If you’ve ever browsed a high-end cocktail menu, read a bartender’s recipe book, or listened to an alcohol aficionado, you’ve likely noticed a specific bit of fancy-sounding language. They don’t just call it booze or liquor, they call it “spirits.” To the average person, it can feel like industry jargon used to make things sound … Read more
Crystal Pepsi was an experiment by the Pepsi Company to market Pepsi as a clear rather than a colored beverage. The idea was that health-conscious customers, concerned about caramel coloring or other food coloring, would appreciate the clear beverage and view it as healthier. Crystal Pepsi was sold for two years, from 1992 to 1994, … Read more
Taste of Home ran an article that is sure to delight many of us ’80s kids: Slice soda is making a comeback! The headline proclaimed “This vintage soda is making a comeback and ’80s kids are freaking out.” Another headline proclaims “This Cult 90s Soda is Officially Coming Back.” Well, if you heard about this, you … Read more
Forget what you think you know about absinthe. It won’t trigger hallucinations, it won’t drive you mad, and it certainly doesn’t taste like jelly beans doused in cough syrup. Absinthe is a potent, anise-flavored botanical spirit historically derived from wormwood, fennel, and green anise. This notorious spirit was once the most popular drink in 19th-century … Read more
I remember a scene in the movie Poltergeist II where Craig T. Nelson’s character is chugging a bottle of tequila. Or was it mezcal? At the bottom of the bottle was a big, fat agave worm. Even as a kid, I remember thinking, “What kind of idiot would eat that thing?” The Urban Legend That … Read more
Slurpee vs. ICEE, it’s the age-old debate. Despite the well-documented history of the Slurpee, there are two types of people: Those who despise 7-Eleven, condemning it as an example of capitalism gone wrong, right up there with Walmart, and those who live by it, subsisting on microwave burritos and Big Gulps. The purists who love … Read more