Where to obtain non-Texas soft drinks? (San Antonio, Austin: best cities, home, buy)

[vasleta]

The tap water I drink anywhere in Central Texas has a strong fungal aftertaste, apparently due to its brackishness. The soft drinks I buy at stores (major brands like Canada Dry, etc.) are also bottled in Plano, TX and have that same strong aftertaste. Are there stores/brands that carry beverages made with water that people from the East Coast can drink? It needs to be diet, and most of the "upscale" sodas aren't.

Thanks

[EzPeterson]

Pretty sure you can find them anywhere on the east coast.

[smuboy86]

Originally Posted by vasleta

The tap water I drink anywhere in Central Texas has a strong fungal aftertaste, apparently due to its brackishness. The soft drinks I buy at stores (major brands like Canada Dry, etc.) are also bottled in Plano, TX and have that same strong aftertaste. Are there stores/brands that carry beverages made with water that people from the East Coast can drink? It needs to be diet, and most of the "upscale" sodas aren't.

Thanks

I think you are imagining the taste in soft drinks. Soft drinks are made with purified water, and are formulated to taste the same nationwide. The other suggestion is to try a coke product bottled in San Antonio, which uses aquifer water and should have no "fungal" aftertaste

[scm53]

Originally Posted by vasleta

Are there stores/brands that carry beverages made with water that people from the East Coast can drink?

From the February, 2009, Texas Monthly:

Q. Why is it so hard to find queso dip at restaurants on the East Coast? In the simplest form, it’s just Velveeta and Ro-Tel, and those ingredients are available at any grocery store. But I don’t know of any Mexican or Tex-Mex-style restaurant around here that serves it. What gives?
Katy Marquardt, Arlington, Virginia

A: What gives? The Texanist will tell you what gives. Katy Marquardt is not getting the professional-grade spicy Tex-Mex cheese dip that she so craves because at some point in her life she made the unthinkable decision to leave her home in queso country for a life of gluey clam chowders, sickeningly sweet baked beans, sinewy New York strips, salmonella-harboring egg creams, snooty Waldorf salads, unmanageable cheesesteaks, unsavory scrapples, and all the other disgusting “specialties” that pass for food east of the Sabine. Need the Texanist go on? Before uprooting herself Katy Marquardt forgot that what courses through her veins is the peppery melted cheese dish of her Texas home (the same is true of the Texanist, his doctors always tell him with alarm). Katy Marquardt now finds herself jonesing so hard that she doesn’t understand the real fact of the matter: There is no queso where she is because she is no longer where there is queso.

There are no East Coast tasting beverages, because you are no longer where there are East Coast beverages.

[owlman]

How about get a Sodastream & and use your favorite purified or imported water.

[10scoachrick]

C'mon guys...Texas Friendly !!!
I know I've had an experience or two with the local water products. First was a trip to the original Salt Lick in '08...apparently they were still using well water for their ice. Worst iced tea and diet Coke I've ever tasted, but it was likely the ice.

The other involves ice again...folks using unfiltered water for commercial ice and beverages...yuck! You couldn't make decent sweet tea with that to save your life! This may not have been CoA water, as I've consumed plenty of that... frozen or thawed!

Have only consumed a handful of soft drinks, but can't say I noticed any significant difference from Atlanta drinks(far enough east for this discussion?)

[EzPeterson]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

C'mon guys...Texas Friendly !!!
I know I've had an experience or two with the local water products. First was a trip to the original Salt Lick in '08...apparently they were still using well water for their ice. Worst iced tea and diet Coke I've ever tasted, but it was likely the ice.

The other involves ice again...folks using unfiltered water for commercial ice and beverages...yuck! You couldn't make decent sweet tea with that to save your life! This may not have been CoA water, as I've consumed plenty of that... frozen or thawed!

Have only consumed a handful of soft drinks, but can't say I noticed any significant difference from Atlanta drinks(far enough east for this discussion?)

I hear what you're saying, but this thread starter is just snobbery at its finest. Not to mention the total lack of facts.

No water in Central TX, or far north TX (ie Plano, which is 200 some odd miles to the north of anything considered Central) would be remotely considered brackish, as that requires salt water to be introduced to fresh water. Last time I looked, that big body of salt water was still a ways away from us.

Going to be a long road, OP, if you think the Coke tastes different - may want to stay away from the pizza and bagels.

[mesmer]

I drink Canada Dry both here and in the northeast. My palate is discerning enough that I can taste the plastic in bottled water and I know when the filter on our fridge needs to be changed. There is nothing wrong with the tap water here or the soda in the stores.

Objectively speaking, Austin water is some of the least contaminated in the US: Best Cities For Clean Drinking Water - Forbes

[HappyTexan]

Try the Mexican Coke sold in the supermarkets.
I too am sensitive to water aftertaste.
Getting iced tea at a new restaurant is always iffy with me. It's either great or has an off taste.

I can cook with it, make coffee with it but plain water and tea is where I get the "funny taste" coming through.

[teasipmom]

I am originally from Austin and I've only recently moved back. I have noticed a change in the taste of the water in Austin over the years. Even my father, who has lived here all his life, does not like drinking the tap water now and switched to drinking filtered water several years ago.

He believes it is the lower lake level that is responsible for the change in the taste of the water. The taste in the water has definitely changed because I used to love Austin water and drank it from the tap every time I came home for a visit. It definitely beat the taste of the water in the Washington, DC area. I drink filtered water for now, but would love to get back to drinking it from the tap again.

As far as the sodas go, I'm sure they use distilled water for any soda production to maintain the universal taste, if anything, for bacteria control. I'm sure you could mail order some sodas that you like. You might also check places like World Market, who specializes in carrying foods from everywhere. Also, there are plenty of specialty sodas that you can get anywhere in the country at Whole Foods.