of taste is subjective since by the time Pepsi-One came around my taste buds had already been slowly chipped away from drinking Tab. For all I know, Pepsi-One tasted like dung, but compared to Tab - WOOWEE it was good.

Pepsi Corp developed Diet Pepsi and the rest is history. One of my favorite memories regarding Diet Pepsi (the fact that I have a memory around a beverage should be cause for concern, I'm sure) is when I went to Cheerleading Camp (that's another story), and I was invited to a party. We were all college students, but very few of us were of drinking age. I bought a 6-pack of Diet Pepsi, brought it to the party, and had a blast! I loved seeing the reactions of my friends when I told them that I didn't want a Bud since I had my Diet Pepsi.

Oh, beloved Diet Pepsi, what great times we've had.
Sigh...

8 comments:

steenky bee said...

Cheerleading camp? I was soooo there too. I also have stong soda convictions. I am firmly a pepsi gal. No diet stuff for me. I was forced to drink coca-cola my entire life growing up. I knew that when the time came for me to spread my wings, I would be a pepsi girl. I always was in my heart. Good stuff....both you and the pepsi. So glad you stopped by. So glad I found you!

Tabitha Blue said...

Haha, that's great! I LOVE soda too, and am trying to break the addiction... but at least that's all I'm addicted to! Now that I think about it, it has been a couple of days!! Yay for me! The sad part is, I don't like Diet, I've got to have the 'real' thing... Dr. Pepper, LOL.

Oh, and my baby girl is doing just fine now!! All effects from yesterday's sauce are over!! :)

~Tabitha~

Anonymous said...

Haha...I loved Dr. Pepper that's why I no longer drink it. I would drink almost a 2-liter a day. It's my mom's fault.

Jannie Funster said...

Just "somewhat" unhealthy, lol.

I'd've had the rum for my Diet Pepsi at the frat events.

But rum's a thing of my past. Got so drunk on it one night if I even smell rum-n-raisin ice cream now, 25 years later, I feel like barfing.

Lump said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I could go on and on about my weird soda phobias. I was a Pepsi drinker all my life until a couple of months ago when we switched to diet. It's been over two months and I still can't stand the stuff. I call it "ass juice". I don't know what AJ tastes like but I would imagine it's the same as Diet Coke. Sorry to knock your drink of choice. I'm trying to love it. We keep lemon on hand now and it's not SO bad when it's chilled with a lemon.

Tiffany T said...

Oh so many of you still drink the regular drink, and I'm having flashbacks of the joy of enjoying Coke. I blame the cola-changes in the 90's for the reason I don't enjoy it like I used to. Or perhaps my taste buds really are dead. "They're dead, Jim!"
Oh and Casey - AJ? THAT is too funny!

Anonymous said...

I just love diet Pepsi.
It is my bestest soda.
This poem is about that pop,
But it must be a coda*...
Because I'm drinking so much
I think I will exploda.


*a coda is a finale or final passage