In what will likely be good news to soft drink connoisseurs out there, Pepsi has announced that on December 28th, they are bringing back a version of their recipe with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup for a couple months.  While I am not a big fan of soda in general (or ‘pop,’ so I can speak to the whole country), I am much less a fan of HFCS, which I think was originally made by the devil.  Regardless, I know how people love Mexican Coke as well as Dublin Dr. Pepper, both made with cane sugar, so I am sure that a portion of folks will be super into this product.  But don’t expect this drink to be around long, as Pepsi surely will want you back on the HFCS train, per their agreement with the government and corn producers.  Until then, have fun.

H/t to Serious Eats for the scoop.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Created 15 months ago by Weiden + Kennedy and directed by Buck Production, this “epic rock opera” for Coke Zero features “a singing bear, candy-pooping birds, an elk with sausage antlers, g-string wearing antelopes and honeycomb encrusted sheep.”

Ooooook. That was random.

The ad has only aired so far in Brazil. The computer animated animals kind of remind me of the Orangina Orgy commercial.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Option #1: You can never drink coffee again

Option #2: You can never drink soda again.

Things to consider: A wonderfully legalized drug, caffeine chews you up, spits you out and laughs in your face. You feel great one minute, the next you’re crashing, staring at your computer screen and refreshing the page of your favorite website as you wished you could just pass out in the supply closet. It tastes good (if you find a good shop) and it keeps you regular by golly! Can be incredibly addictive.

Soda is sugar, and if you’re like me you enjoy the added allure of caffeine that Coke, Diet Coke and Mountain Dew among others provide. On a hot summer day, it sometimes doesn’t get any better than an ice cold Coke in a glass bottle. That being said, if you leave a tooth in a glass of Coke for 20 minutes it will dissolve. Can also be incredibly addictive! Fun!

Also, feel free to comment on how you don’t drink coffee and that tea is truly the superior hot caffeinated beverage. You’re just lying to yourself.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Here’s the deal: Coke is launching a new promotion called “Don’t Dew It” which will try and convince Mountain Dew fans to switch to Vault.  As Adage notes, Vault is currently getting destroyed in the citrus soda market:

According to Beverage Digest, juggernaut Mtn Dew commands more than an 80% share of the citrus segment, while Vault holds about 4%.

Coke will be distributing coupons for their “Vault Taste Challenge.”  The coupon will offer consumers a free Vault with the purchase of a 20-oz Mountain Dew.  So here is my fundamental problem with the campaign: Coke is REQUIRING that everyone using one of their coupons pay full retail price for one of their competitors products. Does that make sense?

Yes, in this economy people will likely utilize coupons for a free product. But giving away a free Vault costs Coke the same amount of money whether they attach it to the purchase of a Mountain Dew or not. Why wouldn’t Coke simply give out coupons for 1 free bottle of Vault without the Mountain Dew purchase stipulation? How many people who wouldn’t otherwise buy a Mountain Dew will now be forced to do so in order to get a free Vault? Coke’s promotion may have the unintended effect of boosting sales of Moutain Dew in the short-term.

Adage reports that the cost of the promotion for Coke is expected to be “in the millions.”  That means a few million people who might not necessarily buy a Mountain Dew will be doing so in order to get a free Vault.  Coke, however, seems confident that a side-by-side taste comparison will ultimately lead to consumers switching over to Vault:

“Simply put, it’s designed to drive Vault consideration and recruitment among Dew drinkers,” said Scott Williamson, a Coca-Cola spokesman. “We believe that when Dew consumers are offered the opportunity that they’ll like Vault better.”

That’s a lot of confidence in the taste of Vault being expressed by Coke. My question, have these executives tasted Vault and Moutain Dew side-by-side before? If they had, I’m thinking they wouldn’t be quite so eager to launch this campaign. Mountain Dew’s taste is superior to Vault’s, plain and simple.

An interesting promotion idea by Vault, although I certainly think the concept is a bit flawed.  However, I’ll be curious to see sales figures once this promotion is over. Since every free Vault will be accompanied by a purchase of a Mountain Dew, and I’m skeptical any loyal Dew drinkers will switch to Vault, my prediction is that we’ll see zero change in Vault’s market share compared to Mountain Dew’s by the end of this year.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I had heard about Pepsi Blue and was eagerly awaiting its official arrival in stores. Discovering this giveaway virtually guaranteed that for the next 3 weeks I wouldn’t shut up about how I had tried Pepsi Blue. Here’s a typical conversation during that 3 week time period between me and anyone I was meeting for the first time:

New Person: Hey how’s it going, I’m (insert name here).

Me: Oh what’s up, I’m Jon.  Did you just order a soda from the bar?

New Person: Uhhh, no I just ordered a beer.

Me: Oh, I thought maybe it was a soda.  Just asking, because I got to try Pepsi Blue last week. Not that you’d even be able to order that if you wanted, it doesn’t come out for 6 more weeks.

New Person: Um, ok. What’s Pepsi Blue?

Me: Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What’s Pepsi Blue? You haven’t HEARD of it yet? Oh man, I wish you had been there when I tried it. It’s so, so, so good.

New Person: Ok. Well maybe I’ll keep an eye out for it when it comes out.  So did you hear about that water main that broke in Brooklyn last night?

Me: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. MAYBE you’ll keep an eye out for it? No you HAVE to keep an eye out for it! It’s like Pepsi but it’s berry infused! It’s like a blueberry soda! It’s soooooo good.

New Person: Yeah ok, well I’ll try it sometime I guess. I’m not a big soda drinker.

Me: Not trying it would be the BIGGEST mistake of your life. Did I mention I got to try it and it still hasn’t even been released yet?

Now imagine that conversation being repeated about two-dozen times in a two week period.  Yeah, I wasn’t at all obnoxious about Pepsi Blue. Anyways, Pepsi Blue was a spectacular failure, and was pulled from U.S. shelves in 2004.  X-Entertainment’s Dead Soda’s tribute explains their thoughts on why it failed:

Had Pepsi opted to release the drink as its own brand and not as some kind of mutated, alien blue version of its primary offering, maybe it would’ve caught on….I hated the stuff. You know how certain hard candies contain a liquid center, and how that liquid center is always excessively tangy and causes your face to contort into all kinds of sourpusses? Pepsi Blue was a whole bottle of that.

For the record, I actually liked Pepsi Blue. Or what I remember of it. I think it was good, but maybe I was just in a state of euphoria and wouldn’t like it if I tried it again today.  Although I will say that after a little cruising through YouTube to watch Pepsi Blue ads, I have my own opinion on why the soda failed: their ads absolutely suck. I mean horrible, just horrible.  Check out this Papa Roach Pepsi Blue ad to see what I’m talking about:

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Via Slashfood.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Oh, New Coke, has it really been 24 years since you burst onto the scene?
Ahh, the memories.

If only Coke could sever this attachment as easily.

Thanks to the AJC for the pic.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

2007 Chanukah pack flavors: Chocolate Coins, Applesauce, Latke and Jelly Doughnut.

2007 Christmas pack flavors: Sugar Plum, Eggnog, Christmas Tree and Christmas Ham.

Lovers of Jones Soda seem none too pleased with the decision, with a number of them leaving comments on the Jones website:

like everyone eles i find it disturbing to find no holiday pack this year! You really blew it!

It is a shame that Jones Soda did not release Holiday Pack for this year. We were planning our thanksgiving party around it since last year. We are really really disappointed with your decision.

A Christmas tradition has now been destroyed! Every year for the last 3 years, we have had a group of friends in to watch Christmas movies and then experience the awesome horror of the holiday pack. It was a bonding experience filled with laughter.

and perhaps most harsh of all:

It’s a shame that poor lil Timmy won’t be getting a gift this year from Toys for Tots because Jones Soda failed him. They failed him by completely destroying the Holiday Pack to where it is now simply an average soda with no unique qualities. Thanks Jones.

Ouch. Damage control time for Jones Soda?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Back in late March, Dr. Pepper offered a free soda to everyone in America if Guns ‘n Roses released their long overdue album, Chinese Democracy, by the end of the year.  After it was announced that November 23rd would be the release date, Dr. Pepper announced that the coupon giveaway for a free soda would occur on that same day.  Consumers could go to its website, enter their e-mail address, and receive a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper.  There were a few problems with this offer.  For starters, the Dr. Pepper website was repeatedly crashing yesterday, Examiner.com reported:

“Dr.Pepper” was the 4th most searched for term on google today, followed by “dr pepper chinese democracy” as the 5th, and other variations taking up the 6th, 8th, 9, and 10th spots.

The other problem with this offer is that Dr. Pepper had said they would give a free soda to “everyone” in America.  But with this announcement, it became clear that what they really meant was “everyone with an e-mail account”, which frankly, cuts a lot of poor and working class people who may not have e-mail addresses out of the process.  Not to mention, what about all the people who don’t have internet access on a Sunday?

Rather than be hard-headed about this though, Dr. Pepper realized their error, and announced that they will be extending their offer until 6 PM TODAY.  They have also set up a phone line for people without internet access or an e-mail address to call.  So if you still haven’t applied for your free soda, head over to Drpepper.com or call 1-888-377-3773 by 6 PM tonight.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

What do you think?

H/T to Under Consideration & Buzzfeed.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Eick came to visit me about a month ago, with myself and the fiancé traveling to Milwaukee for a day of Eick-ventures. A brewery tour and baseball game later, we drove back to my sleepy town of Wilmette, located just North of Chicago. It being approximately midnight, we decide to grab some food at the local Jewel-Osco.

I know Eick, and inviting him into a foreign grocery store is akin to inviting a billionaire into a bank vault and telling him to grab something he fancies; he’s going for rarities, legends he’s only heard of thus not truly experienced. At which point he finds this:

Yes, this.

Just look at that bottle. Foul. These sodas would maybe fit on a Halloween-themed display, but next to a rather noble-looking IBC root beer assortment, they look like Kate Moss at Fat Camp. The bottles produce a sense of stomach-inertia, where your stomach stops and asks you, “How and why does this product exist in our physical realm? Surely you do not plan on impregnating me with this foul elixir?” At which point we read the nutritional label. Do you know what constitutes an A&W Sunkist Float?

FILTERED CARBONATED WATER, SUGAR, SKIM MILK AND 2% OR LESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:

CREAM, PECTIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, PHOSPHORIC ACID, PROPYLENE GLYCOL ALGINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, ACACIA GUM, ESTER GUM, YELLOW 6, RED 40, NITROUS OXIDE (CREATES FOAM).

Oh god. Notice in the first batch of ingredients. Skim Milk. And then 2% or less of cream. If the idea of drinking a warm, stored-for-weeks bottle of preserved cream doesn’t curdle your tummy, then you were probably born without stomach. But were these bottles kept at cold temperatures? Well of course not, that’s half the fun! We tarry back to the house, super-charged about our day and the spoils of our trip to the Jewel.

The food and beverage unknown is best experienced with a friend. Usually, friends will recognize bad ideas and present them with alternate solutions. We were not that lucky that night. And good god, I have a couple words of advice for any wayward travelers who dare take the path that leads to an A&W Sunkist Float:

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, WAIT AT LEAST TWO HOURS FOR THE FLOATS TO COOL DOWN. PLEASE.

And no, sticking these suckers in a freezer for half the time will not cut it either. When dealing with the dark chemistry of such a concoction, one should stick to the listed guidelines: Please refrigerate.

We grabbed two glasses after about a half-hour of cooling, and put some ice in them. It pours as one might expect: like orange cream. That’s when I saw the little illustration of a creamsicle on the bottle and realized what we were in for.

Let’s back-track a second: The A&W float site tells us:

We created the new A&W Float with you in mind. Your busy life. Your need for simple indulgence. Your desire for good flavor. Actually, our innovation team has been working to create this product, the packaging and the patent for quite some time.

My simple need for indulgence!? The Discovery Innovation Group (as named on the website) wants me to believe that a creamy, orange, obviously chemically-enhanced drink is a “simple indulgence.” I believe I’d file sweet tea, an Arnold Palmer (ice tea and lemonade), and maybe a good old Coca-Cola under “simple indulgence.” But a soda that is supposed to be a creamsicle melted-down and chilled? That is better characterized as a “laborious and completely unnecessary indulgence.” In a novel, it is the simple indulgences foil.

Let’s get back on track. The texture of this drink is as expected: Kind of thick, somewhere between melted butter and cream, only cold. I get the feeling that it’s the closest I’ll get to finding out what drinking the contents of a blue gel ice wrap would feel like. So yeah, great job HORRIFYING MY MOUTH.

The flavor of a melted creamsicle is there, incredibly spot on. But in this era of Jones Soda wacky flavors and Harry Potter rotten egg-flavored jelly beans, the accomplishment of achieving this flavor is somewhat muted. Also, in terms of drinkable melted popsicle items, the creamsicle would be my least favorite potential melter. And to think that A&W had an entire team dedicated to coming up with this monstrous product.

Although I sound obviously biased, I base these opinions on the strong reaction of my eyes, mouth, throat and stomach. This product made me feel gross. I hadn’t honestly felt this gross since Casey Becker’s 5th grade birthday party, when I ate 9 pieces of pizza and cake, and drank probably 3 liters of Shasta cola.

On a soda scale of 1-10, where 1 is flat fountain soda from an upstate New York pizzeria and 10 is Vernor’s Ginger Ale, the A&W receives a 2. It only receives points for hitting the flavor spot-on, and also for having one of the more self-important and completely unhinged product websites I’ve yet viewed.

I’ll leave you with this piece of advice that I hope you will always, always, always avoid:

So go ahead. Sit back, relax and taste the simple treat that will truly reward you.

- The Discovery Innovation Group

Editors Note: It appears some of the other reviews of this product on the internet run the gamut from slightly negative to lukewarm to positive to comparing it to a “20 minute orgasm.”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Some of you may remember that Mountain Dew’s newest flavor was selected through an online vote of the people, in a project called “Dewmocracy.” Earlier in the summer I wrote about how, at the time, Voltage was winning in a landslide. Even though the product is already available in stores, Mountain Dew is still preparing for the official launch. You only have until October 14th to submit your idea, so if you have a hankering for a one year supply of Dew, get those suggestions in fast. Here are a couple amusing suggestions that have already been submitted:

Right. Um, ok then. That’s not so much a suggestion for a way to launch Voltage, as it is for a whole new product line: glow in the dark soda. I’m not sure I’d want to drink a soda that glows in the dark…..

There’s also this gem:

Ok…..well, that’s an interesting idea for a TV ad. But can you imagine actually attempting to do this live at a launch event? I’m pretty sure it’s quite difficult for a NASCAR driver to “kick” a case of soda with their tires and into the hands of an onlooker. This idea has all the makings of a catastrophic death caused by someone being hit in the head with a flying case of Mountain Dew – that would probably be bad PR.

Think you have an idea that could be a winner? Are you just flat out jonesing for a years supply of Dew? If so, feel free to submit your own idea at the DEWmocracy Voltage website.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’m gonna get right to the point: I can’t figure out how to put the accent over the “e” in Ole. So just deal with it.  No wait, that wasn’t the point.

I’m going to get right to my other point: This drink was awesome. I’d like to say something right up front: I am not a fan of energy drinks. I love me a Red Bull and Vodka on weekends, but under no circumstances outside of alcohol do I ever buy energy drinks. Frankly, besides Red Bull, I think most of them taste pretty gross – and many of them simply try and copy Red Bull, and do so poorly.

So when a representative of Ole Energy contacted me and offered to send me some free samples, I had a little bit of a chuckle. Whether I love or hate something, I’m going to say exactly what I think. So when a company sends me something not very good, they risk me totally excoriating their product, or blatantly making fun of their marketing campaign.

Since I don’t really care much for energy drinks, and gave a mixed review to AMP energy drinks, I assumed this would be an opportunity to rip another mindless addition to the energy drink market. But then something strange happened. I tasted it….and I really liked it. Then something else happened….I waited 10 minutes or so, and felt really, really awake and focused.

The best thing about it was it didn’t taste like all the other energy drinks. It tasted a little different, like it had its own thing, or its own flavor going. So what, exactly, did it taste like? Well I think Energy Drink Reviews has described it in much greater detail then I ever could:

Olé gets some major props for coming up with a unique flavor that has never been done before. The flavor is rich orange with notes of lemon. I like how the flavor stays rich, but shallow by not penetrating with an over tartness. Instead there is a sour aspect to it that stays on the tip of your tongue. Overlaid with the orange is a back note of peach and a little apricot that add some complexity. The sweetness is mild, but adds some minerality to the flavor to leave a clean feeling on your palette. No bitterness or crazy flavors here.

Damn. That’s a detailed taste description. According to Energy Drink Reviews, there may be a reason I felt so awake and alert after drinking it:

Olé brings the familiar ADX7 energy boosting technology to their energy drink. ADX7 is a mix of adaptogenic herbs designed to improve performance, help with stress, and stimulate the metabolism all with no crash.

Well ok then. I did feel energized and stress free.

Ole has not hit the national market yet. It’s being test marketed in Charlotte, NC, but should be unveiled on a wider scale very soon. Ole’s website is adorned with athletes and hot women wearing Ole gear and logos. It also automatically plays some pretty terrible music based off the “Ole” chant sung at sporting events so be sure to click “off” if you head to the site.

Anyways, bottom line? This shit was good. If you like energy drinks and you see it in a store near you, give it a shot.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites