Soft drinks today use one sweetener more than any other. High fructose corn syrup, otherwise known as HFCS, is the horrible sweetener of choice. It’s everywhere, in everything and has, in my humble opinion, destroyed most of the root beers and sodas on the market today. And, as with so many things in this day and age, it is the fault of government as much as it is the fault of the soft drink producers.
Root beers which use pure, natural cane sugar are more often than not selling as premium beverages at premium prices. Seeing a genuinely good root beer sell for $2 or more is not an oddity. Even a handcrafted root beer from your local microbrewery could easily pull in that much without the benefit of a bottle and a snazzy label. Why the priceyness? Other than the bottle, it must be the quality, and a significant portion of the quality and taste come from that delightful caramel flavour that can only be found in cane sugar. Sugar prices are kept artificially high via tariffs, restrictions, quotas and unnecessary government protectionist interference. American sugar prices have been kept artificially elevated above the worldwide prices for 45 years or better, to the detriment of the root beer and soft drink manufacturers of this country, as well as their customers.
HFCS is cheaper than sugar, especially cane sugar. Despite the heavy refining necessary to produce HFCS, it remains cheaper than the preferred sweetener for carbonated beverages because the government subsidizes it. In other words, they use our tax dollars to keep the production of corn and corn based products low, so we have to pay more for sugar. Unfortunately, HFCS brings nothing to the party other than cloying sweetness. It is, for all intents and purposes, flavourless.
I can’t lay sole blame on the root beer and soft drink companies for using this nasty tasting product instead of the more expensive and better tasting sugar, even though they consistently lie to us and tell us there is no difference in taste. These companies have an obligation to their stockholders, owners and employees to maintain a certain level of profit in order to stay in business. Yes, they bear some of the blame for the prices of what are now considered “premium beverages” but the ultimate blame must be laid at the feet of generations of politicians who have meddled in the free market.
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