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AWESOME-tober-fest 2008!! I review gallons of Halloween sodas

Posted in AWESOME-tober-fest, Halloween, holiday, Jones Soda, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2008, Halloween, holiday, Jones Soda, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda, sodapalooza on October 1, 2008 by Paxton

Happy October, everyone. How crazy is it that it’s October 2008 already? I can’t even believe it. It’s like I was watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with my wife back in January and seeing Meredith and McDreamy break up, have sex, get back together, stop having sex, then completely ignore each other, AGAIN, put me to sleep, Rip Van Winkle-style, for 6 months. I got some catching up to do.

Anyway, now that I’m back, get ready for some hardcore AWESOME to come flying at your eyes like Moe Howard and his index finger. Stand back and bask in the warm glow of your monitor and let the rays of unfiltered BAD-ASS flow from it into you. No need to fear, AWESOME-tober-fest is here. That’s right, October has begun, and with it brings the first of three themed months on the Cavalcade of Awesome. I love the final three months of the year. I theme the blog for each month. October is Halloween. November is Thanksgiving, or just fall in general. December is glorious, glorious Christmas. As you can see, I’ve done some redecorating for Halloween. The decorations are up, what do you think?

The new blog banner up top is an homage to a specific Halloween item I will be reviewing later this month. It’s something I’ve loved from my youth and just recently acquired thanks to eBay. From my October blogs of LAST year I’ve been wanting to find and review the items I’m currently speaking of but was unable to find any. I finally have them and will unleash them on you unsuspecting readers later on. I’d do it now, but I haven’t actually written the review. Besides, it’ll work better closer to Halloween.

Anywho, today I’m looking at Halloween sodas. Several have been released over the years, so I thought I’d take a look at a few. Some are old, some are new, let’s see if any made me spew. LOL…that was so awesome that I got that to rhyme. You may as well stop reading now because the article doesn’t get any better than that. Seriously, that was the pinnacle of this article. You have been warned, I can’t top that.

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New Mountain Dew flavor decided by the people; And the people, are wrong!

Posted in Mountain Dew, Pepsi, pop culture, retail, soda, websites with tags Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda, sodapalooza on August 22, 2008 by Paxton

I’m sure everyone by now has tried the three test flavors of Mt Dew; Supernova, Revolution and Voltage. I mentioned them at the bottom of an article back in May. Pepsi released the three flavors and promoted a contest where people would try all three flavors and then vote for their favorite. Each flavor was designed based on people logging into the Dewmocracy website, playing a game, and deciding what types of flavor extensions they would like to see. After testing the flavors, the people would log back into Dewmocracy.com and vote for their favorite. Well the flavor battle was waged and it was a tough battle indeed. Since the people would decide the outcome, propaganda and campaign posters and images promoting certain flavors were put up everywhere.

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(Un)Happy iPhone Friday + Pepsi Blue Hawaii!!

Posted in Apple, iPhone, Pepsi, pop culture, reviews, soda, technology with tags Apple, iPhone, Japan, Pepsi, soda, sodapalooza, technology on July 11, 2008 by Paxton

Just over a year ago I wrote an article discussing the release of iPhone version UNO plus two crazy Japanese items; Pepsi Ice Cucumber and Garlic Seafood Pringles. In what I believed to be a fortuitous situation, today I was supposed to acquire the newest version of the iPhone to go along with the new Pepsi summer release in Japan, Pepsi Blue Hawaii. It was going to be glorious. I could shadow that article from 6/29/2007 and review both of these items today. So I went to my local AT&T store to verify that the planets were all aligned (Pluto included, screw you scientists!!) and that AT&T was ready to toss me that touch-screen slab of AWESOME (aka iPhone) much like The Lady in the Lake did for Arthur and his Excalibur. Instead I found out that I can’t get the subsidized price, $299 for the 16Gb, until August 9th. If I want to get the iPhone today, I’d have to pay the full price, $499. $499 bucks?! Who am I, Rockefeller? So I have to wait 4 more weeks to be completed in body and soul. Until then, I have to look longingly at Engadget.com and try not to cry as it posts story after story of people buying the new iPhone 3G. Thanks a lot suits at AT&T and your stupid upgrade “rules”!!!

Anyway, while at the AT&T store the other night I took the opportunity to get my wife a new phone. She has been resisting this for months (nay, YEARS) because she loves her little phone she is currently using. I don’t know why. It’s an eyesore. It’s the cell phone equivalent of an abacus. It’s embarrassing to a tech/gadget guy like myself she carries this thing around. Seriously, this phone is so old it’s powered by a steam engine. You have to start it by turning a tiny crank on the side like one of those ancient farm tractors. Despite all of this and my constant badgering, she wouldn’t get rid of it. I mean, the thing didn’t even have a speakerphone. That’s right, NO SPEAKERPHONE!! I mean, what are we, in the Dark Ages?! She had some insane fascination with it. Well, this past weekend she flushed it down the toilet while at her uncle’s house in New Mexico. And to answer the question I always get, no, she wasn’t drunk (yet). Needless to say, this made me very happy. First thing through my mind? “YES!!!!!!” First thing I said to her? “Awwww, hunny, I’m sorry.” What surprises me about the “flushing incident” is that the phone itself didn’t get stuck in the hole, it actually went down the pipes. Her uncle is going to have a wicked plumbing bill soon. They even tried to call it to see if they could hear it ring. LOL…yes, they were actually calling the phone like it was lost in the couch cushions, not body surfing it’s way to the Rio Grande via Albuquerque’s metropolitan sewer system. I’m dying laughing thinking about it right now and I’ve heard the story three times. My wife, what a mess.

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Death by Taurine: Energy Drink Reviews Part IV

Posted in Death By Taurine, humor, reviews, soda with tags Budweiser, Death By Taurine, sodapalooza on April 29, 2008 by Paxton

The saga continues…

Death by Taurine has been a surprisingly popular article series for my blog. I wrote the first one as a lark back in 2006 when I became fascinated with the whole energy drink industry. Since then the whole series has consistently appeared at the top of my blog’s traffic reports. So, since everyone seems to still be interested in this crazy topic of energy drinks, I thought I’d continue the series with Part IV. If you missed the first three installments, check out the whole group here. You’ll find reviews of Red Bull, Full Throttle, Jolt and many other popular energy drinks. When you click the above link, Part IV will be first in the list and Part I will last in the list and at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to start from the beginning.

Drinks group In the first three installments, I tasted and reviewed several of the traditional and more popular energy drinks. This time, however, I thought I’d try something different. I’m tasting and reviewing the newer alcoholic energy drinks that have flooded the market. In case you haven’t noticed, beer companies are releasing energy drinks with alcohol in them, some as much as 2 beers worth of alcohol. These have piqued my interest so I thought I’d give reviewing them a shot. FYI to everyone, I am of legal drinking age so no laws are getting broken. I’m just a ridiculously handsome guy, over 21, drinking energy drinks filled with taurine, vitamin B and alcohol. Let’s get started.

First, the rules. I’m going to drink the first one, wait an hour, then write the review. Then I’ll move on to the second one, wait an hour, then the review. I want to make sure I’m spacing these out to get the full effect. Okay, everyone ready? Then let’s get this party started.

Bud Extra- The first drink I’ll taste is from Budweiser and it’s called “B to the E”. I’m not kidding, that’s the official title, but it has an alternate name, Bud Extra. So I’ll just pop the top and let ‘er rip. Tastes like a can of Budweiser. There might be a slight Red Bull-ish aftertaste. Interesting. I’ll continue drinking and return in an hour with my final analysis.

[1 hour later] Okay, not bad. I’m feelin’ pretty good. Got a nice buzz on, feelin’ no pain…this is what I’m talkin’ BOUT! Man, I could totally have another one of these. That’s the mark of a good drink, you have one and you immediately are ready for another. Nice. Too bad I only bought one for this review. Crap. Hey, it’s time for Round 2, SWEET! Let’s go…

Sparks- Sparks is made by Miller and it is another of the more popular alcoholic energy drinks. There are like three versions of the Sparks drink and I’m not sure what this. Nor do I care because I’m ready to pop this top and throw down the juice. Hmmmm….like Red Bull, Sparks is filled with Taurine, Ginseng, Vitamin B, but unlike Red Bull…it’s rockin’ some serious al–kee–hol! Haha! Whew, let’s throw some of this bad boy back and see if this can of Sparks is, like myself, ready to Par-tay! Mmmmm…nice flavor. A little more Red Bullish in taste than Bud Extra. I like it. I’ll just continue drinking this and see you in an hour. At Table

[1 hour later] Maaan, whew! These cans are like double the size of normal beer cans. With two of these bad boys down I think I’ve had the equivalent of 4 regular beers, and I’m just getting this little shindig started. I know it says 1 hour later to the left there, but it’s really about 45 minutes later. I got tired of waiting for another energy brewski, so I’m drinking the next one, it’s called Sparks….no wait, I just had Sparks, right? No…yes…whatever.

Tilt- Allright, I don’t really remember who or what makes this one. The can is silver and it has writing on it, so that’s good enough. Time to pop the top and down the hatch…..awesome! This one hits the spot! WOO HOO! I might have found the winner, bitches. Look out energy drink bitches…this silver can of something is gonna ROCK YOUR WORLD!!! WOO HOO!!!

[30 minutes later] WOO HOO!! MAN THAAT WAAS THE LASTY ENRGY BREUW I HAD….WTF?! I DON’THAAVE ANYMOREEE…WWAIT I THINK I HAVEE AN RED BULLL IN THE FRIDGEY-FRIDGERSON…..YEPPERS, THER IT TIS, YALLLLLLL. AND HER’S A BEER,YO.. HAHA I CNA MIX RD BULLLZ AND MY BEERR AND HAVE A NEW ALKEYHOLIC ENRGY DREENK! AWESUME! I MITE HALVE TO SSELL THIS ITS THAAAT GOUUD. MMMMMNMMNMNMNN.

[30 minutes later] thaaaT caAn UF hommadie bruew wentu quielckly. im st1ll naut feelinG anYthieng. WYF?1 THEIZSE drEEnks r SPosed 2 haVVE alCAHAUl!11!!!1 AHAAHA!1!111 I cEE SUM BAKARTI 151 HiddoN n mie kabinet. BARTNDR, ROUEOND OF SHUOTS ON ME!!!!!11111

[10 minutes later] a;dlkf ;a;;oobviqa;n qehjnleroucuya[oif neepoifpodlajhd papdofiaF!!! !PAEDIUQ;P PADOIFH APAO APAODIFA PAODF PA0DA-VOP KIDFNQ;’ER,KE PEKQTRQPFIOAJDAP[ADOIUPADOF P IF F ~~~~

Man Down

[5 minutes later] I”MADFAFHJffffffffffffffffffffffffffff FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF ffFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF____>>>>~~~~~

Technorati Tags – energy drinks reviews Budweiser Miller Sparks Tilt Humor

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It’s Passover 2008, time to get your Kosher Coke!!

Posted in Coca Cola, holiday, pop culture, soda with tags Coca Cola, Passover Coke, soda, sodapalooza on April 22, 2008 by Paxton

Well, the Jewish holiday of Passover started on Sunday and lasts all week. If you were reading this blog last year then you know of the soda scavenger hunt that happens every year around this time by soda enthusiasts.

Passover 2008

To recap, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, Coke and Pepsi will release kosher versions of their flagship products (Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke). Part of the process includes having the soda manufacturing process approved and blessed by a rabbi. Another part of the process includes removing High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) from Coke, Pepsi and Sprite and using real sugar. In the late ’70s, Coke and Pepsi stopped using real sugar to sweeten their non-diet sodas and switched to HFCS because it was cheaper. For most soda enthusiasts, this changed the drink’s taste. Now, during Passover, for anyone going to look for it, you can find Coke, Pepsi and Sprite as they were made back in the ’70s with real cane or beet sugar (sucrose).

It’s fairly easy to find kosher Coke in my area. If they aren’t identified in a separate Kosher display, they are recognizable by their yellow caps with the Jewish Passover mark on top. Here’s what I found at my local supermarket in the Coke aisle (there was no separate Passover dispay):

You can see 4 bottles of Coke. They are all very similar. Actually, the water beads on the Coke labels are slightly different, but everything else is the same. The two bottles on the left are kosher Coke made with real sugar, identified by their bright yellow caps. The 2 bottles on the right are regular HFCS Coke, with the usual red caps. Check out the ingredients list from the yellow capped kosher Coke:

You can see it is sweetened with sucrose which is real sugar. With 2 liter bottles it’s really that easy to identify. With cans you have to search for the Passover mark on the fridgepack. I don’t think the ingredients list on the fridgepack will necessarily say it’s made with sucrose.

I’ve been doing this search for a few years now. The Coke is easy to find. I have yet to find Kosher Pepsi or Sprite. From what I’ve heard this year, Pepsi is using white caps with the passover mark on the top, but I’ve found nothing but the Pepsi Stuff blue caps on all the Pepsi 2 liters. I’ll have to look a little harder. Sprite should have a yellow cap just like Coke, but I have yet to find that one either.

When I bought kosher Coke last year, I also bought a 20oz of regular HFCS Coke to do a taste test. The difference in taste between the two is noticeable. Honestly, I have to say I prefer the HFCS Coke to kosher Coke, but that’s probably because I’m so used to the HFCS sweetener. I don’t normally drink non-diet sodas, but this is a fun little exercise to do each year…for me, at least.

While out searching for Kosher Coke and Pepsi, I did come across a new soda flavor that I think was just released on Monday. It’s called Sierra Mist Undercover Orange and it’s a promotional flavor for the movie Get Smart starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. Check it out:

I also found the Sierra Mist Free Undercover Orange flavor. They are both pretty good. The orange flavor is very subtle. Almost as part of the aftertaste. Not bad. Not as good as Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash, but still good.

So it’s time to get on the stick, people! Get out there and get your kosher Coke and Pepsi before Passover is…well, over. And be on the lookout for Sierra Mist Undercover Orange, it’s worth a try!

Technorati Tags – soda Kosher Coke Pepsi Passover pop culture Coca Cola

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