5 ms·

There's two diners in my town who have the best root beer, it's barqs, but it's served in mason jars. Soda tastes better, anything tastes better in a glass con

There's two diners in my town who have the best root beer, it's barqs, but it's served in mason jars. Soda tastes better, anything tastes better in a glass container. Even aluminum canned soda has an aluminum taste, plastic bottles have an after taste. Maybe we need to ditch plastic and aluminum packaging for bottles like we used to. I still buy plenty of drinks in plastic but if I have an option for the same price I'll get it in glass, for instance grape jelly. It's roughly the same cost for plastic or glass.

tedunangst 4y ago
Wait, barqs is sending mason jar root beer from the factory direct to the diner?
musicale 4y ago
It does taste better when you decant soda from a plastic-lined can/plastic bottle/plastic fountain tap into a glass.
smohare 4y ago
- bornfreddy 4y ago
  Why do you think so? To me the taste of Pepsi from aluminum can or plastic bottle is completely different. Granted, I didn't do blind testing (I should - good idea), but either the can or the drink have a pretty specific taste that is not there in plastic bottles and that I associate with Al.
Steve44 4y ago
I think there is quite a difference though in the lifecycle between glass & aluminium. Glass can work when it's local and smaller producers, but on large scale production and national distribution it can introduce several problems. Glass is competitively heavy and thick so adds to transport requirements. It also can't [generally] be made on site, unlike cans which are generally formed in the food factory for larger scale producers. There is also breakages to consider. Modern 'bottling' plants move at an incredible speed and where glass is fragile any chips or breakages can shut the line down for cleaning; shards of glass are nasty to get in your drink. There is also transport, rough handling is much more likely to break glass bottles than burst cans, the cleanup is also easier with cans, and as glass weighs more it also adds to handling costs. This also applies to recycling, a bottle takes up much more space in your recycling bin than a bottle does. Personally I too prefer glass, but once you get beyond extremely local small scale production the considerations change dramatically.

tedunangst 4y ago

Wait, barqs is sending mason jar root beer from the factory direct to the diner?

musicale 4y ago

It does taste better when you decant soda from a plastic-lined can/plastic bottle/plastic fountain tap into a glass.

smohare 4y ago

bornfreddy 4y ago
Why do you think so? To me the taste of Pepsi from aluminum can or plastic bottle is completely different. Granted, I didn't do blind testing (I should - good idea), but either the can or the drink have a pretty specific taste that is not there in plastic bottles and that I associate with Al.

Steve44 4y ago

I think there is quite a difference though in the lifecycle between glass & aluminium. Glass can work when it's local and smaller producers, but on large scale production and national distribution it can introduce several problems. Glass is competitively heavy and thick so adds to transport requirements. It also can't [generally] be made on site, unlike cans which are generally formed in the food factory for larger scale producers. There is also breakages to consider. Modern 'bottling' plants move at an incredible speed and where glass is fragile any chips or breakages can shut the line down for cleaning; shards of glass are nasty to get in your drink. There is also transport, rough handling is much more likely to break glass bottles than burst cans, the cleanup is also easier with cans, and as glass weighs more it also adds to handling costs. This also applies to recycling, a bottle takes up much more space in your recycling bin than a bottle does. Personally I too prefer glass, but once you get beyond extremely local small scale production the considerations change dramatically.