Mildly Infuriating

I can steep tea at home for pennies what the Southern fried fuck

New strategy to refrain consumers from buying soft drinks? Perhaps high taxation behind it, like special purpose taxes?

I remember this happened in my country; to cull high sugar and sweetners content, the industry threw a fit, the authorities didn't care, life moved forward and sugar content in soft drinks dropped (but not the prices).

Lipton was always much more expensive than other brands, as well.

I paid 8 Euros for 1L of Coke in Germany 15 years ago. To be fair that was at Oktoberfest... I think the beer was the same price.

I agree though, too expensive for day to day consumption.

That isnt a drink, its flavoured sugar water with some nasty chemicals hidden in there

I buy no-name colas - store brands and such. It's pennies per gallon and I honestly can't tell the difference between them and Coke / Pepsi. If there is a difference, at the second gulp, I'm already used to the new thing enough to have forgotten. I don't think I've bought the real thing in 25 years.

90% of the price is the brand name.

At that point just make it yourself

Yep, I agree. I stopped buying fancy coffee drinks for the same reason

Alternatively, you can walk to the coca cola shelf, pick up a 250 ml glass bottle and pay about 6.3 €/l. You know, there are really expensive specialty coffee beans that produce a drinkable liquid that costs less than that.

It's like a dollar here in Brazil.

These became too expensive in my country too. Only buy it occasionally now once in 3 months. Prob they're doing a favor to my health :)

Don't go into a Starbucks.

For many reasons, but you certainly won't like the pricing there either.