I know formulations can differ from country to country but don’t understand why the same drink in the same country can taste so different depending on packaging.
In: Chemistry
In the case of soda fountains, the final product is prepared on-site. The soda fountain does not have a tank full of Coca-Cola that feeds the dispenser. Rather, the soda fountain has a tank full of concentrated Coca-Cola syrup, a CO2 canister, and a water line. When you dispense Coca-Cola into a cup, the soda fountain is carbonating the water with the CO2 canister, and then mixing-in a small amount of concentrated Coca-Cola syrup.
The soda fountain actually has many different tanks full of concentrated syrup – usually, one for each type of soda. If the syrup tank becomes empty, then the corresponding spout will only dispense carbonated water.
I prefer the taste of fountain sodas over canned or bottled sodas. The freshness really makes a difference!
A soda fountain is mixed on the spot with water and carbon dioxide provided by the restaurant, with concentrated flavoring provided by the beverage company. Even if the soda fountain avoids big variations in how the soda is mixed, you still have different tap water that could affect taste. You can filter it to try to make it more consistent but there’s still a lot of variation possible.
Cans are actually lined with plastic on the inside so you shouldn’t have much flavor added to the drink by the container, or if you do it shouldn’t be too different from a bottle. But you can still taste the metal of the can on your lips. Bottles may let light in which can cause many changes over time, and carbonation levels could be different too.
Formulations can actually vary slightly from one region of the country to another. For example, not every bottle of Coca-Cola comes from the same location. Coca-Cola uses many different bottlers, and so there may be slight variations in the final product.
Variations in filling methods and bottling locations. Cans and bottles are filled in certain regions. Those factories can fill bottles based upon local preferences. My local soda bottler has had numerous warnings from a major bottler due to filling cans with a higher percentage of co2 than the “home office” specifies. Metal cans are filled locally in my city, but bottles come from a different state. Different water and shipping conditions (heating, co2 levels, etc) can affect taste. Unrefrigerated warehouses and length of storage can also affect teste.
Fountains have similar difficulties. The syrup concentrate is from the same factory, but they use local filtered water (which may have a different taste) and pressurized co2 bottles. The pressure in the co2 bottle can be misadjusted or the tank could be low. Also, the fountains add ice into the cups, and the ice can have off flavors or smells from the facility’s ice machine.
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