review: Summit Diet GT Cola

Summit Diet GT Cola

Since their introduction in the 1960s, diet colas have steadily taken a bigger chunk of the soft drink market. In 2010, Diet Coke surpassed Pepsi-Cola to become the second-best-selling soft drink. According to PepsiCo's 2011 annual report, the public purchased over US$5 million of Diet Pepsi product. It may pale in comparison to Diet Coke's sales, but sales like those are still attractive enough for smaller companies to chip away at Coke's and Pepsi's profits by offering their own line of sodas-- diet or otherwise. ALDI offers a line of carbonated soft drinks under the Summit brand. Today, we take a look at Summit Diet GT Cola.

I'm partial to diet sodas. I'm not a diabetic, and I'm well aware that "Diet" doesn't mean it's particularly healthful. It's just that I don't care for the way that high fructose corn syrup in regular sodas seems to linger inside my mouth and on my tongue. Between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, I prefer Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi does a better job of approximating the flavor of its regular variety. Diet Dr. Pepper comes a close second. One look at the silver/red color scheme of the Diet GT Cola can, and you know which cola brand they're trying to evoke. Despite the obvious parallel being drawn to Diet Coke, I remained hopeful that the contents would resemble Diet Pepsi.

The flavor is... different. It has faint caramel undertones, falling somewhere between Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. It's not overly sweet. However, there's a medicine-y aftertaste that's difficult to overlook for the sake of saving a few cents. I took a look at the list of ingredients on the can to try and figure out what was giving the soda its peculiar aftertaste:

Then I took a look at the list of ingredients on the back of a Diet Pepsi bottle that I fished out of the recycling bin:

If you weren't already aware of it, FDA regulations require food manufacturers to list ingredients in decreasing order of predominance. What we can then gather from looking at these two lists is that not all diet colas are created equal. The Summit diet cola actually contains more Potassium Benzoate than the Diet Pepsi, which may explain the aftertaste (exactly how much more is a mystery). Also, caffeine is listed last on the Summit can. That may not have much bearing on its flavor, but those of you looking for a sugarless buzz may want to look elsewhere. On the other hand, "natural flavor" is listed higher up on the Summit can than it is on the Diet Pepsi bottle. Give ALDI some credit for attempting to give their product some personality.

It's not a bad cola, mind you. It pretty much falls in-step with my experiences with other "store brand" sodas. It's just not the cola that I grew up drinking. The major bottlers offer frequent promotions that make any potential savings practically negligible. I would still drink Summit Diet GT Cola if I was in desperate need of a soda fix,  but it won't replace my favorite brand anytime soon.

trip report: november 25, 2012

Here's what I bought yesterday:

• Baker's Corner Pumpkin Quick Bread and Muffin Mix
• Reggano plain couscous
• Millville 100% whole grain old fashioned oats
• Happy Farms spreadable cheese wedges (x2)
• More orange juice

Last week's cream of mushroom soup was surreptitiously incorporated into last week's Thanksgiving green bean casserole. I am pleased to report that there were no (valid) complaints, although I do suppose it's possible that people might not have voiced any complaints out of politeness.

In other news, I started a tumblr blog for some reason.

trip report: november 18, 2012

I picked up a few things yesterday:

• Friendly Farms 2% milk
• Nature's Nectar orange juice from concentrate
• 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 12-pack Diet GT Cola
• Pumpkin pie flavored Pop Tarts
• 1 tub shredded Romano cheese

I'm not reviewing the milk or the orange juice. I just don't see the point. If you want to know my opinion of the Pop Tarts, I'm glad they're sold for a limited time (because I would eat them all day, erryday). That leaves the soup, the cheese and the diet cola. What, oh what, shall I write about first?

about this blog

Some readers will no doubt recognize the name of this blog as an homage to Louis Malle's 1981 film, My Dinner with Andre. If you haven't seen the film, I highly recommend it (a new edition was recently made available by the Criterion Collection). As the film's title suggests, two characters (played by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory) have dinner at a fine restaurant in New York City. Andre spends much of the meal recounting to his friend, Wally, his numerous attempts at experiencing transcendental enlightenment. Wally eventually calls Andre on his stories, dismissing his friend's outlandish exploits as vacuous follies that only the privileged could possibly experience. It's a talky film where nothing really "happens," but there's a good reason that it's been parodied and referenced countless times in pop culture.(most recently by the cult-favorite sitcom Community). My point is this: Wally would probably shop at ALDI.

If you are not familiar with ALDI, then allow me to give you the nutshell history. ALDI (a truncation of "Albrecht Discount") was founded by two brothers in Germany nearly a century ago. The Albrechts eventually split the company into two entities: ALDI Nord (which runs ALDI Markt) and ALDI Sud. Collectively, ALDI became one of Germany's largest discount supermarket chains (You can read more about the company's German and international branches on Wikipedia). ALDI Sud runs the ALDI stores in the United States. According to ALDI US' "Corporate Information" page, the first ALDI store opened in the United States in 1976. Today, there are over 1,000 stores in 31 states. I think I'll save my personal reminiscences of ALDI for another time (However, now might be a good time to assert that this blog is not endorsed by ALDI, or its subsidiaries. The viewpoints expressed by the author do not reflect the viewpoints of ALDI, or its subsidiaries).

My Dinner with ALDI  was not expressly started to highlight deals or savings. Nor is it a foodie blog. There already are scads of blogs that deal with those topics. I'm just your average semi-literate-guy-working-in-retail. I try to live within my means, but scrimping isn't something that preoccupies me. That idea of living within one's own means is what I think fascinates me about ALDI. In many ways, their corporate policies and practices reflect a company that's operating within its means and is apparently flourishing.

I'm the farthest thing from being a journalist, but this blog is going to be a sort of investigation to see what it is about ALDI's products that have earned them its loyal consumer base. If anything, I want to write something that entertains. I hope that you return in the coming weeks to read my random impressions. If you're not careful you may just learn something. So let's get ready, okay?