Shasta Soda Vs. Coca-Cola, Which is the Best Soda on the Market

Ask anyone on the street about Shasta soda products and you're bound to find more than one person that has heard of the brand. Coca-Cola, as most can attest, is a world-wide brand, extremely popular. What you may not know is that Shasta is a fine-tasting alternative to Coca-Cola, and it's way cheaper. While they do not have the same taste, Shasta costs about 99 cents for a six pack whereas Coca-Cola can run anywhere from $2.50 and up for the same.

A Comparison:

Shasta first burst onto the scene in the late 1800s. It's fizzy taste and cheap price has become fairly popular with anyone on a tight budget, such as college students. It's found inmost grocery stores and even the 99 cents store. The soda comes in many flavors, from Lime-Lemon to Orange and they even have their own brand of Ginger-Ale. According to some reports, Shasta uses surcalose as a sweetener instead of aspartame, unlike Coca-Cola. Besides that, it does have a different taste from Coca-Cola, and if a Coke is what you crave, Shasta isn't likely to negate that craving; however, if you just want a nice cold soda on a hot summer day, Shasta will do just fine.

Coca-Cola is a long-running champion in the beverage industry. Started in the late 1800's, Coca-Cola initially started as a soda-wine beverage. It was also meant to be a type of medicine to treat various physical conditions. After the prohibition era, Coke changed it's formula to non-alcoholic in order to comply. Coca-Cola is also well-known for the fact that in it's early years, it contained active cocaine due to it's use of unspent coca-leaves in the formula. Today, the company uses spent coca-leaves, and still uses the kola nut for caffeine; there spent coca-leaves contain a minuscule amount of cocaine in the internal structure of the leaf-this is deemed not enough to cause any concern.

The taste of Coca-Cola is very popular and is, for some, neck and neck with it's rival Pepsi-Cola. However, Coca-Cola has a stronger texture, taste, and is not as sweet; if you really want a Coca-Cola, it's taste and texture is fairly unique. It doesn't tend to leave a coated aftertaste on the tongue as some other brands of sodas do.

Shasta has over 40 flavors of soft drink available, including traditional Iced Tea with Lemon and the more flamboyantly named Grapefruit Zazz (a newer flavor).

Whether you crave Shasta or Coca-Cola, either soda will likely curb any sugar craving you have, and a chilled soda, no matter how much it costs, will probably be fine on a hot summer day.