cherry cola is no longer my friend

So, I think I am getting sensitive to whatever is in Cherry Coke or rather, cherry cola syrup, but pretty sure it's going to turn out to be both.

This is based on the fact that ritalin generally makes me calm and focused, and after one glass of this, I'm jumpy and scattered by even non-ritalin standards to the point its an effort to write this.

Context: ritalin is--in some ways--not unlike valium or maybe xanax when it comes to the concept of 'calming'. I use 5 mg as a sleep aid (but only when I'm tired and am planning to sleep now; the window is ten minutes before it won't tip me over). It never, ever, ever makes me twitchy.

This isn't the first time this has happened, however; today was a test.

Since I got a Sodastream and control my own soda destiny entirely, for soda I get plain cola syrup so we can mix things in, but I've gotten cherry cola syrup twice now. The first 4 bottle batch I don't remember for sure, but I do remember the second batch, because I stopped halfway through (bottle 2) and switched back to cola due to the same feeling. It's been over a month, and controlling for all variables (not my period, have taken all meds correctly for a week, am eating), I tried again and yeah this is real.

So now switched back to regular soda and am so. Damn. Annoyed.

First it was anything decaffeinated (as in, things from which caffeine has been removed with solvents), then artificial sugars (splenda is still pending), then it was something in Monster drinks made with sucrose (sucrose is not the culprit, btw), now...something in fucking cherry cola soda. I get this falls under the category These Are Not Real Problems, because they aren't; they're all easily avoidable for the most part. For that matter, I hate the flavor of most artificial sugars (splenda foams and freaks me out but tastes fine) so diet anything has been a no-go, and when it comes to decaffeinated anything, I never drink those anyway because I like caffeine; one might say it's a selling point. But like, what's next? Orange coke? All coke? Monster Fruit Punch wasn't a huge sacrifice, but Cherry Coke is now edging into territory Things I Actually Like. And also, as I don't know what in cherry cola syrup is the problem exactly, I don't know what else is now affected that has the same chemical or whatever.

This concludes my scheduled whining over nothing. Bodies are weird.