Day 73: Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing, Baby

Looks neither grape nor Nehi

I read last week that Diet Coke is now the second best selling soft drink in America.  It supplanted Pepsi, the previous #2.  Pepsi spokesperson Joe Jacuzzi indicated that Pepsi was not worried about the drop but that they will be ramping up advertising this year nonetheless. Coke spokesperson Steve Sauna could not be reached for comment.  It also turns out that four of the top ten sodas are now diet varieties.  This is up from only two in 2001.  This trend away from sugary soda towards zero-calorie diet soda should have been obvious to me given how thin Americans have become in that same time period. 

The real shocker in the data is that the number ten soda is Fanta.  This raised a lot of questions for me. What flavor of Fanta are they talking about?  In the US, it is known for its orange soda, but they have seven different flavors here and over 90 worldwide.  On the top ten list it just says “Fanta”. Did they get to lump all those flavors together?  If so, then Pepsi should get to do the same.  If they added Crystal Pepsi sales to Pepsi’s maybe they could reclaim the coveted #2 slot.  Then I needed to know who the hell drinks Fanta?  Besides the Pope, that is.  Apparently he drinks four cans a day.  I always thought that Jesus Juice was white wine, but maybe it is Fanta.  Maybe if the Pope appeared in a Fanta ad during the Super Bowl, they could move up to number nine.  Especially if he appeared with the Fantanas.

Yummy yogurt-flavored Pepsi would push them to the top
Image Source 

Nowhere to be found on the list was Nehi.  This isn’t a big surprise since I can’t remember the last time I saw Nehi in a store.  I probably haven’t had one since my last trip to the Texas Tavern in 1992 so I was pretty excited to try our latest drink the Grape Nehi.  I thought it might bring back a lot of childhood memories and also give me a buzz.  Those two things are not related.  The drink is made of vodka, raspberry liqueur, and lemon juice.  It really tasted nothing like its namesake. In fact, you couldn’t taste anything but lemon.  It wasn’t bad, really, but when you name it the Grape Nehi you set certain expectations. And those expections do not include lemons. Maybe my memories are a bit flawed, but I don’t remember a strong lemon flavor in Grape Nehi soda.  Maybe the Cheesy With messed up my taste buds. 

Overall Rating for the Grape Nehi

Taste: 3

Presentation: 2 – In our guide, it says this drink is also known as the Purple Hooter but this looked more brown than anything

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackout: 7 – 19 % Alcohol

Ingredients

1 oz Vodka

1 oz Raspberry Flavored Liqueur

1 oz Lemon Juice