There's a lot of research coming out about artificial sweeteners and how they are not good for you. I had heard unsubstantiated claims about aspartame a long time ago, but I did not know this. Did you know that aspartame was at one time listed as a biochemical warfare agent by the pentagon? What?!

I guess that's why it took eight years for the FDA to approve it's use, and only then though political pressure (or so I was informed). And no wonder the FDA didn't want to approve it. Research, both new and old, show the sweetener causes all kinds of medical side effects like "headaches, memory loss, mood swings, seizures, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's-like symptoms, tumors and even death."

On top of that, aspartame is hard to avoid. It's in everything, from diet soda to prescription drugs. It's sold under the commercial names of Nutra-sweet and Canderel. I don't know about you, but I will drop anything like it's hot if I see those words on the label. I try not to ingest artificial sweeteners anyway, but now I'll really be on the lookout!

Many years ago I switched from sugar to one of those artificial sweeteners; used them for years until a scare story linking Aspartame with an increased risk of cancer made me switch again. Now my thinking goes that unrefined natural sugar may hold more calories but at least it is as natural as possible.

The Wall Street Journal (limited access unless you are a subscriber) reported yesterday that the EU has found no evidence of a link between Aspartame and cancer; this supports an American study from last month that reached the same conclusion.

The experts also confirmed that the safe daily level of Aspartame (40 milligrams per kilo of body weight) was well above what people consume normally. You would need to ingest 80 of the little packets to exceed the level.

A quick search on google revealed dozens of sites (I wont link to them as many are pure sensationalist stuff) glorifying the horrors of this additive so it may take awhile for the true facts to be generally accepted.

 

 

I have to admit that I had mixed feelings about tasting Coca-Cola Blak. After I mentioned its release a few weeks ago, the amount of hype seemed to go through the roof. People loved the idea or people hated the idea; there was no middle ground. I assumed that I would not really like it before I tried it. After all, a drink that was hyped as much as Blak couldn't be good - could it? The thing that I failed to take into consideration is that I love coke and I love coffee. I also really liked Coca Cola Blak.

Let me say that it is definitely not a soda for everyone. I almost felt like I was cupping a coffee, which is the process where you sip and sniff and seek out all the underlying flavors in a sample of coffee. The coffee flavor was strong enough that I automatically looked for flavor notes, which I found. The drink tastes quite strongly of caramel, or perhaps burnt sugar without any bitterness, and there are similar fruity notes to the ones I like in my coffees. There was a good amount of bubbles - not so much as to be distracting, but Blak still fizzed like mad when poured into a glass. The only negative is that it is quite sweet. I wouldn't mind a small reduction in sweetness, but overall, they did pretty well with this drink.

Did it taste like coca cola? Not really, but it did taste good.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]