response 92 of 149:

Jan 14 21:13 UTC 2006

Diet sodas today are a lot different than they were back in the day 
when there were only three diet colas, tab, diet pepsi and diet rite.  
IMO were all pretty terrible back in the pre-nutrasweet days.  Tab or 
Diet Pepsi back in the old days before they figured out how to sweeten 
them better, and when they only had saccharin to use, were pretty bad 
to drink, as they had a definite aftertaste.  You really had to get 
used to drinking them.  Then Diet Coke came along in the early 
eighties, and had Nutrasweet in it, and it changed everything and soon 
the others followed suit.  Diet sodas became much sweeter and then 
later all the diet sodas were re-formulated due to various advances, 
such that many people not on diets or having high sugar levels, drank 
diet soda anyway, because they preferred it.  Now they are phasing out 
nutrasweet in favor of splenda, and thats even more of an improvement.  
They still haven't made a diet soda that tastes exactly like a regular 
soda, but they are becoming much closer.