America needs better unsweetened beverage options. Japan and Taiwan (and probably other Asian countries too, I haven't been) have a crazy good selection of teas and tea-like drinks that taste great and have zero sugar. Unfortunately, to someone who drinks soda every day, those probably taste bitter and "nasty", it takes some time to recalibrate your tastebuds and appreciate their flavor. But the options need to exist in good quantities first before it can become a common choice, and I'm sure soda is more profitable so we're probably never getting out of this...
I'm convinced diet Coke is to blame for a lot of people in the US thinking no sugar drink = awful drink, preventing interest in looking into it further. Mostly because of the taste, but also because branding it as "diet" in the name was a bad marketing choice in the long run. God bless those that like the Diet variant more than normal Coke, but I swear more people think e.g. Dr Pepper Zero Sugar tastes better than Dr Pepper!
Once over the hump of assuming it's the sugar that makes soda tastes good, I think it opens up a lot higher chance of trying other sugar free drinks which can be even healthier (while still tasting amazing). At least it did for n=1.
Olipop might have pretty high distribution, I see them in normal supermarkets and places like Target and Costco now. I don't live in either of the places you mention.
However, Olipop has sugar alcohols as a sweetener, which give me gastrointestinal distress after only two cans. Soiling yourself is a good disincentive for drinking a lot of soda.
Ehh those are a crutch, I'm talking zero sugar at all. It doesn't have to be bougie or artisanal, just a good variety of tea at affordable prices would be a good start. Making it "fancy" and expensive just defeats the purpose.
Agreed. Here in the US if they say "sugar free" there is usually some other sugar replacement. I don't need dried mango's with added sugar or sweetener, they are sweet enough as is. I'd love to see an unsweetened option. As someone who is trying to remove sugar from my diet anything sweet is almost too much for me.
I'm more concerned about added sugar in other foods. If you're trying to keep your sugar intake down, cutting sugary sodas seems pretty obvious to me, but remembering to be careful about bread or tomato paste or anything else you might eat because some brands or restaurants add a bunch of extra sugar is really a pain.
The good thing is, if your palate has gotten used to unsweetened beverages, you can easily tell when bread or a sauce has sugar in it when it shouldn't. Or maybe I'm weirdly sensitive to sugar, I dunno.
