Have people bought less fizzy drink as a result of the sugar tax?

[Alloverthegrapevine]

I'm looking for something that suggests increasing the cost resulted in people changing their habits. I.e. why government think expanding it is a good idea. I haven't seen anything.

In our family, those who previously drank Coke are still making a point of buying "full fat" and pay the extra, but we were probably not the target as fizzy drinks have always been a once a week treat.

Have people stopped or reduced the amount they buy? Have they switched to sugar free versions? I'm afraid I'm not at all convinced they are preferable for health, or even for obesity.

Apologies, if the data is there I should be able to find it, but I haven't succeeded in that search.

I buy full-fat still. But only ever drink those drinks occasionally, so I'm not really the target audience.

Artificial sweeteners are absolutely grim. I'm prepared to pay for what tastes best and sugar free versions of drinks ain't it. Not a huge fizzy drinks person anyway.

I stopped buying them because of the sweeteners.

I don't drinky fizzy drinks after going cold turkey on diet coke years ago.

The kids sometimes have a drink when we are out and I would much rather be a full sugar version than zero or diet. They had zero Fanta once and their behaviour was absolutely hideous.

The tax has made no impact on us because we can afford it and don't buy them often.

I only buy the ones without sweeteners. I’ve cut back for health reasons rather than cost.

Also prefer chocolate without palm oil .

I only buy full fat drinks as I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners. This means I am more likely to drink coke or something like fentimans or causton press, and I don’t grab a can of sprite or Fanta like I used to. It is really hard to judge though because I’ve been home for four months... I tend to buy a large bottle of sparkling water in the supermarket and use a nice (non-sweetener) cordial when I’m at home.

Could you please pm me? I can't seem to send you a message

The threat of the tax brought in reformulation e.g. Sprite

So I guess that is what they want to replicate.

However regardless of your opinion on sweeteners they don't work in all cases as a sugar replacer

We drink either Pepsi Max or Coke Zero sugar at home with a lunch, water with dinner.

If I am eating a McDonalds I will pay extra for the full sugar because I prefer it and McDonalds is a treat every few months not a regular thing.

I drink sugar free stuff at home because I would gain too much weight if not. It does make me drink less of the stuff anyway as I don't love Pepsi Max/Coke Zero. Even on a lunch time I don't manage to finish the can. I much prefer a non-alcohol beer!

No, I only ever bought full sugar drinks anyway as artificial sweeteners give me migraines and vomiting and taste bloody awful.

I order direct from Cawston Press and buy Bottle Green/Belvoir/Virgils when I can get it. I also refuse to go places that no longer serve anything full sugar as I end up with either water or tea - which I don’t view as a treat.

It annoys the crap out of me TBH; why ruin drinks but I can still buy a massive pizza/burger/portion of chips/massive chocolate bar/ice cream/hot chocolate in the same places? We have one of those pub chains near us, which thankfully serves both Cawston Press and Appletiser, they are known for their huge desserts which surely must have more sugar than a glass of fizzy drink?

Another one who used to buy the San Pellegrino cans both out and at the Supermarket. Never touch them now, they taste revolting.

I'm probably more likely to have a glass of rose instead so it's not helping from a diet tax perspective!

No. I tend not to drink fruit juice these days, as I found I didn't drink a whole carton before it started going off, so I stopped buying it at all rather than throw half away. (I am only catering for 1.)

I preferred diet coke to full fat coke anyway, but mostly only drank it at work, and about a month into lockdown, realised I just hadn't had any fizzy drinks at all. I never missed them at the weekend, either. I have had a couple in more recent weeks, but only a couple.

My finances are not such that I need to count every penny these days - there were times in my past where any drink I paid for was a rare treat, because I did have to budget very carefully, and water from the tap was an easy way to save money.

One of my clients is a franchised convenience store. They've seen a massive switch from full-sugar fizzy drinks to the zero-sugar versions, mostly because their franchise chain withdrew the full sugar versions from their meal deals, so people ended up paying up to a pound more if they wanted their sandwich, bag of crisps and sugar fizzy drink as they were paying full price for each rather than the discounted "meal deal" price. There isn't much difference in the single/casual sales where the price was only 10p or so more.

I think the same will have happened with fast food chains, such as Subway, McDonalds, etc who seemed to do the same, i.e. remove the sugary drinks option from their meal deals.

So, 10p or so didn't make much difference, but when it was a pound (or more), that was really a behaviour changer!

@AgeLikeWine

I don’t consume fizzy drinks often, but I have been pleasantly surprised by Coke Zero, it really is so much nicer than Diet Coke, which is disgusting. I still enjoy a can of full-fat Coke as a very, very occasional treat, though

I'm the same, Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are grim, but I really like Coke Zero and Pepsi Max.

Whilst many poster on this thread have and will talk about their rejection of artificial sweetened, the reality is the the Levy motivated almost all soft drinks manufacturers to reformulate their ranges. Millions of calories gave been removed from the nation's diet. A vocal minority have complained about this and have sought out niche brands (or full fat coke/red bull/etc) that don't have artificial sweeteners but the VAST majority of consumers switched- in many cases without even realising brands had reformulated. These people are unlikely to comment on this thread but if it wasn't true, the arse would have fallen out of the volume data for most brands - which it hasn't. There have been some losses but largely at a sustainable level.

nope the sugar less fizzy drinks taste rank

tbf its not often i will drink fizzy drinks these days but when i do i pay the extra for the full sugar version

I would rather have water than a sugar free version of coke etc

I’ve obviously drunk less recently due to all the restaurants being shut, but if ever I order a drink at a restaurant it will be sparkling water (which is either free if it’s soda from the bar, or extortionate if it’s in a bottle!) or a proper Coke (it’s NOT full fat, there’s no fucking fat in Coke, it’s full sugar!)

The price doesn’t put me off, but oftentimes the bottomless refills don’t include proper Coke, so it’s just a single bottle rather than being able to go up for a second go, but tbh I rarely refill anyway, so it hasn’t changed my habits at all.

I can’t have artificial sweeteners so I just drink more of the “premium” fizzy drinks like Fever Tree. I rarely used to buy coke but as it is near impossible to buy fizzy lemonade without artificial muck in it I had a lovely full fat coke yesterday!

I am happy to pay the extra but wish more manufacturers had left me that option... Ribena and Lucozade I’m looking you 😠

I dislike the sugar free/low sugar versions of fizzy drinks too. So basically it’s meant that I just don’t order fizzy drinks at all any more. I’m not a fan of coke (where you can occasionally still choose sugar in restaurants) and there’s never any choice to have sugary sprite.

I didn’t drink fizzy drinks often anyway (maybe three or four times a year, I guess), so in doubt my non-consumption has registered in any way.

I genuinely don’t understand why anyone wants to drink squash. Even the stuff that doesn’t just taste of sweetener is something I can’t understand the appeal of.

“ A vocal minority have complained about this and have sought out niche brands (or full fat coke/red bull/etc) that don't have artificial sweeteners but the VAST majority of consumers switched- in many cases without even realising brands had reformulated.“

Do you have official stats on this? I’m not being argumentative, just surprised, as it’s not been the case for my family and friends. I appreciate that’s just my social bubble.

I’m another one who doesn’t like most non-sugar sweeteners - there are several that taste bitter or have a bitter aftertaste, which I thought was quite a common problem.

I rarely drink pop anyway - I’ve had two full sugar cokes so far this year. I drink cordial maybe once or twice a week. I’ve changed habits in that I check what I’m buying more carefully to avoid reformulations with sweeteners, and have switched brands.

I genuinely don’t understand why anyone wants to drink squash. Even the stuff that doesn’t just taste of sweetener is something I can’t understand the appeal of.

I really like NAS squash. I think I'm a weirdo going by this thread, all the low sugar/ no sugar drinks people hate I really enjoy . I have lovely memories of getting through bottles and bottles of Robinsons Apple and Blackcurrant squash when ds2 was a brand new baby- that first week you spend doing little other than feeding, I had a constant raging thirst and DH would keep my jug of weak squash topped up all the time and it was lovely.

Indirectly. I've bought less as a result of replacing sugar with sweetener.
I'd rather pay the extra and not have a drink that's Laden with sweetener.

@Feawen I doubt that the vast majority didn’t notice or loved the change. What happened was just general apathy. People just accepted it, even if they thought the change was shit. I think people often care less about how things taste than you’d think. So when it tastes a bit worse they just go with it.

I’m pretty sure absolutely no one failed to notice the change in irn bru, for example. Especially given that diet irn bru is among the most foul liquids sold as a drink.

I’m pretty sure absolutely no one failed to notice the change in irn bru, for example

I noticed. The blinding headache, stomach ache and vomiting was a bit of a giveaway that aspartame had been added.

Thing is, Barr must know they have upset a lot of people, not in the least because of the huge campaign and endless Facebook posts when they did it, but because they actively released a limited, full fat version in glass bottles that was 'original recipe'.

By all means charge more for the sugar versions, but ffs at least give us a choice.

No, it’s not made a blind bit of difference.