After decent day I thought I’d make Singapore noodles with Fanta orange chicken. Because the sugar is being sucked out of soft drinks I had to actually spoon sugar in to get it caramelise nicely.
Madness I tell you.

A) Sugar in drinks isn’t banned they chose to remove it because they didn’t want to make the drinks more expensive
B) Do you really mean caramelised? As in cooking sucrose at over 160 degrees C? Or do you mean the Maillard reaction?

*CAnCeL CuLTURE!*

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do you mean the Maillard reaction?

An allergy to duck?

I am pretty annoyed about Coco Pops though. They used to be lush. A decadent treat when baked. And now, presumably because some people were feeding it to their children – breakfast, lunch and dinner, we all have to miss out. Sad times 🙁

C? Or do you mean the Maillard reaction?

Almost certainly. Let me check with wiki.

I’d suggest using Orange Lucozade but if the adverts are to be believed, you’ll need to cook it 20% longer…

I am pretty annoyed about Coco Pops though. They used to be lush. A decadent treat when baked. And now, presumably because some people were feeding it to their children – breakfast, lunch and dinner, we all have to miss out. Sad times

You can still buy them?

Yeah that pees me off too. I eat very little sugar but i do like a glass of squash every now and then and try to avoid artificial additives as much as possible. Away in France just now and it’s nice to have a choice of cordials without a hint of sucralose in sight and not costing £3.70 for a 500ml bottle of elderflower and rose petal or whatever. Grrr. Rant.

I eat very little sugar but i do like a glass of squash every now and then and try to avoid artificial additives as much as possible.

That’s my rant too. I would have been happier if the response to the sugar tax was to make squash less sweet, but they’ve just swapped the sugar for artificial sweetener. People add their own sugar to tea and coffee if they want it, why not squash? (apart form it being harder to dissolve in a cold drink). Artificial sweetener just maintains a liking for sweetness; we need to adapt to less sweet.

I was shocked when coming back from 3 weeks I’m Australia over Christmas to find they only sell Bundaberg ginger beer here with sweetener in them 🙁
I need to get a load ordered from Denmark before Brexit will make that even more expensive.

San Pellegrino lemon etc is pretty shit now, but it did have obscene levels of sugar in it. It’s just Tory Fanta anyway.

Irn Bru.

RIP.

At least Coca Cola had some balls.

Yeah, piss off.

You want to buy a drink from a shop that isn’t laden with sugar, your options in most places are Diet Coke or bottled water. Cry me a river.

“Artificial sweetener” tastes slightly different until you get used to it, but the notion that a pinch of sweetener is worse for you than fifty grams of sugar in a half-litre bottle of Coke is pseudo-scientific nonsense.

I cannot stand the taste of sweeteners.

It’s not the taste of sweeteners, its the way that the chicken didn’t cook down like it used to. Booo!
Tasted great in the end though so thats all that matters.
I never touch soft drinks except for reduced sugar Tesco ginger beer that gets used for the occasional Moscow Mule or Dark’n’Stormy. It’s coffee, tea or water most of the time.

I suppose cooking grown-up recipes is out of the question? 🤣

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Fixed.

You want to buy a drink from a shop that isn’t laden with sugar, your options in most places are Diet Coke or bottled water. Cry me a river.

Very much this. For a hassle free drink, we’re always after sugar free drinks for our lad (type1 diabetic) and the number of times it’s still Diet Coke or nothing is insane.

It’s not the taste of sweeteners, its the way that the chicken didn’t cook down like it used to. Booo!

So now you have discovered that you don’t need Fanta at all – and you can probably use real orange juice, sugar and perhaps some white wine vinegar to make something nice…

I suppose cooking grown-up recipes is out of the question?

I do grown-up cooking as well, but sometimes making oriental dishes you have to improvise unless you have stuff to hand. This tastes remarkably like one of the orange chicken dishes at my local Chinese restaurant.

So now you have discovered that you don’t need Fanta at all – and you can probably use real orange juice, sugar and perhaps some white wine vinegar to make something nice…

How do you know it doesn’t taste ‘nice? Didn’t see you at the table last night. There was also real orange juice and lemon juice in there along with garlic, ginger and scallions.

Oh by the way, my original post was a bit tongue in cheek…
I totally get the need for a reduction in sugar for many folk’s diets.

Sounds tasty anyway, to be honest.

Yup, classic sweet orange chicken with some hot Singapore noodles and veg.

Pretty sure it’s not “classic” or even Chinese in origin. Wasn’t it a Western invention for customers with limited palates who just liked gorging on sugar? 😂 Glad you enjoyed it though 😉

I don’t understand why the sugar tax is even applied to squash. No-one drinks it neat, do they?

If you dilute blackcurrant squash 1 part squash to 4 parts water (as recommended), that gives 4.8g per 100ml – below the lower threshold of 5g. So why the tax?

I thought I’d make Singapore noodles with Fanta Nazi chemistry experiment orange chicken

FTFY. You do realize that Fanta was concocted by Nazi scientists because the wartime blockade meant there wasn’t real food to make soft-drinks with? Every time I see Fanta, all I can think of is Nazis poisoning children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanta

FTFY. You do realize that Fanta was concocted by Nazi scientists because the wartime blockade meant there wasn’t real food to make soft-drinks with? Every time I see Fanta, all I can think of is Nazis poisoning children.

That’s somewhat sensationalist.

It wasn’t concocted by Nazi scientists, they were no more “Nazi scientists” than I’m a Conservative anything. It was created by Coca-Cola scientists in Nazi Germany because they couldn’t get syrup from the US.

They weren’t “poisoning children” (or at least not with Fanta), they were providing an alternative pop to Coke.

Fanta as we know today was created in Italy.

Aside from that, you’re bang on the money.

But without their work we wouldn’t have the Fantanas!

It was created by Coca-Cola scientists in Nazi Germany

Because weirdly (or not, actually) American companies still operated in Nazi Germany even after the US joined the war. IBM made punch card systems to help identify Jews and organise the concentration camps.

According to this the main man involved in creating Fanta was pretty rabidly pro-Nazi.

7 Brands With Nazi Ties That We All Use

That’s somewhat sensationalist.

Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.

An allergy to duck?

🤣👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

“Artificial sweetener” tastes slightly different until you get used to it, but the notion that a pinch of sweetener is worse for you than fifty grams of sugar in a half-litre bottle of Coke is pseudo-scientific nonsense.

Unless you’re one of the unfortunate minority of aspartame supertasters to whom it tastes really bitter.
I have had a lifelong love of Irn Bru. It was the defining taste of my life and now it is ruined.
I can only drink full fat Coke now. All other fizzy drinks have been ruined by the sugar tax.
A tax i’d gladly pay if it was an option but, other than Coke, it’s not.

Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.

And making shit up is no virtue. There were plenty of people in Nazi Germany that weren’t Nazis (or sympathisers thereof), just as today a referendum result of 48:52 is not “the will of the people.”

Grum’s link is an interesting read. The Fanta one is on page 3.

Unless you’re one of the unfortunate minority of aspartame supertasters to whom it tastes really bitter.
I have had a lifelong love of Irn Bru. It was the defining taste of my life and now it is ruined.

Ah, that sucks. I’d no idea that was a thing, probably got lost in all the conspiracy theories. But really it’s not a pro-sugar argument but a pro-alternative sweeteners argument.

Is this any use? Seems like you’ve got more options than you think:

Aspartame-Free Drinks List (UK)

Thought Irn Bru 1901 was a return to full fat.

Anyone else remember the Irn Bru billboard above Central Station in Glasgow?

https://m.facebook.com/lostglasgowofficial/photos/pcb.703340149777844/703339823111210/?type=3&source=48&__tn__=EH-R

Yeah, piss off.

You want to buy a drink from a shop that isn’t laden with sugar, your options in most places are Diet Coke or bottled water. Cry me a river.

Well apart from the fact that artificial sweeteners have several negative effects. Some people are sensitive to artificial sweeteners and can have significant digestive impacts. Consumption of artificial sweeteners has negative effects on the management of blood sugar, the longer term consequences of which are still being studied.

Maybe the ‘cry me a river’ response isn’t the most sensible…

Unless you have a specific intolerance to them they are definitely no worse than sugar in terms of management of blood sugar though. There are a lot of myths about the evils of sweeteners, especially aspartame.

There are a lot of myths about the evils of sweeteners, especially aspartame.

True, Grum. There are.

However, the reply Cougar made isn’t really that mature, hence the point I made. My choices are now quite limited when it comes to soft drinks and some foods. I have no issue with a sugar tax, but a reduction in choice is problematic – I suffer quite badly and sometimes violently from intolerance…

There were plenty of people in Nazi Germany that weren’t Nazis (or sympathisers thereof)

The boss of Coca-Cola Germany was a member of the Nazi party, like pretty much everyone else in a position of authority. Refusing to join the party would have been career suicide, so everyone was a member. It’s quite possible that he wasn’t a sympathizer, just a collaborator because he needed the political connections to get supplies, but that’s what everyone said after the war so it’s impossible to know who was really a Nazi and who was just being pragmatic. His political connections meant Coca-Cola could obtain sugar when his competitors were forced to use saccharin. Fanta was used as a cooking ingredient because it contained real sugar, which was heavily rationed.

Well apart from the fact that artificial sweeteners have several negative effects.

Proof?

Whereas several tablespoons of sugar in a glass of Coke has well-documented health benefits. Vaping’s bad for you, best get back on the fags.

Some people are sensitive to artificial sweeteners

So? Some people are sensitive to all manner of things, that doesn’t make those things inherently bad. I’ve a mate who is allergic to seafood. One of my exes was violently allergic to kiwi fruit, she was once hospitalised by eating a fruit salad where a piece of fruit had touched kiwi in the kitchen. She went into anaphylactic shock and couldn’t breathe.

If we got rid of everything that “some people are sensitive” to, you’d be on a diet of tap water and warm gravel.

Consumption of artificial sweeteners has negative effects on the management of blood sugar, the longer term consequences of which are still being studied.

… allegedly. There’s no evidence of this beyond pumping mice full of heroic amounts of the stuff and being surprised when their gut bacteria changed.

Aspartame is one of the single most tested foodstuffs on the planet, not least because of all the unfounded scare stories around it.

However, the reply Cougar made isn’t really that mature, hence the point I made.

It wasn’t supposed to be mature, it was intended to be a bit silly. Sorry if that’s not how it came across.

My choices are now quite limited when it comes to soft drinks and some foods… a reduction in choice is problematic

Exactly the point I was making. You want something without sweetener your choice is full-fat Coke or water. I want something without sugar my choice is diet Coke or water. More choice is always good.

I suffer quite badly and sometimes violently from intolerance…

There’s a lot of that going about on this forum. (-:

Quite a lot of the reason why I drink more beer than I probably should. There aren’t too many choices of you want a cold, savoury beverage. There’s beer or water.