Slime Soda

On Christmas morning my kids set me on a treasure hunt for various presents hidden around the house.  After finding all ten wrapped presents it was time to open them.  And after starting to unwrap this little fella, I wondered what it could be...

It turned out to be a small, plastic "can" with blue raspberry-scented slime inside.

And to make it even more "real", they included small "ice cubes" for a crunchy slime.

This goes on the shelf with the other novelty cans I've collected over the years.  Next week, back to the real cans...

Veteran's Memorial

Last summer I featured the first Pepsi can in a long time that I found showing an ad for a local attraction.

Recently at work I rescued a Pepsi can from the trash that showed another point of interest.

This one is for the Veteran's Memorial in Perryville, Missouri.

It just opened this year.  I've been thru Perryville a few times this year, but wasn't aware of this place.  

So the next time I'm in Perryville I think I'll swing by to check out the memorial.  If so, I'll update this post with a couple pics from there.

WoW, Yet Another New Can

I went to my son's Christmas program for band at school last weekend and someone brought this little gem to me...

It's the second can in the new Mtn Dew Game Fuel World of Warcraft series.

Last month I featured the other WoW can, and now I have both of them.  This one is citrus blackberry flavored and I was told it was really good.

So let's keep the video game cans coming.  Probably my biggest hobby, second to can collecting of course, would be video games.  So let's keep combining them!

A Racoon?

I got this can from someone recently.  They thought it'd be a good breakfast drink.  Lots to unpack...

• First, this is my first Chamberlain Coffee brand can.  I'm not even sure where it's sold.  
• Second, it's cinnamon bun-flavored latte.  Doesn't sound like it could be any sweeter.  But...
• Third, in the red circle it says this has a "sweeter recipe".  Ouch.
• Fourth, it's made with oatmilk.  I can't knock it since I haven't had it.  But nah.
• Fifth, a racoon playing with a cinnamon roll?

And no, they didn't like the taste of this.  But it sure is an interesting can to have anyway.

Shirley Temple

At a Thanksgiving gathering a few days ago I noticed a new can.

This Shirley Temple 7UP.  I asked what's in a Shirley Temple and was told it's usually just a white soda with grenadine.  My next question was what is grenadine?  I was told just a sweeter version of a cherry syrup, but after Googling it I found out most people mistake it for cherry but it's actually pomegranate.  Who knew I'd fall down a Shirley Temple rabbit hole on Thanksgiving!  

This year I give thanks for my many new cans.

WoW, Another New Can

Someone at work brought this new Mtn Dew Game Fuel can to me last week.

They said the citrus cherry flavor was pretty good.  But for me the main attraction is World of Warcraft.  The game came out in November 2004 and I started playing it in January 2005.  I've played on and off for the last 20 years.  Btw, the game is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary.

I love the Game Fuel cans!  Mostly because I'm a gamer.  But does this can give a hint as to something coming in the future?   World of Warcraft.  Xbox.  I doubt it.

OREO

Someone brought this can to me at work.

It's a limited time Coca-Cola flavor or OREO!  A small 7.5 oz can, assumedly because one can't handle the taste in servings larger than that, haha.  A few people I know tried this one and none of them cared for it.  But the can does have a very interesting design; the black, white, and red and the stack of cookies down the front.

A fizzy cookie flavor.  Think I'll pass on this one...

Even More Poppi's

A visit from my daughter this weekend brought two new Poppi cans to my collection.

This time it's Orange Cream and Wild Berry.

What started her down the Poppi Road?  The can on the right.  She saw it in the store and liked the can design so much she bought it to try.  Liking it, she started buying other flavors.  And Poppi has a LOT of them.  

I like to encourage my kids to pursue their interests.  Especially when it means more cans for me :)

Another Poppi

I visited my daughter at college yesterday and she had a gift for me.

This is my fifth Poppi can and there are plenty more to collect.  I featured my first four in a post a couple of months ago.

This is the standard grape flavor, which she said is good but standard.

The exciting news is she has 5 more flavors in her dorm ready to try!  So those cans will be coming to me soon...

hAlloWeen (A&W)

Maybe my "Can Collector Card" should be revoked.  This year, I didn't chase any Halloween cans.  I'm sure they were out there, but I didn't see any of them.  Instead...

I think this from last year.  Or the year before?  It's been in my pantry a LONG time.  Regardless, the ONE time a year I can feature it is now.  

I've made it a point to collect Halloween cans in the past, but this year snuck up on me.  So I'll feature a can from the past I haven't shown yet.

With Halloween coming later this week, remember with A&W, it's "No tricks, all treats".

Red Bull Green

This week I made another trash can find at work.

It's been a while since I've found a new Red Bull.  But this one is Green Edition.  And the flavor is Dragon Fruit.

I'm sure I've missed some of these special editions in the last few years, which makes me green with envy for the collectors who've kept up.

Birthday Haul

Last week I had another birthday.  And this year I got a few cans from my kids...

And this wasn't just a quick trip to the local Casey's.  Nope, these consist of steel cans and older aluminum cans.  Let's look at each one.

Wild West Sarsaparilla - I have a few of these already, but they're all variants.  This steel can (bottom-opened to preserve the pull-tab top) promotes it as the "First soft drink of the Old West".  And to be honest, I've always pronounced this flavor as "sassparilla".  Is it just me?  The first time I saw this can I wondered why they had all the extra letters in that word.

Graf's Cola - I didn't show the front of this steel can, but the back reveals the "Great American Inventors" of the Wright Brothers.  There's a nice pic with a great description of what made them famous.  They sure don't make cans like this anymore.

Pepsi-Cola - Next is an aluminum can featuring the Chicago's Navy Pier.  The can is from 1995.  It notes "Come join in the celebration of this Chicago landmark reborn.  Opening this summer."  I had no idea it had re-opened that year.  It was only a couple years later that I would make my one and only trip (so far) to Chicago and visit the Navy Pier.

G. Willikers - Well, the name says it all.  This aluminum can is the first of this brand in my collection.  It's grape.  Gee willikers, that's a boring flavor.

And that's my birthday haul.  Overall, it was a great year.  Thanks, kids.

The Pepsi Three

I featured the newest can design for Wild Cherry Pepsi a year ago and Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi earlier this year, but now I want to get caught up with three other cans.

This is the regular Pepsi flavor, the black can of Pepsi Zero Sugar, and the Zero Sugar version of Wild Cherry.

I'm sure there are other flavors with this design, so keep watching here to see them when I get my hands on them!

Mule

A new week, a new can.

Someone gave this to me at work.  They needed a pick-me-up to get them going one morning.  I'm assuming it's a coffee, I didn't ask.  But ginger brew sounds like a coffee.

Nice, artistic can.  Who couldn't use a mule?

New VooDew

And here's the 2024 version of the Mtn Dew VooDew can:

Just in time for Halloween.  I know a couple people who've tried this.  One said it was a cherry flavor, another said more like strawberry.  I'm not sure which it is, but it does sound good!  And Mtn Dew continues their awesome, colorful can designs.

Instead of candy this year, consider handing this out to Trick-or-Treaters.  The parents will love that...

Saving the Standards

Last week I saved two cans from the recycle bin at work.

What's so special about them?  Nothing.  In fact, I had to doublecheck when I got home that I didn't have them yet.  These are the newest designs of just the regular Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper cans.  And seeing them so often I had just assumed I had them already.  But something told me to check.  And I'm glad it told me because I didn't have them yet.

It's kind of the same idea of procrastinating to watch that movie on a streaming service because "it'll always be there".  And then the movie gets removed and you missed your chance.  Grab the standards before they're gone!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

A movie came out this weekend called "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice".

I went to a birthday party yesterday and was given this Fanta can featuring Beetlejuice from the new movie.  I loved the old movie and cannot wait to see this sequel.

The flavor is Haunted Apple.  I was told it tastes very good!  I sure hope the movie's just as good as this soda review, haha.

So here's to hoping in other 36 years we see the finale of this movie trilogy, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice".

Peach Waterloo

Waterloo sparkling water has been featured on this blog before.  Here's the newest can in my collection.

This can came from work.  Someone brought in a case of this peach flavored water and to be honest, it lasted quite a while.  It turns out a lot of people don't care for the bland taste of sparkling water.  But that's ok, it means more for me.

And to be honest, I also think it's bland.  But I like it.

Monster Variants

In February of this year I featured a Monster Energy Ultra Rosa can.  It had a red/pink top which matched the color of the rest of the can.  But recently I ended up with this silver-topped version pictured below.

In January of this year I featured a Monster Energy Ultra Sunshine can.  The words "Zero Sugar" were printed in white.  Recently I ended up with this "Zero Sugar" can with the words printed in black.

So it depends on how far you want to take your collection.  Are you happy with just having one can for each flavor?  Or do you feel the need to find every version of that flavor, all color differences and variations of text?

I've gotta collect them all!

A Short Week

This week I'm showing two short cans.  

I recently got this newer 7.5oz Coca-Cola Zero Sugar can.  Nothing too fancy about it other than its nice red/black contrast.

I also found this 8oz can of Shasta ginger ale in my pantry.  Not sure where I got it or how long it's been in there, but it's time to move it to the collection with the rest of the cans.

And I just noticed the red and green colors of the cans.  This could have been a "Christmas in July" post had I written it a few weeks ago.

Colorful Monsters

Monster Energy drink sure has some neat cans.  Here are two more of them.

The first can is Ultra Fiesta Mango.  You can barely see some of the artwork on the left side of the can, but both sides are decorated with silver images of skeletons playing various musical instruments, almost in a Brazilian Carnival style.

The other can is Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red.  Again, it's hard to tell in the pic but both sides of the can have artwork.  The left side shows pink oval-shaped bunnies and bears skipping along merrily among the flowers.  The right side has blue evil-looking shapes with sharp corners that look like they're hungry for an oval-shaped meal.

Two neat cans.  And fun too.

4 Poppi

Here's a new brand of beverage for my collection.  It's called Poppi.

What really stands out are the bold colors, the simple artwork, and the matte finish of the cans.  This is a prebiotic soda to help promote a "healthy gut", as one can says.

There are many flavors, but the four I now have are Doc Pop, Raspberry Rose, Strawberry Lemon, and Watermelon.  The names alone make my mouth water.

These were given to me by someone else who drank them, so I'm not sure if the soda itself stands up to all the praise I've given the cans but I'm willing to give on a try to find out some day.

Spindrift Tea

To be honest, I can't remember who gave this to me. 

I'm given a lot of cans, so when this one came to me unopened I figured this would be a good one for me to taste.  It's a sparkling water black tea, not sure how that works.  I'm not a big mango-flavor fan, but I'll at least give this one a shot.

But it's made from real squeezed fruit, can't go wrong with that!  Can you?

Alani Summer

I found these two cans recently at work.  

Talk about your summer-sounding flavors, these energy drinks make me think of the heat of summer we went through recently.  With Cherry Slush and Juicy Peach, just the names make my mouth water.

I'm not sure who the Alani fan is at work, but I hope they keep up the good work...

Land Between the Lakes

I have many cans in my collection featuring what I call "ads".  They can be used as coupons to save money on events, they can promote events or locations, or even feature specific groups.

It's been a while since I got a new one, but a few weeks ago I saw an ad for Land Between the Lakes on the back of a Pepsi can at work.

This is a National Recreation Area on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.  But the funny thing is I was there just earlier this summer for the first time.  

We visited Lighthouse Landing, Patti's 1880's Settlement, and even found a lone tennis court where we hit a few balls for a while.

It was a great trip, definitely worthy of a promotion on a Pepsi can.  If you haven't been there, head there soon!  And enjoy a Pepsi!

Dew the 4th

Well, the winners of my July 4th can competition could have been none other than this Mtn Dew collection:

Three cans, one in red, one in white, and the other in blue, perfect for America's Independence Day celebration.  And the flavors sound good too with Star Spangled Splash, Freedom Fusion, and Liberty Chill.

These were given to me, I didn't actually drink them myself, but I was told all three were great.  A real celebration of our Freedom of Taste.

Goodpops

At a discount store yesterday, we happened across two lonely cans on a shelf of discounted canned goods.

My daughter asked if I had those Goodpop cans, nope!  A quick look at the labels showed these are made of carbonated water and fruit juice.  Low-calorie, no added sugars, and cheap.  They were $.50 each.  We'll be drinking them today.

So we had a lot of other things going on a couple weeks ago on Father's Day, so we decided then to postpone our celebration of it until yesterday, June 29.  I can't think of a more appropriate can to find on our "Father's Day" than a goodpop!

Pushing the Accelerator

Recently someone saved their energy drink can for me because they hadn't seen one like it before.  And now I have it.

This is Accelerator Rocket Pop flavored.  And they said it tasted just like a rocket pop.  Such an American looking can.  I should have saved this one for the 4th of July.  But I didn't.  

Now I need to find a can to feature for the week of July 4.  The search is on...

Creamy Coconut

Continuing with my collection of new Dr Pepper can designs and flavors, what about this one?

My daughter brought this when she moved home from college for the summer.  What kind of weird flavor is that?

I admit I didn't try it.  And won't.  I'm not a fan of coconut.  Unless it's coconut-scented sunscreen.  Which makes me think of summer.  So what better flavor to have for a summer soda?

I'm told it really does taste good.  I guess so if it made it all the way to being sold in a store.  But I think I'd rather drink sunscreen.  Thanks.

Super Rooster Booster

Last week brought a can I had never heard of before!

Super Rooster Booster.  It's a fruit punch flavored energy drink.  I was told it tasted pretty good, too.  The side of the can claims it boosts performance, boosts concentration, boosts endurance, boosts metabolism, and speeds up reaction with a boost of caffeine.

Sounds like a lot of boosting for one rooster.  But then again, he's a Super Rooster!

Most Colorful Ghost

What is EDC 2024?  It's the Electric Daisy Carnival held in Las Vegas last month that ran from May 17-19.  It's an immersive experience of music, art, and community.

And the GHOST Energy drink flavor Electric Limeade had this limited edition themed can for EDC 2024.

Someone saved this can for me.  It has to be one of the most colorful cans in my collection.  And after researching the event the design is based on, I think the colors and theme are very appropriate.  

I hadn't heard of EDC before I got this can, but it sounds like a real party.  Just like this can.

Diablo IV

For those video gamers out there that play Diablo IV, the game recently had a big update that has brought a lot of players back to it.

This is another Mtn Dew Game Fuel flavor, Mystic Punch.  On the left side of the can you can see Lilith, the main antagonist of the game.  This is a fruit punch flavor that I was told is very good.  But most Mtn Dew flavors are very good.

Season 4 of the game started recently and with it came a big loot overhaul which reportedly has improved the game immensely.  I played it at launch but it's been a while, so last week I updated it and started a new character.  I'll see for myself how much the game has changed.

And with this being Memorial Day weekend, there's a whole extra day available for some game time.  Fire up the grill, I'm going to hunt some demons.

Zero Sugar Pepper

Someone at work has been bringing cans of different Dr Pepper flavors to me.  This week was no different.

So far I have the cream soda and cherry flavors.  This week I got the regular Zero Sugar variety.  He said this tastes better than Diet Dr Pepper.  I'll take his word for it.

Let's see what the next flavor will be...

Faze Pop

I found something in the trash at work this week.

After a good cleaning, I brought this can home to meet the other cans in my collection.  This GHOST energy drink appears to be flavored like a Bomb Pop.  The colors of the can even match what a Bomb Pop looks like.  And just looking at the can I can imagine what it tastes like.  Yummy.

Summer's just around the corner and the temperatures are already on the rise.  So grab yourself a Faze Pop and enjoy the summer.

Cinco de Rio

Today is Cinco de Mayo.  Celebrations and parties abound.  It makes me think of the famous Rio Carnival in Brazil.  Which makes me think of a can I was given this week.

Monster Juice energy drink has a flavor called Rio Punch.  I've always been a fan of the green/yellow color combination, so this can immediately caught my attention.  

But also the festive design really stands out.  And along with the colors and fun design, there's an article that cansplains Carnival and how much Rio Punch is pretty much Carnival-in-a-can.

Overall a fun addition to my collection.  Where were the Arbor Day Edition cans this year?

Spyro the Dragon Fruit

If you've been a long-time video gamer then you know who Spyro the Dragon is.  If you're not, Spyro the Dragon has been in video games for a long time.  That should cover all the readers.

G Fuel came out with this limited edition can earlier this year.  0 sugar, 0 calories.  It's a win-win.  The actual flavor is called dragon fruit, go figure.  It's an energy drink that make those gaming sessions last longer than nature intended.

As to how the drink tasted, I don't know.  I can't even remember who gave me this can.  Where am I?  Oh, an empty can.  Which way to the recycle bin?

Just kidding.  Spyro is safe.

C4 Starburst

C4 energy drink has an interesting-looking can for its Starburst flavor energy drink.

The colors certainly remind me of the lemon and strawberry flavored Starbursts.  I didn't taste this, but the person who saved the can for me said it kind of tasted like Starburst.  It was ok.

What's more, it has zero sugar which can't be said for the little chewy flavored sugar-squares candy known as Starburst.

If I were to grade this, I'd give it a "C" 4 effort.

A Regular Sprite Can

I saw a co-worker drinking Sprite last week and asked if I could have the can.

"This?  It's a regular can, nothing special about," they said.  

I had realized I didn't have this regular Sprite can.  I told her the difference in this can was the logo, they now write it horizontally where it's always been vertical in the past.  She looked at it for a second and said, "Huh."

I did get a horizontal logo in December at our work holiday luncheon, but it was a special promo can.

Sometimes you don't even notice the regular, every day stuff.  But when collecting, you have to keep yours open and be focused all the time!!  

Dr Pepper Cherry

Last week's post was about me asking someone for his Dr Pepper Cream Soda can.  This week, the can is Dr Pepper Cherry.

But I didn't have to ask this time!  He brought this to drink it specifically so I could have another new can.  Now that's the kind of networking you have to do when collecting something.  

He even commented how neat this can looks, the color is an interesting dark teal blue color, one you don't often see on cans.  And with the rest of the can black it really is a neat design.

Ok, keep 'em coming.  I always have room for one more can...

Dr Pepper Cream Soda

I noticed someone drinking this at work last week and decided to ask for the can.

They know I have a can collection but we've never really talked about it much.  So when I asked for this one he was surprised I didn't already have such a common, current can.  But I told him I don't drink soda and I can't just buy sodas to empty them out for the cans.  So I just ask for people's trash.

He was surprised with some of my stats (such as I started collecting in 2011, have over 6000 cans now, have cans from many countries, etc.).  

He also recommended when the day comes that I show all the boxes of cans to my kids and reveal they'll all be theirs someday, not to be upset if they ask, "So, how much do you think all these weigh?"

Tetris

This week someone saved their G Fuel energy drink can for me.  

This can is extremely colorful, but then so is the game that inspired it.  This flavor is called Tetris Blast and I don't even know what it tastes like.  But I hope it tastes better than the blocks look in Tetris.

With zero sugar and 0 calories you certainly won't be gaining any weight by drinking these.  That will come from the hours of sitting you'll do while playing the video game Tetris.

Prime

A couple weeks ago a co-worker brought in an energy drink he was trying for the first time.  He knows I collect cans, so this was one he bought to taste and to give me the can.

This is the original flavor for Prime energy drink.  I love the simplicity of the black & white can design, along with the hand-drawn doodles up and down both sides of the logo.

I'm not sure why this caught my attention, but usually when a logo is printed sideways the bottom of the letters is on the right.  But in this case, the bottom of the letters in "Prime" is on the left.  Maybe that's intentional so subconsciously your brain picks this can out from the others on the shelf, not knowing why it looks different.

Regardless, it's a great addition to my collection and I'm looking forward to the next Prime...