champthom said:
trip2themoon said:
I don't think this is all that obscure but I love this stuff:
AFAIK Scotland is the only country in the world where Coke isn't the top selling soft drink. Irn Bru is our top seller. There was a time it was quite rare in England but I think you can get it all over the UK now. Britvic are trying to buy out Barrs I hope they don't sell it off because the recipe might get changed I like that our top selling soft drink is still owned by a small family business.
I've had it once, I thought it was okay. I should give it another go though. Apparently the Scottish version has some coloring that's illegal in the US so the version they sell in the US has a different recipe. I've had the real Scottish version, I got it at a British market, I thought it was alright.
Likewise though, apparently brominated vegetable oil is illegal in the EU and UK, but they use it all the time here in the US. It's not comforting when you find out that bromine is stuff they use as a flame retardant in carpets and yet they put that shit in sodas like Mountain Dew (which is my cheap caffeine fix of choice).
Bromine is a halogen, the only non-metallic element liquid at room temperature, and quite corrosive.
Bromination means attaching the bromine to another compound. Just like chlorination or fluorination. In the case of carbon chains (like vegetable oil) that bromine doesn't really want to leave. It's on there pretty good. In this case what it does is increase the density of the oil, so when you mix it with a lighter oil (citrus oil for flavoring) it matches water and stays suspended rather than coming out as a layer. There are case reports of health effects from drinking too much soda with BVO but that's on the order of 2-4L/day, every day, for extended periods of time.
Chemistry!
Anyway, I've had Irn Bru but it's been so long I don't really remember it. I've got a... thing... about British snack foods so I can't really drink it. I ate a bunch of British candy, crisps, and some soda once, and that night got sick and puked my guts out for three days. It was probably from something else but my mind formed the connection.
Inca-Kola tastes like cream soda plus a bit of bubblegum. It's alright. I do really like Guaraná Antarctica, a Brazilian soda. There's another Brazilian (I think) soda, watermelon flavored, and on the can it has a Little Black Sambo looking motherfucker. It was pretty tasty too but I only ever saw it at one store. You'd think there'd be a bigger market for watermelon soda with racist caricatures.
I miss Pepsi Blue.
Jones Soda is pretty damn good. I like the Fufu Berry and then whatever they call their green apple.
Virgil's is the best root beer in the world. Bar none. I have had a lot of root beer, and none even hold a candle to Virgil's.
But I don't really drink sugared sodas anymore, so that kind of limits me to the major brands except for special occasions.
cold near the deli.
