The latest:

>> So a few years ago, I found myself in Atlanta for one conference or another. I was only a few blocks away from the world of Coca-Cola, so I decided to kill some time and take the "tour," which is really just a walk through a bunch of exhibits. I was pretty unimpressed.

But all was not lost. At the end of the tour, guests are escorted into a room full of soda machines. There's the usual array of Coke products, but there's a smattering of regional and international beverages -- everything from a Birch Beer sold in the Midwest to a truly hideous bitters drink from Italy.

I faked out a teenager who was peering at the bitters by telling him it was fantastic -- he immediately spit it out on the floor and then yelled for his friends to try the awesome stuff. Ah, to be a mentor.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing the Coca-Cola shop and noticed that they don't sell beverages. I wrote in asking why and four weeks later a lame reply came back, telling me they only sell merchandise, not product, through the site. They provided a helpful link to a FAQ page on their corporate site -- which didn't work.

I did the natural thing and Googled "birch beer." And that's how I found the wonderful Popsoda. They don't have the Coca-Cola Company's Birch Beer, but they have 400 other wonderful varieties of soda. I'm doing this Atkins thing right now, and a single bottle of birch beer has 40 grams of carbs, but sometime in the future, I will place the order.

And if you want to see something really scary, check out Coke's complete list of brands. Yikes! That image over there is from the page on Heaven and Earth Brand Imperial Orchid Tea, by the way.
posted by Bryan at 2:49 PM