goose island matilda = frobscottle

The last time my mom took me out on a beer run, we got quite a few Goose Island products.

Matilda is Goose Island's Belgian style pale ale that comes in what looks like a wine bottle. I think they're trying to appeal to a crossover audience of beer and wine lovers. I'm sold!

But really, Matilda reminds me of the Roald Dahl book of the same name that I read as a child. This book and The BFG were two books that I come back to time and again. Matilda was amazing: she could move things with her eyes, and was friends with her teacher. When I was a kid I wanted to be Matilda. Or I wanted to be the kid Sophie who was kidnapped by the BFG so that I could drink frobscottle (the bubbles go down!!). What do you think THAT bottle cap looked like? So the Matilda bottle cap makes me think of Frobscottle*...and wishing I was friends with my teacher when I was little. A leap, I know. But it all makes sense in my head.

To get back to the beer and bottle cap portion of this blog post, I recall that the beer was pleasing on the palate, but nothing to really write home about. I do like the bottle cap: A silhouette of a goose -- silver on black. Very classy, and again, appeals to the wine drinker in me.

*Going back to the Frobscottle, because now I'm thinking about it: Can we have a bottle cap design contest for Frobscottle and market this stuff? I want to be able to buy it. This is a million dollar idea, people!

loco blackberry

Man! I wish I had been around for the Loco Soda line. This was a bottle cap that my mom (Hi Mom!) found in my sister's room when they were redecorating a few months ago.

How cool is this? It's wacky, has some great color, and could potentially have been a mystery cap contender. It looks like there were four flavors to choose from (blackberry, lime, mango, and raspberry), and the label looks sort of like a four-year-old designed it. It begs the questions: 1) how did this beverage get made? 2) why was it discontinued? Based on my preliminary googling of LOCO, people seemed to have liked it, and are sad about its disappearance. Even APM's The Splendid Table talked about Loco Soda. (And the Splendid Table is of course, how we got the wonderful Schweddy Balls. YUM. How did LOCO not last?)

Is it still possible to get LOCO? I know some random, hard to find sodas can be procured in limited distribution areas. It's not looking good for LOCO, but if anyone has leads -- let me know! It just seems so delicious with its fresh fruit juice AND chili peppers! And since it's a NYC soda I will certainly keep my eyes open.