Riding with the window down…

I have a history of posting on foods I find interesting. No brand has done more (well, maybe Mt. Dew) to try new things than Cheetos. Here is one of the latest from the fine folks at Lays - Wild Habanero Cheetos!

Alright, I didn’t try them (I know I am letting you down there) but found them interesting enough to snap a quick pic.   Although the original crunch treat is still going strong after its introduction in 1948, my favorite all-time Cheetos flavors were Crunchy Nachos Cheetos from back in the late 90’s and the Cool Ranch Cheetos that died out almost instantly in 2003.  Want to see what they have created in the US over the years?  Check out this Wikipedia link.

Okay, they didn’t solve hunger or do anything to promote world peace, but Dr. Pepper did their part today by doing the right thing - no matter how small it is.

I have been playing “Twist a Pepper” for years - you know the bottle of DP with “Sorry Try Again” or “Free 20 oz Dr Pepper” written on the underside of the caps. Advertisements on the bottles claim a 1 in 6 chance of winning. This promotion has been delighting prune juice fans for years.

Lately however, something has changed about the promotion - namely that retailers refuse to accept the bottle caps. Yes, the last dozen times I have tried to turn one in at a convenience store, the clerk has said something along the lines of, “oh we don’t accept those anymore.” These are the same stores with their shelves loaded down with the Twist a Pepper bottles!

I called Dr. Pepper’s customer service today and they first tried to stonewall me. “I’m sorry, but that is a local promotion, we don’t handle those.”

After a few minutes the rep was able to find out that Coca-Cola was the local bottler for Dr. Pepper in this part of Central Texas. Seriously? Okay. She was unable to provide any contact information for the Coca-Cola bottler running the Twist A Pepper promotion, but then offered, “I would like to send you out two coupons for a free 20 oz Dr. Pepper and apologize for the inconvenience.”

I am not sure what I learned from this other than, even if you won something, it doesn’t mean you can collect. Or maybe it is that the Cola Wars are as made up as the drama on reality TV shows. Coke bottling Dr. Pepper? Perhaps it is just that despite marketing once again promising great things and not delivering, you really can get people to do the right thing - if you’re willing to gripe a bit.

Why is it wrong for Camel cigarettes to use a cartoon character and not for junk food companies to do the same? Think about it. Obesity is a much larger (pun intended) threat to the lives of America’s children than cigarettes.

In 2008, an article reported by the BBC stated that of the 19 cartoon characters used to sell food to kids, not one of them promoted healthy food. All of these were junk food products. That doesn’t even touch on promotional marketing such as Spider-man, Shrek, and the numerous movie and television tie-in licensing. In fact, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, less than 3% of the total food ads are for healthy products.

Sure, kill Joe Camel - but how about a little protection against Ronald McDonald and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while we are at it?

Recently, after trips to the grocery store, I really don’t want to eat any of the stuff I just bought. It used to be such a task trying to figure out what to start with when you unload. (Usually, the junk food would win out.)

I don’t know if it’s because I am just not buying as much crap or what - but that mad dash to eat all the cool stuff I bought just doesn’t hit anymore.

Maybe ALL food is getting boring? I still try tons of new and interesting junk food, but nothing seems to stick.

The tag line on the new Cherry Dr. Pepper is “amazingly smooth.” I am here to say that this soft drink is so smooth that you can’t even taste it. I took a swig and swirled it around to get my reaction to the new drink and immediately came to a conclusion. I kept it to myself until Blake took a drink of his (not wanting to influence his opinion.) I simply asked him, “So what do think about it?”

He said almost to the word what my impression was, “It’s okay, it doesn’t really have much flavor.”

“Yes! Thank you,” I told him. The thing tastes like carbonated water with a distant hint of cherry in the aftertaste. There is absolutely no hint of Dr. Pepper in there. It is just carbonated water.

I wouldn’t waste your time with this one.

I know junkier is not a word, but trust me - it applies.

I just had to snap a pic after I saw this at the checkout of my local 7-11.  You are looking at a Butterfinger BUZZ!

Yes, you read that right “With as much caffeine as the leading energy drink!”  So take the sugar bomb and add a boatload of caffeine - nice.  It’s a wonder our species is still alive considering the stuff we are talked into putting in our bodies.

Trust me - I am as guilty as anyone of eating crapola, but this one caught even me off guard.

I used to be a big fan of Carl’s Jr. hamburgers - we are talking from way back in the day (like the 80’s.) Although I had never actually eaten one until much later, they advertised on all the LA Lakers games. Being a Laker fan since I started watching basketball, and being the the burger seemed exotic (as it wasn’t available in Texas) I liked the thing.

When I actually did get out to California, it was the first fast food outing I made. I have to say, I was not impressed, it tasted like a more expensive version of the Hardees burger. (Which was available in Nacogdoches where I attended college, and I later discovered was owned by the same company.)

In any event, I don’t eat a lot of fast food burgers anymore, but I will give the new Carl’s Jr. in San Marcos a try for nostalgia if nothing else.

I am guessing that Paris Hilton is not included.

Okay, here’s the deal. I am trying to stop drinking soft drinks. I had pretty much eliminated them from the lifestyle and then, because I am do impressionable, I started drinking them again when Blake moved to San Marcos. (I really am that weak when it comes to food and beverage that is bad for me.)

To curb that I have put a bounty on soft drinks - well not on the drinks themselves, but on catching me drinking one. Its pretty simple - you catch me partaking of a carbonated sugar-water drink and mention it. I hand you five bucks. The system will stay in place until the end of the year which will certainly be enough time to break the habit.

And just so you don’t get any ideas about turning this into a money-making machine, only the FIRST person to catch me drinking on gets paid (and then I get to finish that one.)

I figure after drinking a couple $5 Dr. Peppers I’ll break the habit pretty easy.

Wish me luck

Part of growing older is adapting to certain changes.  I have been blessed in that complaints my friends talk about (vision dropping dramatically at 40, stiffness and pain getting up in the morning, the need to head to bed earlier than in their youth, and the ability to eat like a teenager) haven’t really bothered me yet.  That is until recently.

It appears that my tolerance for spicy food has given out.  Last night was the second time in the last couple weeks that I had a pretty spicy meal just before before bed and woke up in the middle of the night with some serious acid reflux.  Sure, eating anything that late is not a good idea and I am sure that played into it.

In the end though, I am going to take it as a painful message to make a few changes.  I may not lay off spicy food entirely, but I certainly will keep it earlier in the day.  I will also take it as ‘another’ hint to drop some weight.  Oh yeah, cutting down on stress would be a good idea too.

I am actually starting to believe that I am not invincible and could possibly miss out on my plan to live forever.

My trend of posting entries related to Mountain Dew (or Cheetos) continues! Eric brought in some very cool Mt. Dew bottles to the office and I was struck by how small they were. These are not your typical 16 oz bottles, but 12 oz. Big deal right? Four ounces. Well, I have been a fan of smaller portions when it comes to liquid refreshment - even back to the college days of filling our kitchen table with the “dead soldiers” of empty bottles of Little Kings Cream Ale.

Whether it is a beer or a soft drink, I am a slow drinker. The problem with beer used to be that it was warm before I finished a regular sized one - with soft drinks, the same thing. When I get a bottle of Mountain Dew now, it literally takes me three or four sittings to finish one. The sweet is just too sweet.

I think he found them at HEB in a 12-pack or something. Oh, and yeah, I did sort of cheat in the photo by placing it next to a 1-liter Coke not the traditional 16 oz. All the other photos I took of it didn’t show the size difference well. Trust me though - these are some tiny bottles