I enjoy a good cola and long ago discovered that colas, even of the same brand, taste different depending on whether they come from a can, a plastic bottle, a glass bottle or from a fountain. Taste also varies between different fountain machines that dispense the same brand of cola.

While Coca-Cola is usually my favorite cola, I enjoy a good RC Cola from time-to-time. So I was excited earlier this year to run across a restaurant in the western suburbs of Chicago that has RC in its fountain machine. I bought a large RC, but was surprised by how horrible it tasted. It has an unusual bubble gum-like aftertaste and tasted almost completely different from the canned variety of RC with which I was familiar.

Then while on vacation this June, I was in a convenience store in northern Idaho that also had RC on tap. Since I knew how varied the taste of other colas from fountains were, I decided to give RC another chance but was again disappointed. It had the same weird bubble gum taste.

The final straw came yesterday. I ate lunch at El Famous Burrito in Vernon Hills, Illinois and found they also have fountain RC. I decided to give RC one last chance, but it failed test challenge again: same bubble gum aftertaste. Three strikes and you are out, fountain RC, but I will still enjoy RC in cans and glass bottles.