The Pop Shoppe Cream Soda

Upon first inspection of this soda one thing immediately catches your eye. It's red?

Opening the rotund bottle gives way to one of my favorite things about glass bottles: the vapor. Every time you open a bottle I gas appears that tends to stay inside the bottle. A quick blow over the opening will get that gas out (it's physics).

First taste, is good. It reminds me of most cream soda's I have tasted. But I also get kind of a candy taste. It could be my mind playing tricks on me because the soda is red.

It is carbonated well, not fizzy at all. It just gives you a little sparkle in your mouth.

The bottle is short and kind of barrel shaped. Diamonds encircle the top and bottom. Written vertically so you'd have to tilt your head to the left says, "Sticks and stones will break my bones..." Which is odd because the saying of course goes, "Sticks and stones may break my bones.."

Little to no aftertaste.

Overall I would deem it an average cream soda. It is visually appealing, however. The abnormal bottle shape always draws my eye. And of course, how can you resist a red cream soda? Best of all, it was $1.05.

We Require More Sodas

I have discovered 3 more sodas in the adjacent refrigerator at the Yumm Shop. There are 2 Jones sodas and the classic IBC root beer soda. That brings the total up to 39 sodas which would mean I need to drink one every 2.69230769230769230769230769 with-a-line-over-it days. I shall find a way.

By the way, let's take a look at the terminology for flavored carbonated water. Now obviously all the cool kids say "soda". But what else is out there?

=As you can see, the Northeast, Southwest, St. Louis, and Milwaukee are where all the cool "soda" people are. (Except Milwaukee..Milwaukee is where are the crappy "soda" people live....Milwaukee..)

"Pop" occupies the most area with the North of the US. I vividly remember being very confused when visiting my grandma in Michigan and her asking if I wanted any "pop".

"Coke", taking up most of the South, seems rather strange to me. I'm sure many a conversation has gone as follows:

Do you want some coke?

Sure, sounds good. I would certainly like to moisten my whistle after the long trip from my Northern homeland. You see, I'm visiting the South US to see how many cows I can topple over before I get caught..

Alright sir, what would you like?

..Coke.

Yes.

...Coke.

Yes, you want coke, what kind.

Coke good sir!

Yes, coke, what type!?

I imagine the customer to be named Costello and the server to be named Abbott..

1,2,3,4,6,9,12,18,36

"What do these numbers mean!?" I hear you ask. They are the divisors of the wonderful number 36!

Superbowl 36 was the game that started the New England Patriots Dynasty.

Krypton in the periodic table.

0010 0100

1/10 of the degrees in a circle.

U.S. Route 36 runs from Uhrichsville, Ohio to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Inches in a yard.

Nevada, chronologically

Possible outcomes of rolling two dice.

Sodas in UMBC Yumm Shop's corner of deliciousness.

Class starts on August 31 and ends December 13. That means there are...105 days to drink 36 sodas. So I should be drinking one soda every..3 days, including weekends.

December 17 to December 21 will not only be most of exam week, but it will also be the Soda Showdown!! I will retry my top 5 sodas (criteria TBD) and pick the ultimate soda!

To determine what order I will drink them in I think I will assign each soda a number. Then, come drink day, I will go to a random number generator and let that choose my drink!

3 sodas stuck out in my mind when I took this picture. First, club soda..not entirely looking forward to that one but I must drink it! Second, bubble gum flavored soda. Nom. Third, sparkling spiced apple cider. Sounds like something my dad would like.

Only a little bit more planning to do and only 3 weeks of waiting left!!

When a soda comes together

As I sit here and drink my (sadly) last Orange Cream Soda from Pennsylvania, I realize that I have to start planning.

A few things I need to check on:

How many sodas I will be drinking over the semester. Will I have a box big enough to hold all those bottles?!

How often I will be drinking these sodas. Days in the semester divided by number of sodas.

What criteria--wait, wait. Fun fact time! The singular of criteria is criterion. Isn't that an awesome word!?-- What criteria will I be critiquing/grading/judging/mouth-watering over?

I'll also need to set some guidelines for myself during this project. Such as, I must drink all of the soda! That can't backfire on me at all..

Those are some things I'll need to think about over the month. I'll get back to you when I have some answers.