Best non-coke alternative to coke zero?

Almost all soda is produced by a corporation run by psychopaths. Your best bet is to stop drinking soda.

While it is a fair point that there’s no ethical consumerism under capitalism and soda is bad for you, I still want a drink and bourbon goes quite well with coke. I just hope to not support a company actively supporting genocide. I’d hope that’s a low bar for companies but you’re right it may not be.
- I guess to be fair, there are some local places around me that make sodas, which probably are reasonable ethical businesses. Depending on how many bourbon colas you're drinking, it might be worth paying extra for an locally made soda if possible. If you don't have someone that makes soda locally (which is probably likely), maybe consider buying from "gourmet soda" brands like Hank's.

don't go for similar - nothing will taste close to your favorite.

find something new that you love.

asparthame is the zero-cal sweetener that tastes the best to us, so try Clear American flavored waters at Walmart

Sucralose tastes better and is healthier. SAMs club colas are pretty good
- Healthier how? Every independent study comparing sugar substitutes I've ever read puts aspartame as the healthiest/safest.

Water

isn't that just flat favourless tonic for poor people?
- You should see some of the filtration systems I've seen mounted on the sides of rich houses I work around
- No water is for rich people coke is for poor people. There are parts of world where you can easily get coke but not water.
Water and bourbon doesn't sound like the best cocktail tbh
- A little bit of water releases the burbon flavors and males it taste better. Also, ice waters it down after a while and tastes lile shit.

Find some local alternatives. There's so many craft sodas out there these days.

My favorites around here are Northern Sodas, Lift Bridge, and 1919 Root Beer. Holy shit, pony kegs of 1919 are the best thing ever.

Edit: I forgot about Sprecher Soda somehow. Their Green River is. The. Best. Soft. Drink.

Most smaller brands don't have the excess funds to lobby, etc.

Cheerwine Zero exists. It is a black cherry flavored soda. Idk if it is available outside of the SE USA, where I live. Wikipedia says "It has been produced since 1917, claiming to be 'the oldest continuing soft drink company still operated by the same family.'" So, maybe less evil? I do know it tastes quite good.

Does your local grocery store have store brand softdrinks? They can taste similar. Our local store has good quality store brand products that are sometimes better than their name brand counterparts. Obviously if you only have Walmart, then that’s not a model corporation and you’re out of luck.

Yes! Is there one you could recommend?

Try a Old Fashioned.

Very good as well but I love the fizz
- I guess I could carbonate one lol

Make the spice syrup at home and mix that directly into your bourbon then carbonate the results and add water as needed.

It will be a million times better and you'll only need to make new syrup a few times a year.

An example recipe is here https://www.flavorlab.xyz/recipes/cola

Ice

Fritz Kola super zero

Kombucha can scratch that soda itch for me. Humm makes some good ones and is not on the boycott list.

There are also Italian sodas you can make with syrup and sparkling water, let's you choose the strength of the sweetness too

I wonder how similar opencola is

Go sober like the people of Gaza and make your own cola at home, lots of recipes online and it will definitely taste better

would doctor pepper work. not sure about near you but they are constantly on loss leader here. it was sorta funny. they were cheap then they got second place in colas and the sales went away. I bet their sales dropped because after a few months they came roaring back. It has a nice taste like a cherry cola but lighter.

I totally didn't think of them! Unfortunately I just checked and they're also made by coke...
- I was gonna suggest Jones soda, but they seem to be owned by a chain of increasingly weird weed and crypto parent companies now.
- I was going to say they are their own company seperate from coke and pepsi but just looked at apparently although coke was blocked from buying them in the us the name of their products overseas was bought up by coke and pepsi. so apparently the us is the only place its an independent company.
- Dr Pepper is owned by Keurig, not coke.

https://www.kevinkos.com/post/homemade-coca-cola

Lime and Soda, raspberry lemonade

I don't like bourbon & coke but you might want to ask this on !cocktails@lemmy.world , someone who does might be able to suggest another drink you'd like based on your preference.

Bourbon and pineapple juice or pineapple tepache is amazing if you want to go in a different direction.

Are you looking for cola specifically or something like cola adjacent? And do you like it sweet or are you not super particular?

The flavor of Coke Zero with preferably no sugar but doesn’t have to be that way
- What you could do is get some store brand soda water / club soda / seltzer or a non-sodastream water carbonator. Then get like a cola syrup online. I know some ones that do use sugar are 1883 and Torani, they both have a cola flavour. I also havent seen a lot but I saw one brand called Zerup that has a zero sugar cola syrup. You could try that.

Honestly, the best you can do is try a bunch of stuff and research the company if you like it. It also really depends on how you define an ethical company. Even if you remove capitalism from it, if you look into deeply enough you're going to find that every company has done something unethical or works with an unethical party within their supply chain.

Iced Tea

Water.
Go run 5 ㎞ at a decent speed and water will be the best drink ever. No need for poison-water.

Literally not answering the question while also coming across like an ass
- The sacrifices we make for not supporting corporations.
  Anyway, water is non-coke and it's an alternative to coke zero. Therefore logically my answer is valid and true, but I can read between the lines and accept your rebuke.