I'd seriously like to see some double-blind tests on how effectively people can tell the difference between artificial sweeteners and sugar.

Like, there have been some pretty damning studies on wine with double-blind tests that have shown that while people may well have a different experience with different wines, they tend to link it with price when they know what they're drinking, and the desirability becomes pretty disconnected from price once the labels are out of the picture.

I can tell the difference between straight stevia and sugar, because that's got a bit of a flavor. But for other sweeteners?

I don't notice the difference between Diet Coke and regular Coke, and that's one that people tend to say that they can, much less Coke Zero.

But, okay. Say some people legitimately can taste the difference between sugar and a specific sweetener.

I kind of wonder how practical it'd be for those mix-at-drink-time machines to let you choose not just the drink you're using, but also the sweetener. Want aspartame, use aspartame. Want Splenda, use Splenda. Want cane sugar concentrate or corn syrup concentrate, use those.

I mean, it's pretty common in the US to have several types of powdered sweetener for coffee, let the customer choose. I'd think that we could do it with liquid sweeteners in soda too. Hell, let people adjust how sweet they want the drink, if you've already gone that far.