Foods for those that just don't care anymore

[Pariah]

If you ever see me drinking Mountain Dew of any variety, you may be assured that I have been abducted and replaced with a clone, robot, or other doppelganger. 

[Cygnia]

A now-deceased friend of mine was addicted to Mountain Dew. 😕

[Cancer]

A&W loomed large in my childhood (we moved a lot, and there were extended stretches when we couldn't get it), culminating with them being the on-site official fast food at Expo '74 in Spokane the summer I graduated from high school.  I do have one of their heavy glass mugs.

[archer]

RC Cola is quite good. It's like Coke except that it has a strong cola flavor. And, no, that last sentence wasn't a typo of some sort. And their cherry cola was the best I've had outside of hand-mixed at a soda shop.

 

Their Diet Rite variant is quite good in that it has no sugar, no aspartame, and no sodium so it's good for restricted dietary requirements (like mine).

 

Back decades ago, the RC people were responsible for Grape Nehi and such.

 

I believe Dr Pepper bought them out in the 90's. I'm not sure how widely RC is distributed these days.

[Cancer]

It's in a few places here.  It's 30 cents a bottle cheaper than Coke or Pepsi in one place I frequent.

[tkdguy]

A&W is my favorite brand of root beer. Dr. Pepper is good too. Muggs is okay, but I'm not as fond of it. I haven't drunk Fanta in a long time.

 

I don't hate any soda per se, but I have a really big sweet tooth. Pepsi and root beer are sweeter than the other brands, so I tend to prefer them.

[Pariah]

Root beer, you say?

 

[archer]

IBC Root Beer was wildly popular at my dad's college (he went back to do college after I was an adult).

 

Of course, that might have been because the college's initials were IBC....

 

 

 

[unclevlad]

I think I had some Henry's;  my VERY vague memory is, it was ok but overpriced.  But we're talking 30 years ago or more.

1 hour ago, archer said:

RC Cola is quite good. It's like Coke except that it has a strong cola flavor. And, no, that last sentence wasn't a typo of some sort. And their cherry cola was the best I've had outside of hand-mixed at a soda shop.

 

Their Diet Rite variant is quite good in that it has no sugar, no aspartame, and no sodium so it's good for restricted dietary requirements (like mine).

 

Back decades ago, the RC people were responsible for Grape Nehi and such.

 

I believe Dr Pepper bought them out in the 90's. I'm not sure how widely RC is distributed these days.

 

Soft drink history is often very interesting, a combination of shifting tastes, marketing, and in recent years the squeeze play that there are for almost all intents and purposes only 3 cartels that fundamentally own the mainstream soft drink universe...Keurig Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and Coke.  RC is owned by KDP, and it's their only cola (Diet Rite is an RC variant)...but for whatever reason they don't market it that much.  From what I saw, it's still big in the South, tho.

 

Interesting history of RC here:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/76881/tragic-history-rc-cola

 

TL;DR--they became a one-trick pony, and then the pony broke a leg and had to be put down.  Diet Rite was their sales...then it got yanked *totally* off the market from cyclamates.  Those of a certain age may well recall *that* era;  cyclamates were WILDLY popular.  It was a major issue in the soft drink, baking, and even restaurant industries...restaurant fake sugar was Sweet n' Low.  Diet Rite was RC's big product, tho, so they got blown off store shelves.

[Cygnia]

Homemade peach shortcake

[Tjack]

   If we’re going into the sodas we loved how about some love for the gamer’s friend....Jolt Cola!  ALL the sugar, and TWICE the caffeine!!!   There was a little graphic on the side of the can that each can was equal to one cup of coffee.

   I used to go to the one convenience store in the area that carried the 2 liter bottles to gear up and I’d guzzle that thing down during our all night game sessions. By sunrise I could phase my hand thru solid matter.  I remember the plastic bottles had to be made especially thick because the stuff would eat through the regular kind.  I tried to get the Sci-Fi convention I worked with to get them as a sponsor.
  God I loved it!  Now due to my heart surgery I’m not allowed caffeine and if I have a half a cup of de-caf in the morning I’m twitching all that night and the next day.

[Cancer]

Jolt came along after my student days, and I don't think I've ever even tried it.  Not even when at the telescope. 

[Pariah]

I was a counselor at a summer camp one year in the early 90s. It was held on a university campus, and we had to go through the student union to get from the dorms to the classroom areas. Naturally there was a convenience store in the union building, and naturally the students wanted to go in and get stuff. And naturally one of the things they wanted to get was Jolt Cola.

 

Did I mention that my students were 12 and 13 years old?

 

I consider myself fortunate that I wasn't responsible for them during the day.

[Pariah]

Quark : I want you to try something for me. Take a sip of this.

 

Elim Garak : What is it?

 

Quark : A human drink. It's called root beer.

 

Elim Garak : [unwilling]  Uh, I don't know...

 

Quark : Come on, aren't you just a little bit curious?

 

[Garak sighs, takes a sip and gags] 

 

Quark : What do you think?

 

Elim Garak : It's *vile*!

 

Quark : I know. It's so bubbly, and cloying, and *happy*.

 

Elim Garak : Just like the Federation.

 

Quark : But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to *like* it.

 

Elim Garak : It's insidious!

 

Quark : *Just* like the Federation.

[unclevlad]

I remember Jolt, but only had a can or two I think.  Didn't care for it.  

 

But hey, hyper-caffeinated coffee is A Very Big Thing in some circles...we're talking anything from 3 to 10x normal caffeine levels.  And the names often *celebrate* the insanity.  And energy drinks, and even 5 Hour Energy.  Jolt's on par with Monster Energy and Rockstar...and lower than 5 Hour Energy.  So sheer caffeine levels now are...pretty meaningless.

[Cancer]

Observatories have coffeemakers, but don't in general have refrigerators full of soft drinks, so I had ordinary coffee to get me through my observing nights.  In dire need, one could use hot chocolate powder with coffee; I only had to do that a couple of times.  I still have the all-steel thermos in which I carried coffee up to the dome.

[Tjack]

   Speaking of over caffeinated coffees when I was young and stupid I would occasionally get a few bottles of that caffeinated water they used to sell and make coffee with it.  
   Is anybody here surprised that eventually my aorta blew out like an old tire on a gravel road?

[Pariah]

7 hours ago, Tjack said:

   Speaking of over caffeinated coffees when I was young and stupid I would occasionally get a few bottles of that caffeinated water they used to sell and make coffee with it.  

 

I'd hear stories of people doing that, but I'd always considered them apocryphal. Yikes.

 

Glad you're still with us.

[Asperion]

For a really good drink that will taste great and help you, try a real kabocha (not the poor imitators that are sold in stores).

[Cygnia]

9 hours ago, Tjack said:

   Speaking of over caffeinated coffees when I was young and stupid I would occasionally get a few bottles of that caffeinated water they used to sell and make coffee with it.  
   Is anybody here surprised that eventually my aorta blew out like an old tire on a gravel road?

I tried caffeinated water once in college.

 

Once.

 

I thought my heart was gonna explode.

[Tjack]

4 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

I'd hear stories of people doing that, but I'd always considered them apocryphal. Yikes.

 

Glad you're still with us.

   I may just be a head in a jar, but I’m still here.

3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

I tried caffeinated water once in college.

 

Once.

 

I thought my heart was gonna explode.

   YEAH, BABY!   You say that like it’s a bad thing.  
   Caffeine and chocolate were my drug’s of choice. And the only ones I ever did. 

 

[unclevlad]

The only time I ever had a really bad experience was, I was feeling a bit under the weather, getting ready to go to work.  That, of course, didn't help.

 

I took a Sudafed...the original stuff, tells ya how long ago this was, cuz you could still get it OTC...and had my usual, decently stout morning coffee.

 

I could see sounds til mid-afternoon.......

 

It was not fun.

 

How much of this was idiosyncratic to me, I'm not sure, but Sudafed is synthetic adrenaline, basically, so that and caffeine getting together to breakdance in my brain isn't that surprising....

[death tribble]

On 8/23/2021 at 9:44 PM, Cygnia said:

Any of our Scottish contingent ever tried this?

 

They don't take it seriously as this ad shows

 

[death tribble]

Regarding Root Beer

I come from a country which was not stupid enough to ban alcohol. When you could get it certainly but we did not ban the sale.

[Cancer]

  I think actual bangers (the original formula of them) are unavailable here in the US because they don't pass FDA regulations on adulteration of foods.