Last week, I hastily threw together a post on Coke, including some thoughts on Coke vs. Pepsi, the advertising of both brands, and Passover Coke. I’ve run across several people commenting on my post or similar issues over the past week.
- Diet Coke Zero Prime Plus: Aziz comments on the Coke/Pepsi rivalry and also talks a little about other varieties of coke (Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Plus, Diet Coke with Splenda, etc…)
- The Other Red vs. Blue: Shamus explains why he usually doesn’t drink Coke and points out that Coke has the best ads, referring to the GTA parody commercial (which is brilliant).
- Mexican Coke at the Costco: Last week, I mentioned that there is clearly a market for Coke made with real cane sugar, and apparently Costco agrees. They’ve taken to importing Mexican Coke, which also uses cane sugar:
Costco has conformed to CA and U.S. rules, such as CRV (the sort-of deposit you pay for the bottle) and “nutrition” labeling, so everything appears to be nice and legal. Of course you could always get your sugar water fix at some smaller grocers or taquerias by buying surprisingly expensive “bootlegged” bottles one at a time, but Costco will let Cokeheads stock up by the case at a relatively low price.
The Mexican Coke adds another wrinkle into the mix: they come in glass bottles, which supposedly make the coke taste better. I’m going to need to stock up on some regular Coke, Passover Coke, Mexican Coke, and sure, let’s throw some Pepsi into the mix, and do a double blind test to see which cola tastes the best. Alas, this will have to wait for next year… [link via Kottke]
- Tall Men: Australia is good at making beer ads: Alex sidesteps the issue and points to a great Aussie beer commercial featuring none other than…. Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man!!!!!!! Sorry. It’s a Family Guy thing.
- But who cares about Coke or regular beer when you can brew yourself some Skittlebrau!
- Speaking of brewing beer, Johno over at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy has been home brewing beer. I’d really like to try his Belgian ale, which he named Trogdor The Burninator “Consummate V” Belgian Strongbad Ale. Considering the price of good Belgian beer (and Belgian style beers, see below), home brewing might be a good activity for me to try out.
And speaking of beer, I spent the previous weekend in Cooperstown. Sure, we visited the Baseball Hall of Fame Mvsevm, but the highlight of the trip for me was a visit to the Brewery Ommegang. It’s a surprisingly small operation, but that makes sense when you realize that it’s an expensive Belgian-style microbrew. I’m not a beer expert, but I think I’ve tried more varieties than your average person, and these are my absolute favorite beers of all time. Ommegang only makes 5 varieties, but they are all fantastic. Alas, you have to pay for that quality, but it’s worth it. In any case, the tour ends with a beer tasting and you can buy some beer at a slight discount, which I did, giving me this:
Awesome. Ok, I cheated a little. I already had the normal size bottles on the left, but still, that’s an impressive array of beer. Looks like I’ve got some work to do!
After some careful deliberation, ie serious drinking, I’ve decided that Ommegang’s Three Philosophers is indeed my favorite beer.
My semi local liquor store (“package store” up here in the Connecticut/Rhode Island area, and nowhere else in the world) has started carrying a simply amazing collection of Belgians, including 750 mL bottles of Three Philosophers for about $5. Things could be worse.
I’ve got to admit, while I have a strong nostalgic love for the glass bottled sodas (when I was a kid, we’d go to my grandparents’ house and drink bottles of 7-Up or Verners (a brand of ginger ale), and it was all kinds of awesome), I actually really like the taste that canned soda has. I like the slight… hrm… bite? Tang? Tang. I like the tang that the aluminum can can gives to cola drinks. I’ll take a can of Coke over a bottle (plastic or glass) any day.
I like Three Philosophers a lot. One of the cool things about the tour was that the guide explained what beers go with what food. They mentioned that Three Philosophers goes well with dessert dishes. It’s almost like an after dinner cordial. It’s a rich tasting beer, so that makes sense to me, but I never put it together before. Also, really quickly: Rare Vos is for fried foods & pizza, Hennepin is sorta the equivalent of white wine (for fish, shellfish, etc…), and Ommegang is sorta like red wine (steak, lamb, etc…). Witte (my least favorite) is for picnics and outdoors, summertime drinking (goes well with fruit and snacks).
Roy, I remember drinking from the glass bottles, but I don’t remember the tastes. I tend to prefer plastic bottles these days, if only because you can seal it up and put it back in the fridge. The cans are great too, but I find that they’re about an ounce or two too small.