Well, you’re not really supposed to drink it all in one sitting. You’re supposed to drink it all in less than a full sitting and then get a free refill to throw out the window on the way back home because the ice melted and you have several liters of cola in your fridge anyway.
It’s all ice anyway….
You can ask for no ice and get the 1L of soda experience just as it was meant to be
A lot won’t do that anymore or have an auto size fill that even without ice you’ll get less of a product. Except for self serve stations, in that case, pour away! Oh, though some of them have added rfid tags to the cups so you can only use their cup and for a limited time. Ain’t capitalism grand.
Go to A&W, they never add ice.
I’ve had theaters only allowing one refill, but that was either with a marker to the bottom or honor system (as far as that goes for $8 drinks). But tracking it with a chip is insanity
Capitalism, baby! Every innovation is not for your sake. It’s for their bottom line.
“butbutbut it’s the best economic system ever!” Says every fucking moron that doesn’t understand scientific and technological advancement.
Meant to be, so with cocaine? Awesome!
I always do
Fun fact: soda fountain soda is mixed with less water than cans/bottles because it assumes you’ll add ice.
Even the smallest size is over 400ml? How are Americans not constantly dying for a piss and feeling bloated as hell?
Aren’t their drinks like 80% full of ice? I feel like despite the cup sizes they probably don’t end up with that much more soda
How exactly do they advertise the cups? Because my local legislation would demand that if they said a “400ml Coke” I need to get 400ml of liquid Coke, regardless of the size of the container or the ice. But if they sneakily say "do you want a 400ml CUP and later on you decide what goes inside the cup, then yes.
It’s just “a small cup”
Over here that would still possibly be a problem depending on the expected association the customer makes.
“I want some Coke”
“Got it, and will that be a medium?”
“What size is a medium?”
“400ml”
Then the implicit expectation is 400ml of the Coke being ordered
“What size is a medium?”
They’d just grab the cup to show you. Where do you live that the workers would actually reply to you with the actual measurement?
Brazil
Also in Europe it would be totally normal to respond with measurements. 200 ml, 0.33, and half liter are the standard ones. In the UK there’s pints and half pints.
If somebody just pointed at the container for me instead of telling me the size I would probably consider it weird. Maybe it’s normal in fast food joints.
I believe in America the corporation is given the edge. “We didn’t say you’d get 400ml of coke, we said a medium was 400ml.” Is a legally viable argument. Its only false advertising if taking the statement at face value is provably false, a la “Red Bull gives you wings” was changed to “Red bull gives you wiiiings” because the original was provably false, and the second one can be defended as “wiiiings isn’t a real word so it doesn’t mean anything”
We are way beyond punishing folks for false advertising, sadly.
Unless you ask for no/less ice, yeah, most of the volume is ice. I’d wager that for the typical fountain drink, they’re probably pretty close to the same amount of sugar syrup. Now, is the ice any better for you? No, that shits FILTHY, but that’s a story for another time.
Restaurant Impossible made me always ask for no ice. Ew.
Oooo why’s that? Disgusting ice machines? I only ever get takeout so I never get store drinks, but I used to always get lots ice as a kid cuz I loved to chew it.
Often filled with mold and bacteria. Cold + dark + damp + almost never cleaned = pure nastiness
Ewwwww nice. I’ll continue avoiding those hahaha.
My office has a nugget ice dispenser, they got it about six months ago… I’ll never stop using that when I stop by there, even when it’s disgusting. Nugget ice is the best thing ever.
They do though.
The diabetes gets 'em first.
Well at least they save money on shoes!
I’m American but I don’t drink soda. But if you fill this with water, I don’t think it’s that ridiculous? My point is, it’s not the amount of liquid that’s the issue, it’s the soda. Stay hydrated (with water).
That was kind of my point, too: if you’re drinking 3-4litres of water a day as a minimum, and then adding at least another 400ml+ of soda at the smallest size? Mad!
We are
because the idiots are paying for ice not soda
That’s the neat part…
In general it’s probably about 250 to 300ml of ice unless you make sure to ask for light or no ice.
I don’t know many people that even get soda
I certain don’t
“Then, there is a horrifying 512-ounce version that they call child size. How is this a child-sized soda?”
“Well, it’s roughly the size of a two-year old child, if the child were liquefied. It’s a real bargain at $1.59.”
It’s the size of a small child
The real insanity is still using X/Twitter
Ahem, xhitter.
shitter
To be fair it’s not a full liter even if it was 1000ml.
Over half the damn thing is ice. They also have a custom blend so they can cut it with more water than normal coke. Not the same as pounding a new sealed bottle.
GET A LITRE COLA
Just order a large, Farva.
With no spit!

Oh my God I was thinking of this exact scene before I scrolled down. Parks and Rec was brilliant.
Litre of cola
It’s for a cop
Hold the spit
What’s that, extra spit?
(I know I know, it’s a Super Troopers reference but I couldn’t help it)
I don’t want a large Farva!
It’s French for give me some god damn Cola!
Leedercola?
I just want my god damned leederacola
That should be measure in length units.
I accidentally a liter of cola
“liter of soda ot once…”
Well, unless you ask for no ice is more like 325oz of soda with 425oz of ice. Yet also cost $3.29 because fuck you.
When I worked there in the uk we used to press S, M, or L and then it would fill most of the way if you had no ice. I’d say 90% soda.
Ill take a litre of cola
They don’t have a litre. Just have a large, Farva.
I don’t want a large Farva, I want a god damn liter o cola!
Litre is French for give me some fucking cola before I break vous fucking lips!
“It’s for a cop”
A what?
Stop with all the shenanigans!
When I was a teen we’d often get a “cube” (24 pack of 12oz cans) of Mountain Dew and drink it in a night. It seems horrific to me now.
Eww I’m gonna tell my buddy about this over the twelve pack of beer we split tonight.
Important to bear in mind that Americans also put a ton of ice in the cup too.
It’s the same in UK, ice is cheaper than cola syrup
Oh, interesting. I thought that wasn’t so much a thing over there.
It’s insane to me that the US small is almost as big as the UK large.
gEtTiNg R mUneY’s wUrTh!!!
Can an American confirm this is true? I checked the Polish ones and they are the same as UKs.
I’m American. It’s true. But they do have a lot of ice in the cups.
Gotta specify ‘light ice’ or ‘easy ice’ or shit is 97% frozen water and 3% actual soda.
Isn’t that the idea?
I used to live in a place where they just don’t do ice in soda at all, and it’s like licking a can of dried out syrup. In the local Imax they didn’t even have ice at all as an option. They looked at me like I was insane when I asked, then calmly pointed out that the soda comes out of the machine chilled. I just had to learn to watch two hour movies while sucking on a tub of lukewarm, full-strength soda like a deviant.
The colder the better!
2nded. Also I think the soda at 7-11 is even bigger.
32oz sure. A McDonald’s coke is set at 290 calories. A standard 20oz bottle of coke is 240.
Meaning McDonald’s expects you to get ~24oz of soda in a large(32oz) drink.
Their pouring system is automated most places, and many of them have intentionally moved the in restaurant dispensers behind the counter as well, making sure it reduces refills and means they will regulate the amount of ice you get as well.
So they look huge, but really you get less soda than there is in a Gatorade bottle. (28oz).
Sidenote: Sonic sells a “Route 44”, which is a 44oz cup
I lived in the US for couple of years and I would curse every time I forgot order small not medium. They are saying its all ice but here in Brazil there is quite a bit of ice too. When I ordered medium in the US I had to carry it with me for a couple hours while sipping on it cause I couldn’t finish it in one sitting.
Bonus: their clothes are also bigger. I’m an L in Brazil but in the US I had to buy M.

















