A question: let's say you're in a restaurant, the kind where you pour the drink yourself...do you take whatever the machine offers straight or do you mix and match your drink?The reason I ask is that kids take the mixing of drinks very seriously. You see arguments about it. A kid who steals another kid's recipe is considered lower than dirt, but it happens all the time. That's why some kids won't pour their drinks while other kids are around.
Now I hate to brag but my kid was one of the all-time great drink mixers. She was at the peak of her power when she was eleven. In those heady days she could mix a drink that was a million times better than anything you could buy off the shelf. Honestly, I used to look forward to it! I used to bring neighbors to drink the stuff. The kid was the Robert Parker (the famous wine taster) of soft drinks! Well, it didn't last.
I hate to air family secrets here but the day my kid hit twelve the whole dream came crashing down. The great mixer lost the knack! It was pathetic to see the once confident little fingers shaking with indecision. Through sullen eyes she watched mixture after mixture flush down the drain. I tried to help but she pushed me away. Fighting back tears she would drag herself to the car and ride home with her head buried in her hands. Defeated, dejected, no good to anybody(so she thought)...her days of glory were gone forever.
Well, that was years ago. She's all better now. The reason I'm writing this is that I found one of her old recipes in a book! We raced to the local restaurant and tried it. It was delicious! Not as good as her very best stuff but still top-notch! What a treat! Here dear reader is the formula. Try it and tell me what you think!
Root beer..................40%
Dr. Pepper................25%
Sprite........................20%
Red Fanta.................8%
Lemon aide................3%
Iced Tea....................4%
For some reason the recipe emphasizes that the Sprite and lemon aide not be added last.
In my country we don't have the variety of drinks you have in america. I remember I liked to mix fanta, coke and guaraná (a brazilian soft drink, i don't know if you've seen it). There was a right proportion too, but i can't remember. It looked like dirty water.
ReplyDeleteha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! :D
ReplyDeleteI still see kids of all ages mixing their sodas when they are at the soda fountain where they can get their own drinks. At a convenience store recently, I saw someone my age at the soda fountain carefully mixing the sodas into one drink.
When I was younger, my friends and I thought we were so sophisticated (actually, we were posers, but in our 14-year-old minds, we were chic). We would never mix sodas. We only drank diet cola with a lemon or lime slice in the drink. If we wanted to splurge, we would have Italian sodas (flavored syrup mixed with carbonated water).
I feel less alone for having read this post. Or maybe less annoyed is more like it. Our little angel has no discernible recipe--he just buzzes back and forth in front of the beverage dispenser, hitting every flavor at random in short bursts until I can't take it anymore and say something like "ENOUGH with the Pong soda already!"
ReplyDeleteI've never seen any other kids do this, and assumed it was unique to him. Maybe all of his odd/vexing/scuzzy habits are completely normal, even commonplace.
He'll be 12 in October, though, so I've started drawing a bright red slash across each calendar day as a result of the exciting news you've shared here. Then I can start worrying about how soon he'll be arriving home shitfaced drunk.
What does Red Fanta taste like? Red is my favorite flavor.
Dr. Pepper is an acquired taste. It's sort of like 'what if we carbonated cough syrup and added sugar?'
ReplyDeleteRed Fanta? Ive never seen that on a fountain dispenser. Maybe its a West coast thing.. Midwest doesnt have Carl Jr. or Jack in the Box either. Maybe thats a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Red Fanta.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at a restaurant, everyone always wanted an Arnold Palmer. I created a better version:
30% Iced Tea
30% Lemonade
30% Sprite
10% In Yo' Face!
Actually, nevermind the last part....
About once every ten years Jack in the Box gets busted for serving horsemeat for hamburger or undercooking their beef, killing kids. These two incidents happened in San Diego around 1980 and in the pacific northwest a decade or so ago. Be glad you don't have Jack in the Box where you live.
ReplyDeletethe problem is being able to find a fast food restaraunt that has all those available flavors, not many do. most are either coke products or pepsi products, and they differ greatly. barq's rootbeer(coke) tastes different from mug rootbeer(pepsi).
ReplyDeletei think if you really want to try awesome rare hard to find sodas
http://www.sodapopstop.com
just go there.
What--no Tang? ; )
ReplyDeleteCute story.
Yes, and Eddie--gotta get yourself to Galco's(in Highland Park); I believe it's the same place David is linking). Every soda in the world is there under one roof--even Red Fanta.
Kali: Wow! I can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteJennifer: I always add lemon to Coke. I think Coke experimented with a lemon version a while back.
Spizz: I've only had Red Fanta in kid mixtures. It looks horrible all by itself.
David, Anon: Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out!
Gabriel: Guarana? I'll check that out when I go to Galco's
I guess I'll have to use teaspoons for the percentages but I'll buy it.
ReplyDeleteI used to just mix orange pop and sprite at McD's. I'm also fond of mixing cream soda,and dr. pepper and a little coke.
It's worth mentioning that Dr. Pepper is the best pop in the world, because it is a mixture of over 30 different secret fruit juices. The creator said he wanted to create a pop that tasted like what a soda jerk shoppe smelled like with all the different flavours being poured.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI remember also, one time, late night at Denny's, attempting bonding with colleagues, I had some sort of mixed drink that was on the menu:
ReplyDeletePeach, strawberry, and sprite soda- although I don't ever recall having peach soda anywhere else- but it was really good!
I LIKE SUGAR.
PS- never eat at Denny's!
If you grew up drinking Dr. Pepper, you've been conditioned to like it. The same with fried Spam.
ReplyDeleteA) The best Fanta is apple. They don't always make it, but it's utterly fantastic. Great. Wonderful. Joyous. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteB) It's always bizarre for anyone in Texas(like me) to have a conversation about 'sodas' with anyone else in the country(or Canada. You know who you are). In Texas, every soda is 'coke', then you divide it into what kind of coke. For example, a conversation at a gathering would go as follows.
"You guys want something to drink? Got some juice and cokes in the fridge."
"Yeah, I'll take a coke."
"Me too."
"Okay, what kind?"
"I'll take a Sprite."
"Uh, make it a Dr. Pepper for me."
Saying 'pop' in this state will summon a cocked eyebrow and an awkward pause while the addressed Texan registers and translates what you meant.
Here most people call mixed drinks(in regards to sodas) "suicides". Don't know if that's regional or not, but it's certainly something you either love or you don't. Me? I don't suicide. Has anyone here ever had Cricket Cola? It's the only dark soda I'll drink, it's delicious and suprisingly kind of healthy. It's $1.49 a bottle and highly addictive when chilled.
I wasn't even allowed to drink soda till I was 12 or 13! Except maybe a special occasion, hurumph(that's an Eddism).
ReplyDeleteHey, Eddie - Galco's is the greatest store in the world! - For those who don't know, It's an entire store of soda pop! There is a growing trend of micro-brew soft drinks - Local variants of Root Beer, etc - and Galco's has them all - sodas from EVERYWHERE!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when I played Little League Baseball. After every game all the players would get a free soft drink of choice from the concession stand. Almost always every guy would order a "Suicide Coke"..which was nothing more than every drink mixed together.
ReplyDeleteWhen we'd order hot dogs, they'd be "Suicide Hotdogs"...just an everything on it deal. I still order hotdogs the same way...makes me feel like I'm a 10 year old after a baseball game. :D
I used to mix sodas all the time as a kid, unfortunately I never kept the recipes.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few obscure sodas available in my hometown Deli, the highlight of which being Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray... Celery soda! I doubt it would mix well with anything though.
I feel like a wallflower at an orgy! I must be the only one here who has never tasted one of these, er, mixed drinks. In all the years my son concocted his sodapop medleys at the Subway, all I could say about them was "Yuck!" They always looked like water collected out of a gutter with a dirty sponge.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the mix at the commercial fountain works that well generally, because none of the flavors are pure enough on the front end.
ReplyDeleteAnd like everyone else... what flavor is Red?
Fanta used to be Coca Colas generics... the Orange, the Grape, and so on, and in other countries, many more flavors (I think Fanta was a german Pop manufacturer that Coke absorbed) Mango Fanta is wonderful, if you ever get a chance (The Coke Museum Tourist Trap in Atlanta has Sodas of the world mega fountan as the weinie at the end of the tour).
Coke dropped Fanta for oh, 20 years or so, when they were being the corporation that didn't make soda. You know, the one that bought Columbia Pictures, and Minute Maid. Minute Maid became the rebranded (and inferior) Orange and Grape sodas for Coke.
Dr. Pepper is really sort of a Cherry Coke, except made with Almond instead of Cherry. Which is why Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper seems sort of redundant. But Lemon or Cherry seems to work especially to make Diet Colas more palatable, I think.
What happens when you mix Wintergreen, Vanilla, with a Hint of Cinnamon? It seems pretty obvious once you know the flavors involved, and it is hard to not pick them out once you know, but it might not so obvious before hand. Those flavors make the flavor known as Bubble Gum.
"What happens when you mix Wintergreen, Vanilla, with a Hint of Cinnamon?"
ReplyDeleteWhoa.
There's some deeper meaning there, hahaha.
I forgot- kiwi soda=heaven.
I was surprised to find out Dr Pepper and Mr Pibb (Pibb Xtra now) are way more popular here in the south than up north.
ReplyDeleteThey don't even sell Pibb in a lot of places up north. You can't go anywhere in the southeast without seeing Pibb Xtra on the shelves. Same with Dr Pepper.
I like mixing whisky with everything.
ReplyDelete.
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I'm an alcoholic.
You just managed to touch the kid in all of us with this post Eddie. Surprisingly this is amounting to your ancient women and short-legged girls posts in terms of numbers. BRAVO! ;) I guess it's not the mention of girls necessarily that will gain posts it's hitting the right emotion and we all would love to bring the kid out in all of us! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite soda sites.
ReplyDeleteNot Quite What The Doctor Ordered
It's a review of all the imitation Dr. Pepper clones. Surprising variety!
This is the only site where people could discuss important issues like soda! Most sites would consider subjects like this trivial but they aren't!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous' comment reminded me of my faovurite modern advertising slogan:
"When asked to describe Dr Pepper's flavour, nine out of ten people disagree"
when i traveled to the us (i was 13), a cousin of mine tried dr. pepper and he hated it, and convinced me not to try it. There were tons of stuff i'd like to drink so i put it down to the end of my list. I regret it later,i can't remember what it tasted like but i liked it. I wish i had tried root beer, but i got suspicious because of the name. I still don't know that the hell it is. Is it real beer? And what root is it made of? Carrot? Beet?
ReplyDeleteThere is a famous story about guys approching owner of Coke, tellng him they could make him a very rich man, with just two words. Those words were "Bottle It".
ReplyDeleteA lot of soft drinks diversity was indeed a southern phenomenon, because bottling the stuff started in the South. The North had more cities, and more drug stores, and more soda fountains, and therefore more homemade sodas. The south had cities and drugstores too, but bottling the stuff allowed it to be sold in every general store, and from machines, and for Brand Names to be built.
In New York City, they just asked for an Egg Cream, or a Sassafras (The root you were looking for, for Root Beer)
Any one had a Jagermeister and Soda? I bet that tastes like carbonated cough syrup.
ReplyDeleteA Turbo Jenkins:
ReplyDeletePepsi Method
1/2 Dr. Pepper
1/2 Orange Crush
or
Coke Method
1/2 C-Plus Orange
1/4 Root-beer
1/4 Coke
Also, if you just want a Dr.Pepper mix Coke and rootbeer, it's pretty much the same thing.
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ReplyDeleteAnon, William: "Bottle it!" turned out to be good advice! "Suicides?" Interesting!
ReplyDeleteTyler: Thanks! I'll try them out!
Red Fanta,
ReplyDeleteI just returned from a short visit (1 week) in Nicaragua. Red Fanta is very popular there. I tried it for the first time and drank it most while I was there. I had never seen it in the states. We agreed that it tasted something like strawberry but maybe the color had something to do with that. It is RED. Possibly some tropical fruit flavor? I think it would go well in the US.
i'm 11 a master in da soda biz so i want to show you my favorite slur (mixed drink)
ReplyDelete20% orange fanta
20% sprite
30% coke (diet or regular)
10% lemon aid (put it first)
20% mountain Dew
i'm 11 a master in da soda biz so i want to show you my favorite slur (mixed drink)
ReplyDelete20% orange fanta
20% sprite
30% coke (diet or regular)
10% lemon aid (put it first)
20% mountain Dew
Me and my friends are 13. We mix soda and pretend we are taking shots! Our best mix is....
ReplyDelete30% original seltzer
40% Sprite
30% lemonade
If you want it to be sweeter, put in one more teaspoon of Sprite. MIX IN A SHOT GLASS!
Interesting, interesting...if you're at the Picture Show these days, esp sic AMC, you owe it to yourself to indulge in a little gift of mixology if you're not going to be really clever and just consume high alkaline water, to go to the touch screen dispenser, and go to town. But I'd plan ahead and bring a sprig of mint leaves and some lime wedges!!!
ReplyDelete