hillbilly brew, fudgy chocolate, it's peachy, try it!

Day three of Crownvention coverage commences now!

Hillbilly Brew (a poor-man's Mountain Dew), Fudgy Chocolate, and It's Peachy, Try It! are three caps found, much to my excitement, at Crownvention. They were purchased solely for their looks. I know, I know, how superficial of me. I've never had any of these beverages and it's difficult to find info online (so, as always, any info my faithful readers can provide is welcome), but their retro styles are very pleasing to the eye.

Hillbilly Brew and It's Peachy are both cork-lined caps, which makes me think they are pretty old crowns. Fudgy chocolate, however, is plastic-lined and has pretty clean lines, which makes me wonder where on earth it's from and what time period. Google, the ultimate finder of everything these days, comes up only with recipes for chocolate brownies when I do a search for fudgy chocolate, fudgy chocolate beverage, soda, etc. Google, you have failed me! I asked the Internet: It. Did. Not. Know. On the bright side, I know what I'm baking this weekend.

In any case, it's a really fun bottle cap, with a totally ridiculous font and girl wearing a crown licking her lips. Definitely makes me want to drink one! I just hope it's not secretly a Yoo-hoo!

appalachian brewing company

Welcome to entry 2 in my week-long look at Crownvention.

Of the many things to do in Harrisburg, PA and the surrounding areas, taking a trip to the Appalachian Brewing Company is a must. Great food, loads of brew on tap, and, of course, beer and root beer brewed right on premises.

When Michael and I arrived for dinner after a full day of conventions and sight-seeing, we stumbled upon a restaurant full of people excited for some food, some drink, and apparently a concert by a band called The Clarks. (Michael and I had never heard of them but everyone was wearing t-shirts and seemed stoked for the show to begin. They're a band hailing from Pittsburgh, so the home-town feel was definitely in the air.)

While we were waiting (it ended up being about a 45 minute wait), we hung out at the bar, watched the end of a NCAA basketball game, and drank some beer. When we finally sat down for dinner, we each ordered a diet Root beer. My Tree-Hugger veggie burger was HUGE -- I definitely couldn't finish it -- and Michael ordered the Drunken Shepherd's Pie, which he was very pleased with. The diet Root Beer also hit the spot, so much so that we purchased a bottle of regular root beer for the road. The regular root beer has more spice to it, as well as a stronger after taste.  I prefer the regular, but I think Michael liked the diet. We should have gotten a bottle of that, too!

The bottle cap is also noteworthy -- a bear claw (or some sort of animal claw) with a seal of excellence and a nice, clean design.  It also fulfills an important requirement for me -- the name of the brewery, so that I know what it is after it has been sitting in my collection for a while.

Speaking of which, in the coming weeks I will have a few "mystery caps" that I hope my loyal readers can help me decipher. When your bottle cap has only a bird on it, or a star  --- well, it makes it hard to remember what it is. Keep that in mind, bottling companies!

cherry coke, clearly canadian, dr. pepper

Crownvention has come and gone. Rooms and rooms of cans, crowns, and other drinking goodies are behind us. I feel like I made out like a bandit. A few bottle caps I was specifically looking for were easily found and procured. The weekend in PA was well worth the trip.

Cherry Coke has always been a favorite drink of mine but I don't think I have ever seen it in a glass bottle, so it was definitely on the list of caps that I wanted to try to get this past weekend. I was in luck!  One of the first vendors I came across had an array of Coke caps -- both old and new, and many, many varieties. This particular Cherry Coke cap also has an actual cherry on it, only adding to the fabulousness. The best Cherry Coke I think I've ever had is at this great old-fashioned diner on the Upper East Side that makes Coke with Syrup (if you click on the link be sure to turn up your volume!). You can get a fountain soda with vanilla, lemon, or cherry.

Dr. Pepper is also a classic.  Again, not as easy to find in bottles in my 'hood as one might think (plenty in plastic, but we all know that it is just not the same.)  I went with a more contemporary cap for Dr. Pepper. I'm not such a fan of all of the new flavors of Dr. Pepper out there -- how do you feel about them?  Dr. Pepper has such a distinctive taste that only the classic hits the spot. I drink Diet Dr. Pepper but it is the ONLY diet soda that I think actually tastes like the original.

The last cap I'll discuss tonight from Crownvention is Clearly Canadian,  a delicious flavored sparkling water. This is a drink that I used to covet growing up.  It was abundant, many flavors to choose from, and was always satisfying. As I got older, it became more and more scarce, and now it is at the point where I can't find it anywhere. I think the last time I found Clearly Canadian anywhere in NY was about five or six years ago, and that was a fluke! Before that, I saved one bottle (but not the cap, alas) that is currently residing at my parent's house. I think it is now a candle holder -- such a sad fate. Clearly Canadian wasn't even something on my list of hopeful caps for this trip, so when I saw one, I had to pounce on it!

Faithful readers, did you find any amazing bottle caps this weekend?

crownvention

Phew! It was an absolutely crazy weekend! After a full week of work, Michael and I hopped in our car and drove 3 1/2 hours to Harrisburg, PA to attend the Spring Thaw/Crownvention.  Even though it was a three-day affair, Michael and I could only make it for Saturday. Rooms and rooms of bottle caps, cans, and other drinking paraphanalia. It was amazing! I found a bunch of caps that I had been looking for (stay tuned for upcoming posts on all sorts of interesting crowns). You could spend as much or as little on caps as you wanted--I dug through a cardboard box that had 10 caps for a dollar, and Michael was very generous and bought me a few cork-lined caps as gifts!  It was win-win, with Michael even finding a beer can for his father.

Michael and I also took the opportunity to explore Harrisburg, Lancaster County, and Hershey PA as well.  Lancaster County was great--with handmade Amish pretzles, all-you-can-eat buffets, horse and buggies, and lots of antiques, quilts, and ceramics. We had fun having a car (in NYC the subway is our car), driving around and having a weekend in "the country."

This post will be sans-cap photo, but don't worry--this week will be full of new caps and new stories. And if you were at Crownvention, feel free to share your stories, too!

brazilia guarana - guest post by Michael Lober

Guest post by Michael Lober:

If you're going to hang around with Lauren Walles, you have to be prepared to enter every bodega on every block. What's worse, you have to be prepared to not buy anything in these bodegas. I never feel bad when I walk out of a 7-11 empty-handed; the chain is doing just fine, and most of the time the hired help doesn't notice. But walking out of a narrow NYC bodega empty-handed is awkward and semi-shameful. The owner always asks if he can help us find whatever we're looking for, and it's best not to say anything than to say that we were actually hoping that he carried imported bottles of soda that are most likely terrible. 

We've learned to spot a good bodega (meaning a bodega that carries imported bottled sodas). First, if the bodega claims a nationality -- the Mexican mini-market, or the Brazilian bodega -- then you can expect bottles caps. Second, if the bodega is one of those fancily lit health food markets, then you might happen upon some sort of bottled green tea ginger ale thingie, or any other sort of designer soda. Finally, if you're in Williamsburg or pretty much any neighborhood in the western portion of Brooklyn, expect a few bottle caps. It's easier to find a microbrewed root beer from Oregon than a Coca Cola in some of the bodegas there.

Anyway, this is all to say that there's a Brazilian mini-market near Lauren's apartment, and we came across a bottled guarana soda there. Guarana, apparently, is a type of Amazonian tree that produces a small fruit that's high in caffeine. It tasted kind of like apple to me, not terrible or overly sweet, but unmemorable nonetheless. The soda is the color of that tan M&M that has since been discontinued, although the bottle boasts that it's caramel tinted. Nope, tan M&M, that's what color it is.

yarpivo

The International Grocery Store in my neighborhood will definitely be getting more of my business in the future.  One of the first beers I purchased there was Yarpivo, a Russian lager (note, the website is in Russian.)  Not only was this beer 99 cents, it was tasty, and has a cool cap (there is even a bear!).

We drank our Yarpivo while watching the movie The Hangover. Between the two of us, we polished off this beer and marveled at the fact that it didn't just taste like another Budweiser.  It had a slightly tangy flavor, and Michael thought it was kind of like a Blue Moon (if only we had some oranges!) We didn't drink enough to have a night like the guys in the movie, but I could have drank another one, if we had only brought more home.  But we like to limit ourselves to taste testing only one or two beverages per evening so as not to get too out of hand (or in my case, too behind in my reviews for this blog!). But all in all, it's a beer that, if given the chance, we would certainly buy again.

d&g, ting, squirt

Michael has a theory about international sodas. Their makers all love Coca Cola (or at least, they love the success of Coca Cola), so the challenge for them is to make an equally successful yet tastier product. Pretty much every international soda that we've tasted thus far has decided to do so by dumping double the amount of sugar into whatever concoction they come up with. They seem to have concluded that everyone loves Coca Cola because it's sweet, so people will love their sodas twice as much if they were simply twice as sweet. In reality, the opposite effect takes place.

An excellent example is D&G  Pineapple Soda. At first, I had high hopes for this soda. It was purchased at a deli in the West Village, the bottle has a cartoon cat wearing shades (similar to MC Skat Kat from Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract video) and sipping his "Original Jamaican Flavor" soda through a straw.  The bottle also told me to "Stay Kool."  How could this be bad?

Alas,  D&G Pineapple Soda tasted like a liquid pineapple Starburst. I took only a few sips before I had to dump the rest of it. My teeth started to hurt from the sugar. And, D&G, you need to work on your bottle cap. If you had MC Skat Kat on your cap, I would have liked the soda a lot better! Just a tip.

Ting is another beverage from D&G -   and I just happened to have a bottle cap.  I don't remember when I got this, or what Ting tastes like, but according to the website, it is a grapefruit soda. Clearly D&G can know how to make a fun/interesting cap.  They should really think about the cat idea. The grapefruit aspect, however,  leads nicely into Squirt.....

Another very sweet, but surprisingly American soda is Squirt.  My bottle came from a local bodega, and I believe that it was actually from Mexico, not the US.  It had a refreshing citrus flavor, but unfortunately was way too sugary for my taste (I'm a Fresca girl, personally). This bottle was shared with Michael, who liked it more than me. He drank Squirt growing up and was more familiar with the taste.  He finished off the bottle. The cap, however, is great!  I wish that we had found one that wasn't so banged up, but the bodega didn't have much to chose from.