Why is this night different from all other nights?

Because we don't eat any HFCS.

lol

The Art of Manliness just recently did something about this: [artofmanliness.com]

Basically only touching the cola's made with real sugar because their independent taste taste came back overwhelmingly that HFCS sucked in comparison.

U-Bet chocolate syrup is the shiznit for making NY Egg Creams at home.

Ahh yes, many people forget that Coca-Cola was the preferred drink of Moses.

u-bet chocolate syrup (which I've never heard of, but John Hodgman seems to like)

Chris -- You grew up nowhere near Brooklyn, am I right?

@CreativeLinks:

When Moses was in Egypt's land,
Let
my
people...
Drink Coca Cola made with real sugarrrrrrr.

So glad they changed that verse.

No luck for me, very few Jews in KC.

@godai:

Mah nishtanah ha-lahylah ha-zeh, baby.

@sebadoh128:

I think HFCS in the Coke was the 11th plague.

While Passover Coke was a huge deal for me a couple of years ago (the only time I ever got GOOD coke was when I was traveling in europe), when Costco started carrying Mexican Coke, I found myself not worrying if I found any anmore.

And that Snapple with sugar? Found some last night, and oh lord does it taste good! Way better than the old crap.

Same catch with Lincoln, Nebraska...

@ScottRose:

HFCS tasted so awful, God Smote all the first born males in Egypt.

Ugh. I hate Passover. I can't wait to sink my teeth into a big ass pizza when its all over.

Even my friends who smoke can tell the difference between the HFCS stuff and the real sugar stuff, and their mouths are toxic ashpits. If you can't tell the difference your sense of taste must be completely shot. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: After eating half a bowl of matzoh ball soup and realizing there were noodles in it, I decided it was God's way of telling me to eat whatever I want.

Kosher = HFCS Free foods

Darn good reason to convert.

Converting = You are going to cut on what?

Darn good reason to NOT convert.

I generally drink diet, and considering I live in Northern NJ in the midst of one of the largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel, U-bet is ubiquitous.

However, those damn Manischewitz macaroons can't come too soon.

On a side note, enjoy the kosher coke while it lasts. Many Rabbis are now saying the general ban on grain products is not in fact necessary. The ban is only on yeast risen breads and products. So no beer or bread, but unleavened grain products, and even those that use a mineral (baking soda) leavening agent are allowed.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: You need hyphens. "A big ass-pizza" is different than "a big-ass pizza."

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Matzoh pizza! Yaaaaaay! I love Pesach. Matzoh brie, matzoh fried chicken...stuff I wouldn't normally eat I eat just cause its got matzoh! Yaaaay!

@Oranges w/ Cheese:

Hell yeah.

The worst I'd ever gotten yelled at by my mom was when she came home early and caught me boiling pasta during passover. Worse than stealing my dad's booze and worse than sneaking out of the house at night.

I strongly disagree and will eat bacon-topped pizza any day of any week.

@oldtaku:

and their mouths are toxic ashpits

And I'm sure your mouth is a bowl of freshness after some tofu sauteed with garlic and onion...

@ScottRose: Texas. There was one Jewish kid in my school, but none of us understood what that actually meant.

I live in Brooklyn now, though, so maybe it's time I investigate this "u-bet" phenomenon...

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Hmm I live in Provo Utah aka Mormon central USA. I wonder if we have enough Jews here to warrant this food change.

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but why do jews not like HFCS? as opposed to sugar? I was forced catholic when I was a kid, but I gave that up years ago, I'm now a good old atheist.

@ScottRose: The worst time for me was when, during passover for some stupid reason, went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. First thing my 7-year-old self went for was macaroni and cheese. Only to be seriously reprimanded by my mom and then I had to have them confiscate my entire plate. :-/

Matzah Pizza *is* good, but there's only so many days you can eat it and so many things you can do with matzah before you go crazy. A week is good enough for me, thx.

Sweet! But I hate outside junk food, so I don't know how this will impact me :(

I didn't know this...then again, my ex-roomie was a very bad Jew. Thanks for the edu-ma-cation.

@albear:

*lifted from another website which explains it much better than I could*

Kosher for Passover sodas must contain kosher for Passover ingredients. Sodas sold for everyday use contain a number of ingredients which are not kosher for Passover. Corn syrup is the everyday sweetener of choice, since it is cheaper for the manufacturer than cane sugar. Passover formulations must contain cane sugar. Sodas contain flavorings and colorings that may contain grain based alcohol which is not kosher for Passover. Everyday sodas also need kosher certification for everyday use since a number of innocuous sounding ingredients may be non-kosher. For example colorings and flavorings could be of animal, insect or grape origins especially in "all natural" products. Natural flavorings include civet (from cat), musk (from ox), castoreum (from beaver), ambergris (from whales) and grapes. (Kashrus Magazine, April, 1987, p. 60) Oils are used in some sodas and these need certification.

I was a diet drinker, and I've recently given up all soda... but I might get this as a treat anyway, if I can find it. Be interested to see what it tastes like with a good rum (which I gave up about a year ago).

@pb5000: You get a heart click for reading such a wonderful blog.

Source?

@Corporate-Shill: Last time I checked, they don't check at the register if you're Jewish or not, so I guess you don't need to cut "there."

@albear: It's not really that Jews don't like it, but that during Passover, there are restrictions against eating grains (wheat, rye, oats, etc) in any form other than matza. Is corn a grain? Some Jews say yes, others say no.

Many Jews - especially those of European ancestry - consider corn to be a grain, and won't eat it during passover. They probably will also not eat rice and legumes such as lentils. It's open for interpretation - Corn wasn't found in areas Jews lived in during biblical times, so it's not specifically mentioned as something you shouldn't eat during Passover, but most European Jews avoid it.

Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry tend to eat rice, and might eat corn, but it's not the most common ingredient in traditional passover foods.

@albear: Basically, you can't eat bread or anything that can potentially be used to make bread (except matzah and matzah-created products) over Passover. Corn = cornbread, so it's a no-no for Passover.

@albear: "forced catholic"
Reminds me of George Carlin, when he said "I was Catholic, at least until the age of reason."

Look for the yellow caps. But you can normally find stuff in the kosher section of your grocery store...which is right next to the asian section for some reason

if you just want to see whether you can really taste a difference between HFCS and cane or beet sugar, now's your chance.

Dwight Schrute isn't impressed by your HFCS, and can easily tell the difference.

A local market keeps a palette, and i mean that literally, stocked with the Mexican Coa-Cola made with cane sugar. I like it better than the Kosher coke. So tasty.

When I lived in NYC I had to find tha rare bodega that carried Mexican Coca-Cola or go to south Williamsburg where kosher coke is stocked year-round.

In other news, I will one day have diabetes.

@Corporate-Shill:
2 fallacies.

1)HFCS food is only not kosher during passover.

2a)When converting you don't normally get a circumcision
2b)You are confused to what a circumcision actually entails

@ScottRose: It's true. *shrug* Smoking fucks up your taste buds wicked bad.

i don't live in a major city or jewish market, but i wonder if i called my local coke or pepsi bottler, could they order this for me?

I'm shocked and disappointed at all this Passover creep. What ever happened to Purim, hmmm? We just finished up with Tu B'shvat and now all of a sudden it's time for Passover? Man, they just keep moving it up earlier and earlier!

/too many Jewish holidays
// off to bake some hamentaschen

oh i have another question. why is corn banned during passover? Corn doesn't exist in the holy lands, it's native to the americas

@El_Fez: Hey wait, Costco sells Mexican coke? When did this happen?

@Chris Walters:

:) It totally sucks, IMO. But I grew up on it, so it has that tang of nostalgia.

They sell it at my Stop and Shop on Long Island, so I'll bet dollars to chocolate-syrup-drenched donuts that you can find it near you..

@ScottRose:

And I'm sure your mouth is a bowl of delicious goodness after some tofu sauteed with garlic and onion...

@Nicole Glynn:

1) I haven't noticed a difference. I mean in trying new restaurants and detecting flavors and stuff as compared to my [non-smoking] friends' abilities.

2) "Toxic ashpits" is a bit of an asshat way of saying what you just tried to say in a rational fashion.

Hence my disdain for the original comment and my insinuation taht

@albear:

the special kosher requirements of Passover forbid grain-based foods-hence the ban on HFCS.

*that oldtaku has some sort of hippie agenda to push.

@Nicole Glynn: for some people. my sister can't tell the difference and she can't even tell the difference between splenda and sugar. and she doesn't smoke.
i've been chain smoking for almost 15 years and i can taste the differences in more things than she can.