Veri - 2 Reviews

This soda has put me to taste philosophically. Is it a great cola whose quality has been lessened by the use of stevia as a sweetener, or is it a mediocre soda and the only reason I think it's good is because it is better than most diet sodas. What came first the stevia or the egg?

After far too much pondering I am going to go with a little of both. I think that without the added stevia this could have been an exceptional cola. It has some complexities in the flavor that make it stand out from your Coke and Pepsis of the world. At the same time, the stevia brings it down a couple of pegs, but it still is my favorite diet cola I've ever had. To be fair it does combine cane sugar with stevia, and has 15g of sugar, but that's less than half of a normal can of pop.

Whatever science proclaims to be the true answer, I enjoyed whatever it was in this can and I had no guilt while doing so. That's gotta mean something in life.

Ladies, Gentlemen, Beloved Stockholders,
I've gathered you all here today to tell you what our numbers have been saying for years. The zero-calorie beverage game is a losing one. As much as Americans would like to ditch those empty calories and lose some weight, they are also a lazy lot, who also do not want to give up flavor. While we've come leaps and bounds in that department with stevia and its cohorts, it's still not enough. Those natural sweeteners still have a very specific taste to them. This meeting is to let you know that we are giving up. No we are not folding the company; we are simply going another route. Instead of aiming for zero-calories we have decided to shoot for low-calorie. We have discovered that if we mix up cane sugar with stevia, we can keep the sugar/calorie levels on the lower side and maintain some of the flavor from the premium ingredients we use.

You are all familiar with our ginger ale soda. We used real ginger and lemon juice in it. It should have been a masterpiece, but then we added a whole bunch of stevia and people complained that it was the only ingredient they could really taste. I am happy to now present you each with a can of that same ginger ale with the stevia lowered and a bit of cane sugar thrown in the mix. Tell me that isn't the best diet ginger ale you've ever tasted and I will call you a liar. No longer is the stevia distracting from the last of the ginger. This is the way ginger ale was meant to taste. You can actually feel the slight lemon kick that has been hidden for all these years. Sure there is a bit of the coolness of stevia, but it's so low that in blind taste tests most people didn't even notice it. All of that flavor and it's only 15g of sugar as opposed to the 30+ from other “mainstream” ginger ales. On this side of the table we really believe we are on to something and we hope that all of you feel the same. We've seen the future folks and it is called compromise.