Terry K
03-09-2003, 07:13 PM
I've think I've found the WORST bottlers in the nation...Here are my nominees:
Swire Coke of Utah. These guys taste like they cut corners. I've never had worse tasting Dr Pepper or Coke. I got a bottle of DP from them (Plant TO, Fruitland Idaho), and it tasted so nasty compared to the DP I get from Pepsi Denver it wasn't even funny!
American Bottling. They really skimp on bottling...I've gotten a lot of their product that has either been flat or just plain awfully mixed. What the heck is Jim Turner thinking? Does he actually try his own products!?
Worth noting Pepsi Bottling Group and Wis-Pak both make poor tasting product as well. The stuff I've gotten from them is just plain flat and lacking flavour.
Those are the worst bottlers I've encountered..Now for the BEST ones.
Ozarks Coke/DP, Springfield, MO. Flagship for Red Fusion, and you can tell they do NOT cut corners, all product is fresh and very tasty. I don't think I've had better DP. Sadly they don't run a can line.
Admiral-Fremont Pepsi of Worland WY: These guys get EVERYTHING they make right. I've NEVER had better Pepsi from anyone. Their Mt. Dew is on the money, dnL is very good, and they make excellent tasting product. (They rival Ozarks Coke for quality!) (Yes, they still run 7up)
Another favourite of mine is Coke Consolidated. They seem to get everything they run right. They are never off in flavour and it seems like they do a lot of quality control.
Another favourite pepsi bottler of mine is Marion (Pepsi Mid-America) in Illinois. From what I've had of their products you can really tell they put an emphasis on quality. The Red Fusion I got from them was *really* good.
Pepsi bottlers in general don't ever seem to get anything they sell right. I, for one, think Pepsi needs to send the PBG and Pepsi Americas folks to Wyoming and take notes on how to bottle product right.
Coke could learn so much from Ozarks Coke & Consolidated in terms of mixture and quality. CCE needs to sack a few of its quality control people and concentrate on consistancy.
ABC...well, Jim Turner should just hire a few Admiral and OZ people and see how its done RIGHT. It bugs me that a DPSUBG bottler can't get its own products right.
CCE is getting to a uniform taste, but still there *are* differences between plants. This can only hurt the new products like Vanilla Coke, Red Fusion and the like.
I guess that's my biggest beef with soda in general..the independent bottlers seem to do MUCH better with quality and such than PBG, CCE, or ABC do. I think a lot of it is they're still mom & pop operations who know bad product sends their customers running elsewhere.
I encourage all of you who roadtrip to other territories to get the local sodas and compare. I think you'll find major differences between bottlers. Then give Coke, Pepsi, and DPSU a call. Let *them* know who's bad and good. The bottlers supposedly do get your comments back.
[ 03-09-2003, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: Terry K ]
Swire Coke of Utah. These guys taste like they cut corners. I've never had worse tasting Dr Pepper or Coke. I got a bottle of DP from them (Plant TO, Fruitland Idaho), and it tasted so nasty compared to the DP I get from Pepsi Denver it wasn't even funny!
American Bottling. They really skimp on bottling...I've gotten a lot of their product that has either been flat or just plain awfully mixed. What the heck is Jim Turner thinking? Does he actually try his own products!?
Worth noting Pepsi Bottling Group and Wis-Pak both make poor tasting product as well. The stuff I've gotten from them is just plain flat and lacking flavour.
Those are the worst bottlers I've encountered..Now for the BEST ones.
Ozarks Coke/DP, Springfield, MO. Flagship for Red Fusion, and you can tell they do NOT cut corners, all product is fresh and very tasty. I don't think I've had better DP. Sadly they don't run a can line.
Admiral-Fremont Pepsi of Worland WY: These guys get EVERYTHING they make right. I've NEVER had better Pepsi from anyone. Their Mt. Dew is on the money, dnL is very good, and they make excellent tasting product. (They rival Ozarks Coke for quality!) (Yes, they still run 7up)
Another favourite of mine is Coke Consolidated. They seem to get everything they run right. They are never off in flavour and it seems like they do a lot of quality control.
Another favourite pepsi bottler of mine is Marion (Pepsi Mid-America) in Illinois. From what I've had of their products you can really tell they put an emphasis on quality. The Red Fusion I got from them was *really* good.
Pepsi bottlers in general don't ever seem to get anything they sell right. I, for one, think Pepsi needs to send the PBG and Pepsi Americas folks to Wyoming and take notes on how to bottle product right.
Coke could learn so much from Ozarks Coke & Consolidated in terms of mixture and quality. CCE needs to sack a few of its quality control people and concentrate on consistancy.
ABC...well, Jim Turner should just hire a few Admiral and OZ people and see how its done RIGHT. It bugs me that a DPSUBG bottler can't get its own products right.
CCE is getting to a uniform taste, but still there *are* differences between plants. This can only hurt the new products like Vanilla Coke, Red Fusion and the like.
I guess that's my biggest beef with soda in general..the independent bottlers seem to do MUCH better with quality and such than PBG, CCE, or ABC do. I think a lot of it is they're still mom & pop operations who know bad product sends their customers running elsewhere.
I encourage all of you who roadtrip to other territories to get the local sodas and compare. I think you'll find major differences between bottlers. Then give Coke, Pepsi, and DPSU a call. Let *them* know who's bad and good. The bottlers supposedly do get your comments back.
[ 03-09-2003, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: Terry K ]