Diet Hansen's - It's Diet, But Try It!

I am an anti-diet soda (and anti-diet any food, really) person, so I avoid Diet Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, WHATEVER like the plague. All those weird chemicals, especially aspartame, scare me. More scary is the appetite-stimulation effect which I believe comes from aspartame, from my personal experience only. I'm sure science will confirm soon. I think there are some articles out there that back up the idea that this could be true. Anyway, all I know is that when I used to drink diet stuff, I was always thinking about eating and constantly craving snacks, and once I stopped a few years ago I had a lot more control.

Also, diet soda tastes gross, no matter what you tell yourself. There is nothing like the real thing. I feel the same way about low-fat or no-fat stuff. I'd much rather have a real piece of cheese or a real little dollop of sour cream than fake stuff.

However, one "diet" product I do like is Diet Hansen's soda. It uses Splenda, which while not nearly as tasty as sugar, doesn't give me that same drinking-liquid-metal feeling as aspartame. And the flavors are lovely. I usually stock up on the Black Cherry, Tangerine Lime, Ginger Ale, and Creamy Root Beer.

For photos, go to: www.hansens.com

The Black Cherry is very sweet but with lots of good cherry flavor (plus that overly fake sugary taste, but what can you do.) It's a really nice mixer. I have used a splash of it in my pomegranate martinis to great success. (That's vodka, pomegranate juice, a sugar rim, and a splash of the Hansen's.)

The Creamy Root Beer is actually the most normal tasting of them all. It doesn't have the bite of real root beer (though all of these sodas have a distinct sharpness to them because of the way they're carbonated) but the root beer flavor is right on with plenty of vanilla.

Tangerine Lime is basically a poor man's Sprite. Still, it's tart and yummy.

My absolute favorite though, is the Ginger Ale. Not only because I'm obsessed with gingerale, but because it is a particularly piquant one. Must be the ingredients they use to flavor it, and I quote: "African ginger, Mexican limes, Californian Lemons and Madascan Vanilla". Damn, that's like the United Nations of gingerale flavor! It is a bit lemony, but it works, and allows me to drink gingerale without having that teeth-going-soft-from-sugar feeling.

There are also Grapefruit, Kiwi Strawberry and Peach flavors. I bet the Peach has a lot of cocktail potential, too. Comment if you've tried 'em. Keep up the great work, Hansen's! (PS: I get mine at Trader Joe's but I have also seen it at Albertson's.)

:-P