Generic Dr Pepper

Here’s a list, with screenshots, of tons of generic Dr Pepper drinks. I know I’ve had Dr. Perky before. I feel like I’m duty-bound to seek out some Dr Extreme at some point. On that topic, I’m totally craving some Dr Pepper with sugar now. Here’s a roundup of the retro can designs from last fall’s batch. (via)

Gourmet Live and Rewarding Experiences

The short version: Gourmet Live, the new iPad app that reimagines Gourmet as a sort of massively multiplayer magazine, is live. I’ve been working on this for the past six months, and I’m enormously proud of it.

—Anil Dash

Soda Pop

Neat short documentary about a store that only sells soda pop.

Timeline of Pepsi and Coca-Cola logos

See Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s logos over the years. The chart is a little unfair in that Coke changes its can design just as often as Pepsi, but not its logo. Still, does anyone prefer the new Pepsi logo?

Update: Brand New fact-checks the image, showing that Coca-Cola really has changed over the years.

Mix an Exploding Drink - Wired How-To Wiki

Mix an Exploding Drink - Wired How-To Wiki

Freeze Mentos into ice cubes and serve them in Diet Coke. Preferably at an outdoor event, I’d think.

Licence to chill: Ice lolly shaped like James Bond star Daniel Craig

Licence to chill: Ice lolly shaped like James Bond star Daniel Craig

Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback » Sugar-sweetened Pepsi-Cola and Mtn Dew without High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) » BevReview.com

Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback

Pepsi is going to start selling cola with sugar instead of corn syrup again. The name makes this sound like an early April Fools joke, though.

Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill - Boing Boing

Banksy’s Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill - Boing Boing

Sign of the times: "chocolatey."

Sign of the times: “chocolatey.”

Hershey has stopped putting cocoa butter in some of its candy, so many products will no longer be “milk chocolate”.

The Scientist : Banana: R.I.P.

The Scientist : Banana: R.I.P.

In the 1960s a disease wiped out almost all of the breed of bananas sold around the world, and now a new strain is threatening the fruit.

Calories in Restaurant Foods

Men’s Health provides a terrifying look at how many calories are in restaurant foods. See also Consumer Reports’s quiz about which foods are less healthful.

Recipe: Confit Byaldi - New York Times

Recipe: Confit Byaldi - New York Times

Recipe for the ratatouille made in the Pixar movie.

Taste Visualization FX Designs and Animation for Pixar's Ratatouille

Taste Visualization FX Designs and Animation for Pixar’s Ratatouille

"In the Fall of 2006, I was contacted by Brad Bird to create a series of animated vignettes for his movie Ratatouille. The concept was to design and animate abstract representations of what the character was tasting."

A Short History of Movie Theater Concession Stands

A short history of movie theater concession stands

A Rat With a Whisk and a Dream - New York Times

A Rat With a Whisk and a Dream - New York Times

Piece about animating all the food in Pixar’s new film. Interesting that they ran into uncanny valley problems.

Quorn Turk'y Roast

For the vegetarians out there, the best fake turkey I’ve found is Quorn brand Turk’y Roast. Once you get it hot and slice it, it’s a very good approximation of the real thing, and in my book I’d much rather contribute to the slaughter of fungus than of foul. I’m going hunting tonight to try to catch one for Thanksgiving.

The De-Cokeing of Cherry Coke

![New Coca-Cola Cherry Bottle][5]

Has anyone else noticed that Cherry Coke has been renamed “Coca-Cola Cherry”? The flavor is in every way the same, but the name suddenly changed on me. It seems like they’re trying to rebrand everything under the name “Coca-Cola”, and exorcise “coke” from their product titles. Oddly, their press release dated December 15 still refers to a number of “coke”s, including the new Coke Blak, a premium, coffee flavored beverage, diet Cherry Coke, Coke Light Lime, and Coke Light Sango, so either it’s just a can redesign, or their entire PR team hasn’t gotten word of the change yet.

Personally I don’t like it. I like the simple name of Cherry Coke, a sweeter companion to the mainstay Coca-Cola Classic. “Coca-Cola Cherry” sounds more like an expansion rather than its own item, even though it’s been around for over 20 years. It sounds like it’s a temporary flavor-of-the-month, to be discarded in time à la Vanilla Coke (which I rather liked).

Kottke today links to a great archive of photos of soda cans over the years, which includes this selection on Coke 2 and other flavors. If you scroll down to the Coca-Cola Cherry née Cherry Coke section, you can see how the drink has been rebranded over the years. The earlier cans incorporate some white (now associated with Diet Coke) and feature a gradiant to red and a big cherry. The late 80’s and early 90’s cans play up the “fountain style” of the drink, going back to the drink’s soda fountain-era incarnation where a cherry Coke was created by a soda jerk who’d mix in cherry syrup on the spot. 1996 brought the purple “rain of cherries” can, which sticks in my head even though it seems to have been around for two years before being replaced by 1998’s “eXtreme Cherry Coke to the max!” branding, which would last four years until it was replaced by the red and maroon version.

The [new design][5] is, well, exactly like the standard Coca-Cola Classic packaging, but with a cherry under the italic word “Cherry”, the swoosh tinted redder, and with pink top and bottom borders instead of white. It says “there’s nothing distinctive about me, I’m just Coca-Cola Classic with some cherry syrup added in,” which, I guess, it is, but I’d like to see a little more love put into the design of a variety that’s stuck around for so long, and is one of my favorites.

[5]: http://david.ely.fm/davextreme/images/E4BBF1DE-4EC9-4DBD-828C-FEC9FC175D93.jpg” alt=”E4BBF1DE-4EC9-4DBD-828C-FEC9FC175D93.jpg

Edit: Looking more closely at the bottle, on the back, next to the barcode, are the words “Coke Cherry”. Curiouser and curiouser.

Treats

I’ve discovered an even stranger snack than wasabi peas: spicy caramel popcorn, as seen in Dean & Deluca’s seasonal gift basket.

Cookies

Katherine and I got chinese food last night (the usual: chicken lo-mein and hunan bean curd). Our cookies both had the same fortune in it. I’m not sure quite what to make of that.

Enhanced Rehydration

Container design must be a bizarre profession. Here’s a bottle of Gatorade I bought the other day. Note the explanatory text regarding the easy-to-grip design:

The innovative bottle design maximizes function and flow for enhanced rehydration.

How important a priority is increasing bottle-design confidence that the Gatorade people decided to provide a diagram on every bottle?