Almost all soda is produced by a corporation run by psychopaths. Your best bet is to stop drinking soda.
While it is a fair point that there’s no ethical consumerism under capitalism and soda is bad for you, I still want a drink and bourbon goes quite well with coke. I just hope to not support a company actively supporting genocide. I’d hope that’s a low bar for companies but you’re right it may not be.
I guess to be fair, there are some local places around me that make sodas, which probably are reasonable ethical businesses. Depending on how many bourbon colas you're drinking, it might be worth paying extra for an locally made soda if possible. If you don't have someone that makes soda locally (which is probably likely), maybe consider buying from "gourmet soda" brands like Hank's.
don't go for similar - nothing will taste close to your favorite.
find something new that you love.
asparthame is the zero-cal sweetener that tastes the best to us, so try Clear American flavored waters at Walmart
Sucralose tastes better and is healthier. SAMs club colas are pretty good
Healthier how? Every independent study comparing sugar substitutes I've ever read puts aspartame as the healthiest/safest.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sucralose-vs-aspartame#bottom-line
Citations state they came from PubMed.
Sure, of course it's better with people who have a phenylalanine allergy, lol. That's like saying peanut free candy is better for people with a peanut allergy.
The kidney thing, I'll note that your source says it "may be" better, but it's also worth noting that aspartame has had 50yrs of studies against it, and in huge volumes (largely driven by the sugar lobby in the 80s and 90s). It's the most studied food additive in the history of the FDA and has never been meaningfully linked to any sort of major negative health issues.
The acceptable level of intake for aspartame is 50mg/kg vs 5mg/kg for sucralose, and the list of potential side effects is shorter, with sucralose including "diarrhea" and "muscle aches" in the list.
I know. The FDA says it is safe. Aspartame is bad for those with schizophrenia or any mental health in the fact that it can interfere with some SSRIs and antipsychotics. Caffeine is also a thing they say to limit for those taking them. The studies on some are still limited in either case. Nothing super definitive otherwise the FDA would ban it. And if it really matters, and really this will contradict my initial point, but I don't think people are really aiming for "good nutrition" anyway because soda being a junk food, lol. If people are concerned they wouldn't be drinking it, even diet because of the sodium, which is probably the worst thing, since sugar is no longer an issue.
Water
isn't that just flat favourless tonic for poor people?
You should see some of the filtration systems I've seen mounted on the sides of rich houses I work around
On the one hand, that's excessive. On the other hand, if I had the money, sure why not -- you can't trust the regulators anymore
No water is for rich people coke is for poor people. There are parts of world where you can easily get coke but not water.
Water and bourbon doesn't sound like the best cocktail tbh
A little bit of water releases the burbon flavors and males it taste better. Also, ice waters it down after a while and tastes lile shit.
Find some local alternatives. There's so many craft sodas out there these days.
My favorites around here are Northern Sodas, Lift Bridge, and 1919 Root Beer. Holy shit, pony kegs of 1919 are the best thing ever.
Edit: I forgot about Sprecher Soda somehow. Their Green River is. The. Best. Soft. Drink.
Most smaller brands don't have the excess funds to lobby, etc.
Cheerwine Zero exists. It is a black cherry flavored soda. Idk if it is available outside of the SE USA, where I live. Wikipedia says "It has been produced since 1917, claiming to be 'the oldest continuing soft drink company still operated by the same family.'" So, maybe less evil? I do know it tastes quite good.
Does your local grocery store have store brand softdrinks? They can taste similar. Our local store has good quality store brand products that are sometimes better than their name brand counterparts. Obviously if you only have Walmart, then that’s not a model corporation and you’re out of luck.
Yes! Is there one you could recommend?
Make the spice syrup at home and mix that directly into your bourbon then carbonate the results and add water as needed.
It will be a million times better and you'll only need to make new syrup a few times a year.
An example recipe is here https://www.flavorlab.xyz/recipes/cola
Try a Old Fashioned.
Very good as well but I love the fizz
I guess I could carbonate one lol
If you after carbonated go a whiskey highball.
Having said this an old fashioned is my go-to as i am a neat scotch drinker typically and this fits well (especially while i am out somewhere and dont want to pay "bar prices" for scotch).
And since the old fashioned is a bit flexible i migrate from rye to bourbon to scotch and loop back again, it keeps it interesting and its super simple if you want to drink it at home.
All you need is bourbon/scotch/rye, bitters, cherry or orange peel & simple syrup (make your own with sugar+water).
Too sweet? Use less simple syrup or use rye whiskey.
More flavour? Use more bitters.
Like smokey? Squeeze the orange peel zest over a lighter flame
Haha. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard carbonated oaked spirits are not that good.
Fritz Kola super zero
Kombucha can scratch that soda itch for me. Humm makes some good ones and is not on the boycott list.
There are also Italian sodas you can make with syrup and sparkling water, let's you choose the strength of the sweetness too
Ice
would doctor pepper work. not sure about near you but they are constantly on loss leader here. it was sorta funny. they were cheap then they got second place in colas and the sales went away. I bet their sales dropped because after a few months they came roaring back. It has a nice taste like a cherry cola but lighter.
I totally didn't think of them! Unfortunately I just checked and they're also made by coke...
I was gonna suggest Jones soda, but they seem to be owned by a chain of increasingly weird weed and crypto parent companies now.
I was going to say they are their own company seperate from coke and pepsi but just looked at apparently although coke was blocked from buying them in the us the name of their products overseas was bought up by coke and pepsi. so apparently the us is the only place its an independent company.
Dr Pepper is owned by Keurig, not coke.
Go sober like the people of Gaza and make your own cola at home, lots of recipes online and it will definitely taste better
Lime and Soda, raspberry lemonade
I wonder how similar opencola is
I don't like bourbon & coke but you might want to ask this on !cocktails@lemmy.world , someone who does might be able to suggest another drink you'd like based on your preference.
Bourbon and pineapple juice or pineapple tepache is amazing if you want to go in a different direction.
Honestly, the best you can do is try a bunch of stuff and research the company if you like it. It also really depends on how you define an ethical company. Even if you remove capitalism from it, if you look into deeply enough you're going to find that every company has done something unethical or works with an unethical party within their supply chain.
Are you looking for cola specifically or something like cola adjacent? And do you like it sweet or are you not super particular?
The flavor of Coke Zero with preferably no sugar but doesn’t have to be that way
What you could do is get some store brand soda water / club soda / seltzer or a non-sodastream water carbonator. Then get like a cola syrup online. I know some ones that do use sugar are 1883 and Torani, they both have a cola flavour. I also havent seen a lot but I saw one brand called Zerup that has a zero sugar cola syrup. You could try that.
That's a great idea! I do have a carbonator!
Iced Tea
Water.
Go run 5 ㎞ at a decent speed and water will be the best drink ever. No need for poison-water.
Literally not answering the question while also coming across like an ass
The sacrifices we make for not supporting corporations.
Anyway, water is non-coke and it's an alternative to coke zero. Therefore logically my answer is valid and true, but I can read between the lines and accept your rebuke.
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~