Milk whey? In MY soda? Fucking softdrinks, how do they work?

[Cain]

Yesterday I was introduced to Rivella, a Swiss soda which, upon tasting, seems like any ordinary soda.  It looks like Red Bull, and tastes vaugely of berries.

However, turn to the ingredients, and I find out it is one third milk whey.  WTF?  Trip, shed light on this insanity, Rivella is apparently popular in your country, too.  Is this a ploy to get the kids drinking calcium, or is it just the typical Swiss obsession with their own milk-based products?

[Jasper]

The shit?

I know some people used to mix milk with their coke, but this is weirder. 

[Triple Zero]

yes. I always used to think it was invented in NL actually, but recently found out it's Swiss indeed.

it was explained to me as a result of there being too much milk. apparently, at some point, due to farmers subsidising or such, there was more milk than they knew what to do with. cause milk cows produce milk whether you need it or not.

so they made lots of butter and then they were still left with a shitload of whey. and so they came up with Rivella.

however this makes sense in the context of NL where we did in fact have a milk surplus, I have no idea if Switzerland had the same issue.

the slogan for Rivella is "a littlebit strange, but tasty" with the commercials exploiting all the types of sexual innuendo they could come up for that phrase. you can probably find them on youtube, from what I remember they're pretty weird, but it's been years since I saw one of those.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeoQ7KXf6fc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGbOfITmiHU
more: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rivella+vreemd&aq=f


there is also another drink called "Taksi" (might be named differently elsewhere) which is a mixture of fruit juices and whey.

IMO, they're pretty tasty, although a littlebit strange.


.. checking wikipedia I can find no source for the milk surplus story, so maybe that's bullshit. Dutch wikipedia says it was introduced in 1958 in NL for diabetics. Since it contains no sugar. Or, the light (diet) version doesn't. I'm not sure.

oh and apparently whey is a byproduct from cheese, not butter.

apologies for the convolutedness of this reply, but enjoy the videos

[Jasper]

I kinda want to try it. 

[AFK]

Seconded. 

[Cain]

The original version has a truckload of sugar in it, going by the label.

It tastes good...but you know there is something a little odd about it as well.

[Jenne]

Afghans, Iranians (Persians) and Indians drink a yogurt "soft drink" that sometimes has soda added to it (carbonation of some sort, anyway).  In Persian t's called "dough" with a hard spitting, velar sound at the end, or lassi for the Hindi/Urdu speakers.  It's a plain yogurt drink that is watered down, usually has some mint and salt added.  The "canned" non-homemade versions do tend to have the fizz, I prefer it without the fizz.  The Indian/Pakistani versions usually have mango for the folks not used to drinking yogurt.    Both are delicious, and the lassi is usually still pretty sweet.

Mmm...makes me want to blend up some doughs and have it later, but I'm going out.