FRESCA

[lancastermike]

I had a Fresca for lunch today. I have always liked Fresca. I commited an error by looking at the can and I discovered it has "glycerol ester of wood rosin" and "brominated vegetable oil". I may switch back to spring water for lunch.

Edited May 9, 2005 by lancastermike (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

When I was a teen-ager, I loved Fresca (and Cactus Cooler). It is/was(?) a grapefruit-based softdrink that 20-some years ago, was actually sweetened with real sugar. Now, I believe, it diet-only. Pity, though. The old stuff was great.

[kitwilliams]

Fresca made a sugared version, Caroline? I always thought it was solely a diet drink. The few diet drinks when I was a kid were Fresca, Tab and Diet-Rite Cola. It took me a long time to like Diet Coke as I was a Tab girl through and through! Strange to think that there was a time without Diet Coke...

[Andrew Fenton]

I noticed those same ingredients on a can of Fresca back in high school, but never knew what they were. So, googling spirits from the vasty deep, I found the following:

ester of wood rosin:

The glycerol ester of wood rosin is used as a stabilizer for flavoring oils in selected fruit-flavored beverages. This stabilizer weighs down the oils and keeps them in solution. The actual content of the glycerol ester of wood oil in our finished product is at no more than 100 parts per million. This concentration meets FDA (Food & Drug Administration) regulations. According to our flavor supplier, glycerol ester of wood rosin is one of the most natural of the approved FDA ingredients to perform as stabilizers in fruit-flavored beverages.

and brominated vegetable oil (the sketchier of the two- it's banned in lots of places):

Anyway, without brominated vegetable oil, your favorite lemony-limy soda would look like the Gulf of Alaska in the wake of the Exxon-Valdez. To get fat-soluble citrus flavorings to waft evenly throughout a can of sugar water thickened with seaweed or tree gum, you have to make the specific gravity of the flavor droplets match the specific gravity of the rest of the goop.

So it looks like they're both stabilizers. Like emulsifiers, only for sody pop.

Edited May 9, 2005 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[lancastermike]

I noticed those same ingredients on a can of Fresca back in high school, but never knew what they were.  So, googling spirits from the vasty deep, I found the following:

ester of wood rosin:

The glycerol ester of wood rosin is used as a stabilizer for flavoring oils in selected fruit-flavored beverages. This stabilizer weighs down the oils and keeps them in solution. The actual content of the glycerol ester of wood oil in our finished product is at no more than 100 parts per million. This concentration meets FDA (Food & Drug Administration) regulations. According to our flavor supplier, glycerol ester of wood rosin is one of the most natural of the approved FDA ingredients to perform as stabilizers in fruit-flavored beverages.

and brominated vegetable oil (the sketchier of the two- it's banned in lots of places):

Anyway, without brominated vegetable oil, your favorite lemony-limy soda would look like the Gulf of Alaska in the wake of the Exxon-Valdez. To get fat-soluble citrus flavorings to waft evenly throughout a can of sugar water thickened with seaweed or tree gum, you have to make the specific gravity of the flavor droplets match the specific gravity of the rest of the goop.

So it looks like they're both stabilizers. Like emulsifiers, only for sody pop.

←

Thanks Andrew, I believe they sound worse than they are, or at least I hope so

[Carolyn Tillie]

Fresca made a sugared version, Caroline?  I always thought it was solely a diet drink.  The few diet drinks when I was a kid were Fresca, Tab and Diet-Rite Cola.  It took me a long time to like Diet Coke as I was a Tab girl through and through!  Strange to think that there was a time without Diet Coke...

←

You know what? I am wrong on that -- what I remember is that I liked it as a kid when it was made with saccharine. Then it was re-forumalated with aspartame which I despised. The Coca-Cola website confirms the reformatting occurred in 1985.

Makes sense that my older sisters were drinking diet drinks when I was a kid and I was always stealing their cans.

[Toliver]

I noticed the same ingredient (the wood rosin stuff) in orange sodas and Squirt and had the same reaction as you. Namely

I will worry about it less, thanks to eGullet.

Anyone know if they make Diet Squirt? It's not on the shelves where I shop.

[kitwilliams]

Makes sense that my older sisters were drinking diet drinks when I was a kid and I was always stealing their cans.

←

I wish I'd had older sisters who drank diet drinks...I only have brothers who could eat and drink anything they wanted, never having to worry about their girlish figures, so all the drinks I stole were full of sugar.

[Fat Guy]

Fresca is one of my most favorite sugar-free sodas. I would really like to see them reformulate it with sucralose, though. That would, I think, eliminate the last hint of aspartame aftertaste. I imagine every soda will do this eventually -- there hardly seems to be a good excuse to use aspartame anymore.

[kitwilliams]

Anyone know if they make Diet Squirt?  It's not on the shelves where I shop.

←

Pretty sure they do.

Yup they DO!

[Andrew Fenton]

there hardly seems to be a good excuse to use aspartame anymore.

Maybe. Certainly I prefer the sucralose version of Diet Coke. But my wife-- who, as a native Georgian, has Coke flowing in her veins-- tried it and decided she preferred the aspartame version. I doubt that a full-on switch to sucralose would provoke a New Coke-style backlash, but I can see why a soda company would hesitate.

[Toliver]

Anyone know if they make Diet Squirt?  It's not on the shelves where I shop.

←

Pretty sure they do.

Yup they DO!

←

Thanks for pointing this out, kitwilliams!

[Country Cook]

Fresca always reminds me of my God Parents, whenever we visited their house or their camp (cottage) on lake superior they would have fresca and that is usually what I would drink, until I switched to beer anyways.

[pogophiles]

"brominated vegetable oil" has always been my least favorite item on the Mountain Dew ingredient list...

[rooftop1000]

Just saw a commercial for Fresca's new flavors...peach and black cherry I think. Anyone seen 'em or tried 'em yet?

tracey

[ronnie_suburban]

Just saw a commercial for Fresca's new flavors...peach and black cherry I think. Anyone seen 'em or tried 'em yet?

←

Tried the Black Cherry and didn't really care for it. The finish was horrible-tasting -- almost like bad cotton candy, but worse.

=R=

[KatieLoeb]

Just saw a commercial for Fresca's new flavors...peach and black cherry I think. Anyone seen 'em or tried 'em yet?

tracey

←

I saw this too and was quite curious. Haven't seen them in my local stores yet though.

I like regular Fresca and tequila in the summer time. Quite refreshing.

[Seitch]

Fresca is one of my most favorite sugar-free sodas. I would really like to see them reformulate it with sucralose, though. That would, I think, eliminate the last hint of aspartame aftertaste. I imagine every soda will do this eventually -- there hardly seems to be a good excuse to use aspartame anymore.

←

Fresca has non caloric sweetening? I only remember it from my childhood in the 70's but Fresca as I remembered it wasn't sweet at all. It was more like lemony flavored carbonated water. Of course the last Fresca I had was back in the early late 70's or early 80's.

[bergerka]

The peach is not bad, if you're weird like me and like fake peach flavor. The finish, though, is a little...slimy...which regular Fresca is not.

I'm just happy that because of the new flavors they're selling the regular stuff in 2-liter bottles for $.99 each at my local Gristede's.

[Toliver]

I saw last week that Target featured all the different Fresca flavors.

I didn't see any diet versions, though. Or did I just not look earnestly enough?

[ronnie_suburban]

I saw last week that Target featured all the different Fresca flavors.

I didn't see any diet versions, though.  Or did I just not look earnestly enough?

←

I always thought Fresca was innately diet.

=R=

[bergerka]

I saw last week that Target featured all the different Fresca flavors.

I didn't see any diet versions, though.  Or did I just not look earnestly enough?

←

There is no diet version of Fresca because it's all diet. Fresca has always been zero calories.

[cathrynapple]

i know overseas (south africa) fresca is sold as a non diet drink. it's so nice and citrus-yyyy.

[Holly Moore]

Back in my McDonald's days, late '60's, the word about Fresca is that it rotted out the plastic soda lines way faster than any other drink McD's carried. Could have been McD legend, but was enough for me to swear off the stuff.

[bergerka]

The magic of google reveals Fresca's annoying flash website. Did you know it's been around since 1963? Well before my time. And yes, it has always been sugar free.