jolt - guest post by michael

Michael Lober here. When I was growing up in a small town in the lower Midwest, the principal weekend activity consisted of driving your car (or your parents' car) up and down the main street of the town. It was called cruising. We looped around the library, headed up toward the Wal-Mart, and then turned around in a turnabout by the town diner. Occasionally, when we spotted cars we recognized, we pulled over into the bank parking lot and discussed how there was nothing to do. It was a blast.

In the summer, these cruising sessions lasted upwards of five hours (gas, of course, was much less expensive then), and involved multiple trips to the nearby convenience stores. Mountain Dews were a popular stimulant of choice, but if we needed a real pick-me-up, we reached for cans of Jolt Cola. Jolt based its entire product around its caffeine content; its slogan at the time was "All the sugar and twice the caffeine." When I first consumed it, I feared that I wouldn't be able to sleep for days. But I never usually felt that differently. Its main effect seemed to be more trips than usual to the McDonald's bathroom.

Like most people, I drank Jolt only for the caffeine, not for the taste, which I must have repressed. Lauren, Caroline, Ryan, and I found a bottle in Straubs in St. Louis over the holiday breaks, and I was excited to relive a bit of my adolescence. But, as the saying goes, you can't go home again. I was disappointed to find that Jolt Cola tastes like chemicals with a splash of Coke, and has no more caffeine than coffee. I dig the lightening bolt on the cap and the funky font, but if you're not consuming Jolt while cruising the streets of a small town, then, really, what's the point?