Then They Came for the Fresca

[Lester]

The growing ambitions of the food police.
A nonalcoholic sequel to the Whiskey Rebellion seems to be brewing. And Slate may be joining it. I'll call it the Fresca Rebellion, in honor of our editor, David Plotz, a hard-core addict of the citrus-flavored soft drink.

http://www.slate.com/id/2229194/pagenum/all

[Hoosier Daddy]

I thought Fresca was in the carbonated beverages coffin, next to Tab and New Coke.

[Jet Black]

I want a taste I want a wow! I want a pop I want it now! I want a pop, I want a Shhhhhhhasta!

My favorite new-wave pop commercial.

New slogan: I want my pop; Obama, Stop!

[Hoosier Daddy]

For some reason, I always remember Shasta as the first generation Welfare Cola.
Kinda like the Big Blast and Clover Valley brands you find at Dollar General and Big Lots.
They had a number of colored flavors, if I recall correctly.
Same graphics design on all the cans, except for the color which designated the flavor.
Am I thinking of the right product?

[Lester]

Could be. Check the Burlington, OH Dollar Tree... they have it.

[AmpedNow]

Excellent article.

I'm sitting here looking at a can of Fresca. The nutrition label says it has no calories. The ingredients label lists only aspartame as a sweetener. If studies show that drinks like this one indirectly increase calorie consumption "by promoting a preference for sweet tastes," the food police are explicitly prepared to tax them. And the crusade won't end with soda. Anything sweet is a target.

I've been drinking diet drinks for years, and I can tell you that I have not found this to be true. If anything, my sugar consumption has dropped dramatically.

Duh.

[jag]

Truth be known, Fresca was just about the only diet soft drink I ever found worth drinking. And that was back in the day. Its newer formulation (which, I admit, I haven't tasted recently)? Not so much.

Now, Shasta...ah, a delightful treat it was! By no means Nehi, mind you, but a passable alternative. I never tried the diet Shastas, but the full-calorie flavors weren't bad at all. Only problem is that they lost their carbonation too quickly.

[Jay Nunley]

Big K, bitches. Big K.

[lastone]

Shasta tasted like "Sweet-Tarts" to me. The name came from California's Mt. Shasta and if I remember correctly, there is a sylistic mountain on the can.

[Lester]

Here you go...

[Hoosier Daddy]

This is what I remember:




and this:

[fearpeddler]

if we're talking lower shelf soda's then its faygo or the save alot brands for me....

[Scott Reppert]

One of my best friend's name is Shasta and every Christmas I scour eBay for unique items to get her as gifts. I have done a complete set of 1975 glassware, each with a different flavor can pictured on the sides of the glasses, a postcard of the "Mount Shasta Railway", a bottle from 1909 that held "Mount Shasta Springs" water, and some literature on the mountain and springs itself.

And, no, I haven't bought her a camping trailer with her name on it yet.

And, no, she doesn't live in a box...

[Lester]

A camping trailer would qualify...

...get to work...

[Ace Purple]

"How about a Fresca, mmm?"