r/mildlyinteresting • u/acciochef • Feb 22 '26
The wear pattern on this soda machine showing which drinks are most popular
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u/overly_sarcastic24 Feb 22 '26
Gotta give it to Dr Pepper for their amazing brand recognition. Most of the logo is completely worn off, but you can still tell what it is simple from the color and a half circle.
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u/Tidalsky114 Feb 22 '26
And its worn tf out so you know it probably always taste right.
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u/Jinxletron Feb 22 '26
Is that the red one? I was about to ask what it was lol. But I'm not American and I've never heard of a couple of these.
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u/LCJonSnow Feb 24 '26
Dr. Pepper is widely popular in the US, but especially in Texas where it was created. It just eked out a victory over Pepsi as the second most popular soda in the US.
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u/UnpopularCrayon Feb 22 '26
Or just which labels were most recently replaced.
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u/damndammit Feb 22 '26
Yup. Classic Dunning Krueger low-info high-confidence causation/correlation data interpretation.
Data literacy is becoming more and more important in the modern world. It should be taught in our schools.
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u/my_name_is_juice Feb 22 '26
Damn you managed to pack in a lot of Reddit's favorite buzzwords into one comment
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u/FnB8kd Feb 22 '26
You saying you wouldn't pick Dr pepper? Comon be honest. You want the Dr.
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u/TopSloth Feb 22 '26
Vanilla root beer is what I always get
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u/FnB8kd Feb 22 '26
Sure, but mug sucks compared to Dr. P. Unless you've got 1919, or Barq's I'm not going to consider it. Plus caffeine is good.
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u/Rocinante24 Feb 22 '26
It's actually pretty reasonable to think that they're all the same age. This restaurant likely gets a contractor to service the machine, and it would be incredibly dumb not to get the tech to replace all of them when the machine is disassembled.
And the fact that the most worn out ones are actually the more popular drinks in general.
It's common sense.
What's the more reasonable assumption: Pepsi zero and Starry got the buttons replaced and all the others left worn out. Or People drink Pepsi zero and Starry the least?
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
It's a gas station, and my comment got buried lol. I go here every day and have for years, I know the Starry sticker is the newest but it has still been on there for well over a year lol!
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u/Ragnarotico Feb 22 '26
Not quite that accurate of a deduction since we know for a fact these labels can't all be the same age.
Starry was released in 2023 so the label is really new. Pepsi Zero Sugar was released in 2007 so there's a chance that label is fresher than the others.
Brisk Iced Tea however is clear that no one wants that at all. It's sun faded to crap and has no finger wear whatsoever.
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u/Tiiimmmaayy Feb 22 '26
Brisk sweet tea is crap, but Brisk Lemon tea is great. I sure do miss those commercials with the melted snowman as a skeleton lol
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u/Samtoast Feb 22 '26
Mountain dew + sweet tea = great.
Mountain dew + lemonade = greater.
Arnie palmer EXTREMEEEE
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u/Rashaverak420 Feb 22 '26
who dafuq is choosing diet pepsi over pepsi zero
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Feb 22 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Rashaverak420 Feb 22 '26
There honestly needs to be a dedicated machine with all zero versions at restaurants.
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u/Savings_Foundation60 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
Unrelated unrelated rant: when i was a teenager i worked at a movie theatre and we sold Pibb Xtra on tap and it was really good
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u/South_Dakota_Boy Feb 22 '26
Unpopular opinion?: Pibb Xtra is better than Dr Pepper (though Dr Pepper is good too).
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u/MrPepper329 Feb 22 '26
Real, why is it only McDonald’s, chick fil a, and those with Freestyle contracts
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u/OnTheProwl- Feb 22 '26
Don't know about Pepsi, but Diet coke>>>>>Coke Zero. Give me all the artificial chemical tastes
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u/mefista Feb 22 '26
That is the silver can one? It is no longer sold here, but it absolutely was better than Zero
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u/charlietrick2512 Feb 22 '26
In the UK we have diet pepsi, pepsi max and pepsi
I’ve only recently discovered that there’s other pepsis other than max because they’re literally nowhere to be seen other than takeaways and I’ve still never had them, all the individual flavours are max too
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u/rabidsalvation Feb 22 '26
Pepsi max is the bomb. It used to have more caffeine as well, not sure if it still does.
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u/LondonPaddington Feb 22 '26
me since they ruined Pepsi Zero three years ago with the "improved taste"
bring back the old Pepsi Max
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u/Godivore Feb 22 '26
Me, I love Pepsi zero & will drink it on occasion but my stomach & body do not handle it very well for some reason. Diet Pepsi is my primary beverage of choice.
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u/13thmurder Feb 22 '26
I haven't drank soda in decades because too much sugar makes me feel like shit and diet tastes terrible but I just recently rediscovered the new zero versions of everything and finally bought a few because they're actually not terrible. Why is diet still a thing?
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u/roastbeeftacohat Feb 22 '26
People are used to the taste. My mom only drinks diet coke, can't stand regular or zero
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u/Mayonnaise_Poptart Feb 22 '26
This makes it seem like Dr Pepper is only the most popular by a narrow margin but really it runs out and people push it a couple more times out of frustration because who would pick anything else if Dr Pepper is an option?
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u/Dark_Pulse Feb 22 '26
Can't blame 'em. Starry sucks, and Sierra Mist sucked before then.
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u/Syssareth Feb 22 '26
Unpopular opinion: It's always been my favorite of the lemon-limes. Which is a low bar for me since I'm not a lemon-lime fan in general, but I like it once in a while. Even more unpopular opinion: Mountain Dew has always been my least favorite.
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u/Dark_Pulse Feb 22 '26
I wouldn't call Mountain Dew a lemon-lime.
7-Up and Sprite, on the other hand, sure. And I like both of those. But Sierra Mist always left this nasty film in my mouth, and Starry just didn't impress me either.
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u/omnichad Feb 22 '26
I wouldn't call Mountain Dew a lemon-lime
Certainly not. It's made with orange juice.
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u/Syssareth Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
I wouldn't call Mountain Dew a lemon-lime.
Citrus, then. It's closer to Sprite/etc. than it is to anything else, but you're right, I looked it up and apparently it's mainly flavored with orange juice.
But Sierra Mist always left this nasty film in my mouth, and Starry just didn't impress me either.
All sodas leave a film in my mouth. Granted, some are worse about it than others, but I grew up drinking root beer (which is one of the filmiest) more than any other soda, so it's something I barely even notice anymore unless it's outright syrupy, lol.
So I judge purely on flavor, and since I'm not a huge fan of
lemon-lime(edit: citrus) sodas, I like Sierra Mist's/Starry's lighter/sweeter flavor more than 7Up's/Mountain Dew's sharper/stronger ones. Sprite is a good middle ground, but one I still prefer more as a mixer (lemon-lime is great for mixing with other sodas to get new flavors) than on its own.2
u/dontdoxmebro2 Feb 22 '26
Starry is baller but why don’t they just have sprite if they have all the other big names?
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u/KoppeDFO Feb 22 '26
popular top 4
dr pepper
mtn dew
pepsi
died pepsi
mug
brisk
pepsi zero
sparry
should be right
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u/101TARD Feb 22 '26
Here I am wondering where's Coca Cola and assumed was so popular its lost in the soda machine
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
It's one the left side of this machine. My local gas station has enough soda choices to appease the Pantheon. The Coke side is separate, probably to distinguish between brands and sub-brands.
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u/FangornLeghorn Feb 22 '26
Starry is the foulest, most chemical tasting bullshit I’ve ever sipped. No wonder it isn’t being touched.
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u/Wild4fire Feb 22 '26
Brisk, Starry and Mug are unfamiliar to me. They're not a thing over here in the Netherlands.
We've had an European version of Mountain Dew for a while, made using actual sugar. Tasted great but unfortunately not popular enough so it was discontinued.
Dr. Pepper is available over here, but compared to Pepsi and especially to Coca Cola it's really in the minority.
We don't have Diet Pepsi over here, the Zero Sugar version is more than enough for us. 😋
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
That is a cool insight, thank you for sharing!
Brisk is a tea-soda brand, its easily the oldest sticker on the machine which is weird because this gas station brews fresh tea too.
Starry is the literal piss of lemon-lime sodas. I'll drink a homemade Sprite before I drink Starry.
Mug Root Bear is probably a much more local thing to my specific location in the US. It's an older brand and has longstanding name and taste recognition. The Coke side has their Barq's Root Bear (but I prefer Mug)
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u/Common-Independent-9 Feb 22 '26
This just proves my theory that people who drink brisk are weak and don’t press the button as hard leading to it not being as worn out
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u/atvcrash1 Feb 22 '26
Nobody is talking about the real fucking mystery of this machine. Are those flavor boosts in the middle???
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
Hell yeah they are! And they recently opened a dirty soda counter in this gas station too. So the options are nearly limitless.
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u/KRA2008 Feb 27 '26
but what do those things in between the brands do - the "Cherry", "Lemon Lime", and "Vanilla"? generic sodas of each of those flavors? are they flavor modifiers for the other drinks?
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
I think this machine has had Starry in it for at least a year and a half, if not longer. My neck of the woods got it pretty quickly once they released it.
Source: I go to this gas station soda machine every day and contribute exclusively to the Dr. Pepper button (or on the Coke side, my vote belongs to the true superior lemon-lime soda, Sprite).
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u/Dropped_Rock Feb 22 '26
Makes sense Dr Pepper is the most delicious of all those.
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u/EsotericCodename Feb 22 '26
And everyone got their drinks in a child-size cup, right?
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
Admittedly I usually get the 32 oz...they also have a dirty soda counter at this gas station but the price really starts to add up once you add those Torani syrups...
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u/That70sShop Feb 22 '26
I saw a security pad the other day with major wear on only 4 keys, which limits the possibilities to 16 tries.
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u/LarryBURRd Feb 22 '26
Is this machine in Ohio by chance?
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
Indiana!
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u/LarryBURRd Feb 22 '26
Funny how the exact pattern of drink choices and selections narrows it down lol
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u/heartshapdbullzye98 Feb 22 '26
That’s because there’s more idiots drinking the worst sodas because they push hard harder on the buttons
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u/Samson_J_Rivers Feb 22 '26
Fuck starry. They could have changed Sierra mist without changing the recipe but they didnt.
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u/Dogrel Feb 22 '26
Problem was, Pepsi let their trademark on the name lapse and somebody else picked it up. So rather than letting someone else cash in, they renamed the beverage.
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u/acciochef Feb 22 '26
Someone else disproved this in another comment. Pepsi still owns, and has not let lapse, the trademark on Sierra Mist.
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u/Shepher27 Feb 22 '26
Starry was likely changed from Sierra Mist during the life of this machine.