Soda Pop

I'd like to address something that has bothered me for ages: just how did cola become the de facto flavor of restaurants? If you go to a restaurant, and want a soft drink, your choices will inevitably be Coke or Pepsi. No Dr Pepper, no Sunkist Orange, no root beer, no cream soda, no Fanta and its many flavors. Not even Sprite or 7-Up. Just cola.

We take that for granted now, and don't put up much of a fuss. Even at movie theaters, which might give you a Sprite choice, or maybe a Cherry Coke, are woefully lacking in soft drink choices. I never buy Coke or Pepsi if I have another option. I mean, they taste fine, but kind of bland.

That's why I love the new Coca-Cola machines in some movie theaters and fast food places. I will go out of my way to a restaurant that has one (Firestone Subs does) because it offers dozens of choices, and many diet choices (usually you just can find Diet Coke or Pepsi--why no other diet choices, especially to a nation of fat people?) This machine is called Freestyle, and I can get Diet Grape, which isn't even available in the supermarket, same with Diet Strawberry,. It has Barq's Root Beer and Cream Soda, the Dr Pepper knockoff Mr. Pibb, Seagram's Ginger Ale, and even a variety of Sprite flavors, including Raspberry and Peach (and with sugar-free versions). The Freestyle has a Web site that will show where the nearest machines are. I see that Burger King has them (I'm a McDonald's guy, but I could be swayed by this) and Jack in the Box, whose hamburgers I don't like, but I love the choice of soda. These flavors are so much more interesting than Coke or Pepsi. Do people really prefer them, or are we just broken down by the giant companies that have pushed their way into our lives?

Of course, Coke or Pepsi owns most of the other companies out there, so they're not losing any money (Fanta is owned by Coke, Mountain Dew by Pepsi, Sprite by Coke, Sierra Mist by Pepsi, while Dr Pepper owns A&W Root Beer and 7-Up). I  imagine it's just easier for restaurants to deal with a few brands and flavors, given that their dispensers have limited size (and there's one spigot always devoted to Hawaiian Punch or Hi-C). I appreciate that some places, like Subway, offer Minute Maid Lemonade, and sometimes even diet lemonade, but are choices, until the great red machine, were sorely limited.

The history of soft drinks is interesting. The three major ones, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Dr Pepper, were all invented as medicinal aides. Of course everyone knows that at one time Coke had a bit of cocaine in it. There were numerous other companies, some still in existence but only locally, like Moxie. In Michigan we had Faygo, and I'm sure there are other regional favorites.

But Coke and Pepsi, and to a lesser extent Dr Pepper, bought up everyone else or drove them out of business. And somehow the cola flavor, distilled originally from the kola nut, became king. I hope that Pepsi comes out with their own version of the Freestyle, so that all fast food joints, gas stations, and hospital waiting rooms, has 100 choices of soft drink. We have gone from having three TV channels to innumerable, so let's do it with soda pop. And don't suggest I drink water. I want flavor.