Tastebud Chicago

Camri and I aren’t big pop drinkers. It’s actually good that we aren’t, as pop is the single worst thing on earth for your gut. It has all the calories of a beer, without the taste. High fructose corn syrup is the crack cocaine of sugars, corn syrup is refined and manipulated to produce a much sweeter syrup. HFCS is cheaper than cane sugar, but according to the smart scientists, HFCS may actually be worse for you than straight sugar.

Which brings us to me and Camri randomly deciding to buy a pop a few days ago. We saw them in a case at the store, “Boylan’s Root Beer” and “Boylan’s Orange Soda” both made with cane sugar. “Cane sugar?!” we both exclaimed, this sounded really awesomely bad for you. So we bought a bottle of each and tried them out. I don’t know if it’s the cane sugar, or the small label pop company, but both were really great. They weren’t as sweet as a conventional pop, and had a lot more “layers” to the taste.

I went looking online for reasons why the big companies weren’t using cane sugar, and found that Washington Post article above. Cost is the chief reason. Despite the potential health issues associated with HFCS, and the improved taste of a cane sugar based pop, HFCS is much cheaper. Although the cost difference is only a few pennies, when multiplied by the gigantic amount of pop Americans drink, it becomes a cost increase of billions of dollars. Plus, corn is largely an American agricultural product, if the demand for corn syrup drops, the American farmer gets stuck with a crop he can’t sell.

That said, there’s hope on the horizon, in the form of ethanol. The author of “Freakonomics” blogged about it this week. There’s a big push for ethanol to supplement gasoline in alternative fuel vehicles. Illinois’ own Barack Obama is an ethanol advocate. If ethanol takes off, it will drive the price of corn, which in turn may make it more economical for major pop companies to use cane sugar, rather than HFCS.

However, that future may be a long way off. Until a running car smells like popping corn, you can get some yummy cane sugar based soda-pop from both Boylan and from Jones. Try them out…they taste like the future!

Note: We’re not really advocating any sort of “Cane Sugar Diet”, that would be absurd. If you came here from Google, after deciding that someone out there probably made up a sugar based diet, you’re not in luck. Remember, too much of anything is probably a bad thing. Eat, drink, and be merry in moderation. You’re your own best diet. Also, you should exercise. Fatty.