dr. browns

I would like to briefly continue my NYC theme (Go Giants!). Dr. Browns, although bottled in Southern California, originates in NYC (and the old-timey images on the cans and bottles reflect that).

In NYC I most often find Dr. Browns in cans, not bottles, but it's still delicious. Sometimes I can find a six-pack in Duane Reade for, like, $1.99, which is awesome. I'm a big fan of their Diet Black Cherry Soda. Michael is partial to Cel-Ray soda, for reasons that I can't fathom. I mean, why in the world would you want to drink a celery-flavored anything? Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Dr. Browns is common in Jewish Delicatessen's. I like that they make that distinction. Not a corner deli, not your neighborhood bodega: only Jewish Delicatessen's. Why?

When I was traveling last summer, I managed to find Dr. Browns on a morning show set I was visiting.  I made sure that the segment was over, and I snagged a few bottles for the road. I couldn't believe that I'd never seen one in a bottle in NYC. Turns out I had to leave NYC to find one of its signature sodas in a bottle, not to mention the bottle cap stamped with Hebrew letters.

And then again, over Christmas when I was visiting the holy grail, I found another Dr. Browns in a bottle! This time a Cream Soda. This gives a nice range of what the bottle caps look like, but I must say that I prefer the latter. The old-timey images, this time of the Statue of Liberty, call to mind NYC and delicious soda (except for the fact that I've never found a bottle of one in NYC, oddly).

You can get a nice look at the full line of bottle caps for Dr. Browns here. But those images don't include the plain crown I have above. Is it rare? Anyone have any info on that? Or maybe it's a bottle cap that comes out around the Jewish Holidays or something? Help me out, dear readers.

Ayinger Oktoberfest Marzen

So, if you haven't already guessed, yesterday's mystery post is today's real post.

This bottle cap is pretty unusual based on my normal comings and goings with crowns. It looks like a painting, and goes all the way to the edge of the crown -- not just the top. It doesn't give any indication of the brewery or the beer (or even that it is beer!) but does bring to mind a quaint German village where beer is enjoyed and possibly brewed. Maybe you can even get some spaetzle or a delicious pretzel.

The deli where I purchased Ayinger -- The Foodery -- presented an interesting question that Michael and I have been discussing for quite some time.

What should bottle cap collectors do when they come upon an amazing new selection of bottle caps while traveling? Sure, you can bring a bottle opener on trips and try to drink a few in a short period of time. But sometimes that's just not enough; there's a limit to what one can buy and consume while on the road. So what does one do? There will always been those bottles left behind. There will always be the bottle caps that I will think about (Bad Elf, Seriously Bad Elf? They have Santas on the crown who are too fat to slide down the chimney!) and hope that someone out there has a few extra crowns that they might want to trade for or even donate to the cause. (Hint, hint!)

Does anyone have any traveling tips? This reminds me of my trip to Seattle earlier this year when I went to the deli across the street from my hotel three or four times every night to get different sodas. (Seriously, there are a glut of microbrew sodas in the Pacific Northwest.) It got a little out of hand. And I still wasn't able to get all the caps that I wanted.

And, FYI The Foodery: if I ever come back to Philadelphia (I'm sure I will) I will buy you out of all of the awesome bottle-capped beers you have!