Starting on January 1st, Jones Soda will be pushing its canned sodas to consumers instead of the bottled sodas that it is known for. They will continue to package the soda in bottles, but the switch to cans is intended to make the product more accessible as the company expands. Coinciding with that launch, Jones Soda has announced that they will be sweetening their sodas with pure cane sugar, rather than the high fructose corn syrup that they use now (the diet flavors are made with sucralose/Splenda). All of their canned sodas will use cane sugar and, by mid-2007, so will all of their bottled drinks.
Jones Soda says that the change is being made with consumer health in mind, even though nutritionists say that it is not any more harmful than other forms of sugar. The reality is that the switch is being made because shoppers are interested in anything that they think is good for their health. Neither sugar nor corn syrup is all that good for you, especially in large amounts, so claiming that it is healthier to drink the sugar-sweetened soda at the same time as they are trying to push sales seems to be a bit contradictory. That said, the taste is really the most important factor in soda selection and if the change improves the flavor of their sodas, which is already excellent (with a few exceptions), then it sounds like a good one.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-30-2006 @ 10:03AM
dlz said...
sugar is healthier than hfcs, and one day down the road when the corn lobby gets out of the way of fattening america and being the leading cause of obesity and type 2 diabetes we'll actually have all the data to prove the argument.
that said, sodas made with sugar do taste a lot better. and strangely, they don't leave feeling thirsty when you've finished them the way hfcs does. now why do you think large soda manufacturers would want to create a product that leaves people feeling thirsty? sheesh! that's like asking why 7-11 has a 64 oz. drink cup.
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11-30-2006 @ 5:13PM
Seth Wilson said...
I think this is great, I cut all soda from my diet because of HFCS, but I still occasionally enjoy one now and then as long as its made with Cane Sugar. Beverages made with CS taste better to me, HFCS brings nothing to the table flavor wise, while CS adds a nice caramely flavor.
One of my major peeves is Hansons brand drinks. I used to buy their delicious Tonic Water to mix with Gin......I made assumptions.......lo and behold Hansens uses HFCS. Is there no TOnic water anywhere that doesnt have HFCS? Im dying here!
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12-01-2006 @ 3:14PM
tony said...
I've been looking for a tonic water without HFCS for a couple of years now. I just read about Q Tonic Water.
http://www.qtonicwater.com/
not sure if it's available outside of NYC yet though. I hope it makes its way out to California soon.
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12-01-2006 @ 5:59PM
tom said...
This seems very very silly. The argument about HFCS, as I understand it, is simply an argument that the massive amounts of corn we produce are being turned into massive amounts of sugar, and that drinking sugar is an easy way to ingest a lot of calories without realizing it. What's interesting about this argument is that it looks at trends in agriculture and uses them to analyze trends in health. There's nothing interesting about HFCS except that it's a relatively new way to create cheap sugar.
The problems of obesity are really not that complicated -- lots of empty calories are bad. It's hard to avoid eating sweet stuff because we love it. Thus, the availability of lots of cheap sweet stuff is bad. Blaming corn syrup itself is missing the point.
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12-02-2006 @ 3:53PM
dlz said...
actually, tom, the science is there, and the body treats hfcs differently than it does cane sugar. it isn't trend driven.
fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. studies of the metabolic effects of fructose has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.
both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. also, fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite the way sugar (glucose) does.
short version: foods sweetened with sugar make you feel more full than those with hfcs which don't. signals to the brain say "i'm not full, i feel thirsty/hungry" and people consume more. more food, more sugar, more.
hfcs is not the sole culprit, it's just the enabler. again, not a trend.
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12-03-2006 @ 3:33PM
Toni said...
And if you still think Splenda is acceptable, read "Sweet Deception" by Dr. Joseph Mercola. The science and consequences of this chemical substance, when not given industry spin, is truly frightening.
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2-24-2007 @ 6:53PM
Brooke Hansen said...
I have been searching high and low for HFCS free tonic water -- we have a national crisis here! Jordan at Q Tonic in NYC said it is going to take some time for them to get distribution capabilities, so what are we all going to do!? Can someone come up with a formula for us to make our own, with the in-home soda kits you can buy? where will we get the quinine? Should we all start small scale tonic companies in our home towns -- we might become millionares when we share the medical and environmental research on HFCS, not to mention the bad aftertaste it leaves! Help!
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2-25-2007 @ 1:24AM
MJ said...
Hoorah glad to hear about this...........Wish the other companies would listen and do the same!!!!!Always wondered why the sodas I had at a school age taste so much different now.
They are also on the flat side!!!
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