Aspartame - 49 Reviews

I'm a sucker for spice. Blame it on my Western New York upbringing. I've lost that part of me where I masochistically eat things that will burn my face off in exchange for flavor enhancement. Sue me. This tastes like a diet cherry Coke with (somehow) less "diet" taste and rewards you with a little bit of burn. I could be wrong but I burped while drinking this and it had a pretty distinct ginger beer burp flavor. I liked it. I drank the whole can. I rarely drink cola let alone diet cola but this is actually something I would revisit. I was told again and again to drink it cold. One would think that something was going to come out of the can, like a heat activated cola demon, if I let it get lukewarm. Little does he know that we Thirsty Dudes drinking warm pop all the time. There's not enough room in fridges nationwide to house the amount of drinks that we've had at one time in our heyday. Now, unfortunately, sadly, apathetically, Jay and I could probably contain our back stock in a college dorm room fridge and still have room for a cool, crisp can of Milwaukee's Best that we would never drink but you know goddamn well that Chad would drink it in a heartbeat. Chad. You're the worst. Don't even get me started on Chad. Chad sucks. We'll leave it at that.

Let us rejoice. The unthinkable has been done. Coke has created a diet soda that can be enjoyed by everyone. So far the other flavors of their new line of diet colas have been fairly decent, but this one steps up the diet game. I don't know if it is the ginger, the lime or the combination of the two, but whatever it is it masks the taste of the aspartame very well. So much in fact that this only tastes vaguely diet, even though there are 0g of sugar in here. I know it's heresy to make comparisons between the big two, but this makes me think of the Pepsi 1893 ginger soda, if it were diet. Mixing ginger with cola is a great idea that I can't believe wasn't widely manufactured until recently. They blend together into something new and wonderful. The lime also just blends in with that. None of the flavors really stand out, and I suppose that is why the diet taste is also blended into that solid new flavor. Sure, by the end of the can the diet-ness of it gets stronger, but I feel like my last sip was only as strong as a regular diet Coke.

We live in a golden age for diabetics. Seriously if I had “Sugar,” as my grandmother called it, I wouldn't want to live in any other era of beverages. The recent fitness boom has overflowed the market with brand after brand of beverages that use zero calorie sweeteners. I would be walking down the street, kicking my heels at all of the stevia laden drinks out there just waiting for me to pour them down my throat. Being as I do not have that particular affliction and I watch my weight in other ways, I find myself mostly avoiding those same drinks, and wishing a lot of them either were made with real sugar, or with no sweetener at all. I am not a petty man though and I am happy for my fellow humans who are in a better place because of it.

For too long the choices of the “diet drinkers” have been so limited, so I was glad to see that Coke had released a line of unusually flavored diet colas. Mike had tried the blood orange version and her thought it was fairly horrible. When you're not acclimated to diet sweeteners they can be pretty potent and take over the flavor. We try to look past that in our reviews and try to think how people who drink this stuff all the time would view it, but sometimes that can be hard, especially when the soda is sweetened with aspartame, I mean who uses that anymore? I kind of thought it had really been completely phased out for sucralose and stevia. When I first opened this I thought it smelled vaguely like some sort of cleaner, but the taste was actually pretty pleasant. The mango is strong and it hides the diet flavor pretty well. It also masks the cola flavor, which is unfortunate. I would have wanted mostly cola with a hint of mango, but I was delivered the reverse. About halfway through the can something happened and the aspartame really started to seep through. I don't know if it was because it had warmed up a bit, or if it had just settled to the bottom half of the can, but it got pretty bad and I didn't finish it all. That first half was decent though, even for someone who doesn't enjoy diet sodas. I hope for the sake of a good portion of the population that this sticks around because it's something different for them to enjoy.

Sometimes you want a nice, dark cola. Most times, if I want cola, it's that. I used to drink diet cola. I think it was when my mom would only order us diet. You know, the 90's, when it was alright for kids to eat and drink anything at any time with no worries about disease or whatever. We played outside in the dirt where we belonged. Dirty dirt kids.

This is a nice alternative to those of you, like my manager(?) and mother-in-law who pretty exclusively drink diet Coke and might like a nice change but keep that same toxic diet flavor. This isn't terrible, alright. It's not. It's still most certainly diet. Unavoidably diet. The blood orange flavor is not super strong and certainly not strong enough to overcome that of the aspartame. It's more of like a "citrus diet Coke" than an explicit or definite flavor. I, for one, would not get it again but then again I am not the target demographic.

I bought another flavor of these that I am not not looking forward to drinking. Does that sell it at all? I regretfully drank this while regretfully doing my taxes. What a night. My mid-30's are garbage.

From the name I thought this was going to be a heavily caffeinated version of cherry Pepsi. Then I saw that it had zero calories and I thought that it was just a rebranding of Diet Pepsi, since the D-word is the new four letter word. Well, it turns out that both were right. This is Pepsi's new diet soda that has about 3x as much caffeine as the old Diet Pepsi. Diet caffeine to the Max bro.
Seriously though, this isn't that bad. I enjoyed it much more than the old version. I don't know how much of a difference there is to the actual formula, but it tastes more cherry than diet, and that is a very good thing. It's a less syrupy Cherry Pepsi with a slight diet aftertaste. It was a pleasant surprise that I might actually visit again.

There are many shades in the energy drink spectrum, but no matter how much you nitpick, 90% of them can simply be described as, “Tastes like Red Bull.” This drink specifically tastes like sugar free Red Bull. They even went against the trends and used aspartame as their sweetener, just as the original did.

XL is not in the game to revolutionize anything with their flagship drinks. They seem to be happy to give you what you know at a lower price. That's not a bad place to be. Undercut the competition and watch the sales pour in. I hope it works out for them.

There is a place called Turkey Hill. This is a magical place where iced tea flows like water. I'm not making that up, it literally does. On the hill are spouts hidden in the woods with different flavors of iced tea. They are natural springs of iced tea, the only place in the world where this exists.

The only known side affect from Turkey Hill's iced tea springs is cavities. In fact, 93% of the population has dentures due to this. This figure was from 1962, and luckily that number has dropped to 91%. Why the 2% drop over 52 years? In 1972 some kids were wandering behind the train tracks that border the hill. Not many people have gone back there over the years due to the train yard workers being jerks. Anyways, these kids were in the woods and stumbled upon an iced tea spout that wasn't on the official city map. They tasted and it wasn't as sweet as the iced tea they grew up with.

The reason was this had aspartame in it instead of sugar. It didn't taste as good to them, but they had heard about how aspartame doesn't cause as many cavities so they told the whole town about it. Of course, as you can see by the statistics, only 2% of the population decided to start drinking the "diet iced tea" as they called it. Studies have shown that people who can't consume sugar like it, but otherwise it leaves a lot to be desired.

It as if nature knew I had bought this cider because it decided to drop the temperature twenty five degrees. All of a sudden, I want to just walk around wearing a hoodie with headphones on and not acknowledge anyone or anything, as I enjoy doing because I can be a bit of an introvert and sometimes enjoy when people think I'm just creeping around. I'm not, I just want everyone to leave me the hell alone for a little bit. If those same people knew that I was thinking of things like apple cider, they would probably be alright with me lurking around the city.

I rarely eat candy apples and eat caramel apples even less. Why? Well, a beard does not mesh well with a ball of sticky candy, for one. For two, they are impossible to eat on their own. I thought that if I got this I could drink the fall up in an old coffee cup. Was I right? Sure, if you are concerned about drinking all that fall has to offer and, even in your imagination are concerned about your weight.

This initially tastes very strong. The first two or three sips really taking some getting used to as this cat is a sweet treat if I have ever had one. Subsequent sips are a mix between a pretty good rendering of a liquid caramel apple and a rendering of a liquid caramel apple of your gluttonously and stupidly dipped your caramel apple into aspartame. Ahh, yes. The ingredient that we all loved in the early nineties but now venomously despise is back and hiding in our caramel apple drinks. The sweetener is very strong but the flavor of the cider is pretty good and close to it's model so I can only penalize it so much. It tugs me in both directions so much that I can only cop out and give it a three and wonder how long it's going to take me to get through the other seventeen K-Cups. Dilemma.

I really, really wanted these to taste like something special. I wanted a ropey flavor, like you get with hemp iced tea. All I ended up with was a beverage that tasted very similar to diet Red Bull. That's not a bad thing at all. I actually prefer the diet version to the regular (an insane thing in my world with a hatred of all things artificially sweetened). It's just more of the same. Sure this has hemp seed extract in it, but it's not evident in the flavor.

I'm the very competitive world of energy drinks, where companies come and go all the time, this may have an edge with the pot leaf on the can. It will appeal to the stoners and kids out there who think they are getting away with something wrong by drinking it. It's just an image, but if that image helps them sell product, good for them.

A part of me really wanted to like this. I love cola, and I occasionally like lime flavored drinks. Ok, more than occasionally. I think if this weren't diet I'd love it. And normally I can ignore the gross diet flavor of soda, but this one is impossible. I think the diet and the lime have teamed up and just cut through the cola and into the back of your throat like a ninja in battle with other ninjas. There's a marketing campaign, rename this Diet Pepsi Ninja Battle Lime and then people will know what to expect.

We're talking about a diet root beer here, friends. I'm about to tell you that it is actually good. They must have pumped the diet so full of root beer flavor that it is no longer gross. This is sweetened with aspartame and they have managed to do a pretty good job of keeping a dark root beer flavor and not making this taste like something a fat housewife would drink while she's watching her stories. I mean it. A dark, diet root beer that I haven't spit all over my monitor.

I'll say the titular line...Dang! That's good root beer.

There's concentrated orange juice in this? Whatever, i'll still take the crab juice.

I saw a twelve pack of these at a barbecue I was at today and decided I would drink it to review it. I normally don't mix the two, social drinking and reviewing, but I couldn't possibly drink any more Arizona Sweet Tea. I had one glass and it was just one glass too much. I cracked it open and wanted to enjoy the ride but the only place it took me was right on down to the crappy gates of Dietburg, a town that, for reasons unbeknownst to me, is guarded by gates. I looked at the ingredients and there it was: the dreaded Aspartame.

I thought we were done with that one. This with a slew of other diet sweeteners both artificial and natural could have potentially saved this drink. I mean, cherry and grapefruit could have been a wonderful match but instead it tasted like cherry and tart diet generic citrus. Aspartame really took a dump all over this drink. Wegman's, I thought you were better than that. I was wrong. Now I know what a disappointed dad feels like twice today because my son threw a handful of rocks at another kid with simultaneously disobeying me as I cried out "Don't throw those rocks." Giant bags of sadness and disgusting drinks for all!

Step 1: Take a grapefruit and cut it in half.

Step 2: Take a 9 volt battery and shove it into the grapefruit.

Step 3: Juice the grapefruit into a tall glass. Add ice to taste.

Step 4: Drink your homemade Diet Squirt.

Have you ever heard the Patton Oswalt bit he does about an open mic he hosted in Toronto? Well it is relevant to this review since the guy he talks about in the bit is named Dr. Pepper. You know what, do yourself a favor and listen to/watch the bit:



Sadly this can of Diet Dr. Pepper isn't as funny as that. It's not as bad as most diet sodas, but it's also not as good as most other varieties of Dr. Pepper. At least we got to hear a funny bit from Patton Oswalt right?

Al Capone. You and your cronies have done a wonderful thing here. You have broken the correct legs to get to this diet root beer. All of those threats, violin cases filled with Tommy guns, guitar cases filled with machine guns, briefcases filled with handguns have allowed you to create one of the best diet root beers I have ever had. The slight taste of diet in this is quickly smoothed over with a nice root beer taste complete with vanilla. This is better than some regular root beers I have had and that is saying a lot.

I trust that with this review, we will be in your good graces so when I pass your men on the street, which, if I may be so frank, are blatant since normally I don't see a gaggle of men in pinstriped suits, they will give me a nod and be on their way. I will leave you to your business of smuggling rum into places, underground fighting rings, and other general cahoots that you and your men perform. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. If I may be of any service, please let me know. Know in advance, I do have my limits. I might not be the best man for things like killing, poisoning, slashing tires, bomb installation, or anything in the "almost legal" category. If you want me to be a wheelman, I would love to do that, though.

Mike scored some free tickets for us to go see Insane Clown Posse tonight. Now we both think that they resemble nothing close to good musically, but the whole culture is ridiculous and interesting. Mike compared us to Jane Goodall. We were going to interact with the "apes" in their natural habitat. All I can say is holy was that worth going to. As soon as we walked up to the club the ground was littered with empty Faygo bottles. We tried our hardest not to laugh and upset the natives. We got there right before ICP went on and took our place in the balcony. The show was complete insanity. The music was bad, but I didn't realize how much they ripped off 90's radio hip-hop beats, so that made it tolerable. The show was more than I ever could have expected. There were two huge tubs full of two-liters of Faygo (which creepy clowns kept coming out to refill) and Icp kept grabbing them to pour on the audience. Violent J had his move down. He held the mic with one hand, rapping, and with the other he would open the bottle of pop and shake it up spraying it on the crowd. He had it worked out that his thumb covered the hole, so after a few shakes he let go and the thing shot off like a goddamn rocket. Even in the balcony Mike and I got hit by flying Faygo. I can't imagine cleaning up the club after that. There was Faygo everywhere. They had to have gone through at least 200 two-liters of it. I'm not even exaggerating. I remember reading that Faygo doesn't work with them at all, so they are paying for all that soda, and that's ridiculous. On top of that there were streamers, confetti and feathers (who's going chicken huntin'?) everywhere. One great thing is that with all the "meth mouth" that was in the audience you would expect it to smell terrible at the show. Instead of horrible breath and body odor the entire place reeked of root beer. How great is that?

Twice during the set there were "Faygo Breaks." During this time an army of clowns came out and just poured buckets of Faygo into the audience and tossed out two liters like they were nothing. There were accompanied by an insane strobe light, carnival music and the creepiest chant of "Get some Faygo" that I have ever heard.

I grabbed a stray bottle of diet root beer as it flew by, took a swig and passed it to Mike. He did the same and passed it to the gentleman next to him in the 5XL hockey jersey who had more face paint on than anyone ever should. The dude pounded the rest of the bottle smiled and just said "FAM-A-LY" (yes they pronounce it "A" and not "I"). I can't make this stuff up. The root beer itself was better than I expected. It had a general generic root beer flavor and it didn't taste overly diet.

On our way out we grabbed a 1/4 full bottle of cola and got a video of some down Juggalos chugging it and pouring it on each other. This is a night that we shall not forget, especially since we're legally changing our names to Mikey 2 Dope and Violent J Draper.

Thirsty Dudes. ICP. FAM-A-LY.

I'm thirsty; can you bring me a bottle of Dr. Pepper? All you have is a generic Dr. Pepper? Alright, I guess that will do. Why did you...ok, I guess you opened it for me. Thanks! But why are you carrying a vile of battery acid in your other hand? Seriously??!? You're going to skateboard the bottle over to me!? Deny it all you want, I saw some of that battery acid splash up. Ugh, I wish I wasn't so thirsty. Sure soda isn't the best thing for thirst but it's the only thing available right now.

UGH... yup, some battery acid definitely made it's way into the bottle. It's not THAT bad, but still nothing I would go out of my way of experimenting with again.

During World War II, while important battles were going on all over the place, the US Government sent a few spies into Italy to steal something. That something was the recipe for Italian Ice, that fantastic summer treat. It took a couple weeks of recon and infiltration, trust, and lies but they got it. They flew home with the recipe in a metal briefcase handcuffed to the leader.

When they got home it took a week or so to get it right but they got it. This was a big score for the troops because they not only got a sweet treat when the weather was ravaging them, but if they could not freeze it long enough, they would have lemonade. The mix made a good lemonade and they started phasing out the lemon ice. It tasted good, not diet regardless of artificial sweeteners, and reminded the troops of a delicious infiltration so many years ago.

Charlie hated candy. He didn't hate the taste of it, he was just raised to hate candy by his parents who believed that anything unnatural was wrong and raised him on a very healthy diet of all natural foods. He didn't have a McDonald's hamburger until he was old enough to drive to a McDonald's and get one for himself. One day, when he was nineteen, he went to the store and on his way out he saw a candy machine. He decided that he would try it out. He dug out a quarter and got some Cherryhead candies. He ate two or three and his mind was blown. In the middle of the grocery store he dropped his organic eggs, milk, and screamed. He had missed nineteen years of candy and this was his first time ever having it and he was kicking himself for not being able to try it earlier. He ran to a store clerk and begged him to help him find more Cherryheads. The clerk said they only sold the candy in the vending machine but they sold a powder version of the candy that he could buy. He thought that would be perfect because he could just carry a bottle of water out of the house and fill it when he was on the road and his parent's weren't looking. He eagerly paid for the mix, went home, and went to sleep.

The next day Charlie had to go to work. He jumped out of bed, got ready for work, and jumped in the car. He brought his water with him, drove to an empty lot, parked his car, opened his glove compartment and grabbed the mix. Just as he started to pour the mix, he heard a knock at the window. He jumped, spilling some mix on himself. He looked out the window and it was his dad. He rolled down the window and asked his dad what was up. His dad told him that he was driving and saw his car in this empty lot and wanted to know if everything was alright. Just as he said that, he looked over and saw the box of drink mix. He said to Charlie, "Son, it's alright. I've been sneaking candy past your mother for almost three decades. I've hid it in the laundry chute that I convinced your mother was broken but it's really just blocked by my stash of candy. Just hide it from your mother and you'll be fine. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner." He nodded at his father and shook up his drink mix and took a sip. It tasted exactly like that candy he had in the store yesterday. Just as sweet and just as strong of a cherry taste. He was thrilled. He was also very excited that both he and his dad could bond over the fact that over the next few years, they would hide candy around the house together behind his mom's back.