Here are a few interesting junk food-related stories from the past week or so. Enjoy.
The McPizza Is Officially Dead (via Munchies)
McDonald’s Imperial (via Atlas Obscura)
The Best and Worst Bacon from Fast Food Restaurants (via Extra Crispy)
Coca-Cola Offers A Sweet Quest: A Million Bucks To Replace Sugar (via NPR’s The Salt)
Don’t Call It Pink Chocolate (via Bloomberg)
Image via flickr user Mike Mozart / CC BY 2.0
Coke will never pay out that million bucks. It will cost well over $1MM to develop a new sugar replacer. Anyone with the ability to do so will contact Coke directly and contract it out for way more than $1MM, assuming they have the groundwork to even begin development. They will make sure they get paid well before they are even finished.
If I, by some miracle, came up with the prize winner, I’d hold it hostage for $10 million. Really, at that point, I’d open it for bids. Cargill, Ingredion (awful name there, National Starch) and ADM would beat the shit out of each other just to throw dump trucks of money at me.
Can’t stand artificial sweeteners or the dreaded stevia and monkfruit. Instead of adding to the list of artificial and natural non-nutritive sweeteners that I hate, Coke needs to go back to real cane sugar and just gradually reduce the amount of sugar used. American products often are much sweeter than their counterparts in other countries, so obviously people are not incapable of enjoying a less sweet version. I remember when they switched to corn syrup and for a while they had “cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup” on labels. It was always very obvious which one was used. Cane sugar tasted so much better. I try to buy soda just sweetened with cane sugar now, even though I have to usually order it online. Makes so much difference. Most countries in the world stayed with cane sugar.
They won’t do this next step, but: whoever is complaining about the sugar load might instead try reminding people that they don’t have to drink 12 ounces or 17 ounces or 32 ounces or 2 liters of the stuff at once… Look at old timey Coke ads and you’ll see people (and that creepy Santa) were drinking pretty small bottles by modern standards. So the mini cans are a step in the right direction, although I find 6oz works for me. Also people don’t have to drink it every day and several cans/bottles per day. Stuff tastes better when we’re not overloaded with it. This is true with a lot of sweet stuff especially.
The bacon article mentioned that the problem with fast food bacon is that it takes too long to cook and doesn’t last well waiting to be eaten, while precooked isn’t that great.
Maybe they should consider the option of veggie bacons which are ubiquitous today and can be very tasty and also avoid those problems. They’re all different, but some are bound to appeal to carnivores if given the chance. It could be a menu option. They probably never considered it because people assume nobody mixes meat with non-meat alternatives, but why not?
I like to chop up a soft maple bacon jerky from Louisville Vegan to give things a bacon taste with no pigs harmed, and it’s great by itself as a sandwich filling. Lots of other good veggie bacons are available that would work well on fast food, especially vegan types. All different textures also, some are crispy and some are not. I like Morningstar Farms vegetarian bacon, but it’s loaded with egg whites so I can’t drive under the influence (allergic). Heck, I even sprinkle Bacos or the McCormick equivalent into things. Try a grilled cheese with lots of Bacos and garlic powder…