Blogroll addition
In celebration of our blog theme of exploring new territories, we present Weird Soda Review. Think of it as what the movie “Sideways” would have been if they’d cast nothing but seven-year-olds.
I consider it a public service, really. The poor bastard makes himself a guinea pig, forcing the most godawful swill down his throat in order to glean the occasional wheat from the plentiful chaff. He does it so that you don’t have to. In the end, you will thank him.
It can’t beat the Onion AV Club’s Taste Test.
Comment by Brad — 3/2/2009 @ 5:54 pm
I take it back. I’m getting into the site. I can’t believe they’ve managed to keep it updated regularly—sites like that usually aren’t very good because they spurt out a dozen or so entries at first and then never get updated again.
I really want to try Dandelion and Burdock, and Celery. Those sound pretty damn refreshing, actually.
To Richard: I’m not sure if this counts, but when I was in Korea, every corner store in the entire country stocks Vitamin C drinks, which are these little 8.5 ounce cans of lightly carbonated drinks that are somehow sweeter than they are citrus-y, or at least 50-50, which is a weird combination. But they’re actually very damn tasty and refreshing, so I got kind of addicted to them while I was over there.
But once you go down the road of Asian weird sodas…man, that might be a Pandora’s Box you just don’t want to open. Because they’ve got all kinds of crap. I can’t read Korean, but when soda cans have pictures of squid on them, even I don’t have the balls to plunk down for it. I’ve even heard legend of Schoolgirl’s Panties sodas in Japan. Whether that’s an urban legend or not, I leave to you to discover…
Comment by Brad — 3/11/2009 @ 5:35 pm
Weird Asian Sodas? Ask and ye shall receive.
“It would make an interesting salad dressing” does not strike me as high praise for a soda. Nor does “it has sediment in it”.
It’s still early in the run, but I’m finding the writing to be pretty consistently entertaining. It’s as if someone kidnapped the characters from The Family Circus and forced them to work as carnival geeks. Well worth a daily visit.
Comment by Rojas — 3/11/2009 @ 5:57 pm
Oh I read that one. That’s what got me to thinking about all the weird Asian sodas.
Kombucha sounds like about the mid-range of Asian soda weirdness.
Comment by Brad — 3/11/2009 @ 6:01 pm
Really, it’s the little things.
Like, doing a quick and dirty parody of The Raven, that’s nice.
Rhyming “sore” with “H2SO4″, that’s above and beyond.
I like the site a lot. A very charming voice to it. It’s also inspired me to buy the next weird soda I happen to come across and post a guest review.
Comment by Brad — 4/1/2009 @ 7:48 pm
Your link is flawed. It’s http or https, not h2so4http.
Comment by Cameron — 4/1/2009 @ 8:11 pm
Yeah, it’s becoming pretty much a daily read for me.
As some may have guessed, I know the author personally (about half of my blogroll links are the product of nepotism of this kind). I’ve NEVER seen him produce work of this quality, though.
The Lovecraft and Poe parodies were worth the trip, but I think what we’re all REALLY waiting for is the Hunter S. Thompson-style review. “There is nothing more vile and depraved than a man in the depths of a Kambucha binge.”
Once again, the internet makes possible the perfect marriage of artist and medium. All Hail Gore.
Comment by Rojas — 4/1/2009 @ 8:19 pm
I still can’t believe I found an Obama-style poster of Pope Benedict, and you happened to be looking for one.
But yes, good stuff. My only fear remains—how many weird sodas can one conceivably do?
At some point, he pretty much has to film the third season in Japan. After that, he’ll have to start deep sea diving to find unopened bottles of original recipe coke in early 20th century shipwrecks, and then pretty soon he’ll be like scaling mountains in the Andes trying to find the legendary Tab left open but full thirty years ago by a sherpa on the top of K-13 and having spent the ensuing decades in a single freak-of-nature hot spring only a soda-bottle wide gently nestled at the mouth of a cave, lined with peat moss, that expels methane gases from the earth’s core seven times a day.
Soon thereafter it’s only a small step to soda in space and lame time travel episodes.
Comment by Brad — 4/1/2009 @ 8:59 pm
The guy has a really, really good palate–the stealth aspect of the site is that he’s actually a reasonably talented food critic, capable of distinguishing flavors and discussing mouthfeel. Should he ever run out of weird soda (which seems an unlikely prospect in SoCal) he could easily broaden his scope to other weird beverages and foods.
Not to dismiss your rather excellent comment too lightly.
Comment by Rojas — 4/1/2009 @ 11:32 pm