Tina Lewis Rowe

Drink Up!

Water is the ideal drink from the viewpoint of health and cost, and I drink a lot of water. But, I like fun drinks and sweet taste, so I’ve worked to find drinks that don’t have many calories and that allow me to enjoy a soft drink now and then.  And, just to get this out of the way: I know of the studies about risks related to chemicals and caffeine, so I’m not touting these as healthy drinks, ways to lose weight, or substitutes for anything. I’m just saying I like them when I drink something other than water.

If you don’t care for diet drinks, but would be willing to drink one on occasion if you could stand the taste, you really can learn to prefer them, just as all those irritating people have assured you they do. I started a couple of years ago by drinking Diet Lime Coke. (If I could put a trademark symbol after that brand name, I would. Since I can’t, my future posts may be from Leavenworth.) I was able to tolerate it, although I didn’t care for it at first. Then, I made the move to regular Diet Coke and added my own lime. Now, although I never believed it possible, I do not notice any strange after-taste or unpleasant flavor to most diet drinks, and prefer some of the diet versions to their full-sugar counterparts. I hate to even write that, because it’s so hackneyed to say it!

 You have probably wondered, in the still of the night, “What are Tina’s favorite soft drinks?”  Here is the very short list of diet drinks I like, and that you might like too:

1. A Sonic Drive-In Route 44 Diet Coke, with lime and extra lime, easy ice. That’s what the manager at my Sonic told me ask for each time, to get it just the way I like it. I stop at a Sonic everywhere I go, and with a little explanation now and then that works to get the best Diet Lime Coke possible, in a very large size. My friend Ava Fryer is the one who put me onto asking for easy ice, which gives me even more to drink. Sonic drinks are far better tasting than any from other fast-food places, and I think it’s because of the finely crushed ice, heavy carbonation and their ability to make it with a wide variety of flavorings. Lime and lemon are my favorites, and sometimes I ask for both. (I know how to live on the wild side, don’t I?)

2. Tava. This is a great new canned, carbonated, strongly fruit-flavored drink with vitamins and minerals. They have a website with music from new artists, and the same motivational phrases they put on the cans.

3. Fuze. A non-carbonated drink that is often on sale. I like Slenderize Dragonfruit Lime, Slenderize Cranberry Raspberry, and Slenderize Fruit Punch. I can tolerate Diet Pomegranate White Tea, but I don’t care for flavored tea drinks in general. That is why I don’t like Snapple, although they certainly have an impressive website –maybe a bit too complicated for me! The other Fuze drinks are good too, but have higher calories. Fuze was the first of the “functional drinks” with vitamins and minerals added.

4. Diet Hansen drinks. Hansen has good fruit flavored drinks and their diet versions are also good, though I find them to be more acidic than most other drinks.

5. The sugar-free version of A&W Root Beer tastes better to me than any other brand, though I still don’t think it is as good as full-sugar. And none of it is as good as getting it in a frosty mug at an A&W drive-in, then buying a glass jug of it to take home. But I digress…..

6. Club Soda with real lime added. Not many people like something that bland and unsweetened, but I find it refreshing and a break from very sweet drinks.

That’s it. Other than those few favorites of mine, I’d just as soon drink water, plain iced tea or plain black (not herbal or flavored) hot tea.

For decades Pepsi was my soft drink of choice. I savored a glass of Pepsi on ice like some people might savor a fine wine. I don’t like the taste of Diet Pepsi, so have gone exclusively to the other diet drinks for the last few years–which is why I have tried almost all of them and picked favorites. Not long ago I decided to treat myself and drink a full-sugar Pepsi. I could hardly wait to taste it again. I took one sip, then another, then a third. The thrill was gone! It was disappointingly not as good as I thought it would be or as I remembered it being. I didn’t finish it, and later got a Diet Coke to which I added some lime. I had moved completely away from one thing and moved on to something new, and hadn’t even realized it. I think that might be metaphor for some aspects of life, don’t you?

If you have a favorite sugar-free drink, let me know. I really would like to increase my options!

February 26th, 2008 Posted by TLR | Food, Fitness, Fun | 3 comments