Home, Sweet Nursing Home

We just got back from visiting my grandma in a nursing home.  While sitting with her in the lounge, someone came in and got something out of the refrigerator.  That's when I saw the fridge was full of cans!!!

The snacks in the fridge are for visitors, right?  Well they were today.  During the course of the stay, the people in my group drank the various flavors of soda.  And by the time we left, I had scored all six different cans they had, none of which were in my collection.

Overall, it was a very productive visit.

1994 Pepsi Holiday Party Bunch

I'm in dangerous territory.  I bought something for my collection that goes beyond "just cans."  But this was too cool to pass up!

In 1994, Pepsi released this Pepsi Holiday Party Bunch truck display.  The sides of the truck, while in the upright position, show the delivery guys having a good ol' time in front of some of the collectible holiday cans. 

When the sides are folded down, each side displays four different cans.  The ninth can is located in the rear of the truck.

There are four Pepsi cans, two Diet Pepsi cans, one Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi can, one Mountain Dew can, and one Diet Mountain Dew can.

All of the cans are air filled, meaning they are sealed but never had any soda in them.  Store displays are usually air filled cans. 

I can't wait to see the eye rolls from my wife on this one...

Coca-Cola 2011 Holiday Can Set: Complete

Over the last few months, I acquired the 7.5oz "Stay Extraordinary" Diet Coke can.  I also got one of the infamous white "Arctic Home" Coca-Cola cans.  And when the red "Arctic Home" cans replaced the white, I got one of those.  And my sister gave me a holiday themed Diet Coke can on Thanksgiving.

Why am I mentioning these particular acquisitions?  Because a couple of weeks ago I found a press release online from Coca-Cola showing the five cans they considered to be in their 2011 Holiday Collection.  And it was the four cans I previously mentioned, plus the 7.5oz white "Arctic Home" can.

The problem was, by the time I realized I had 4 of the 5 cans, I couldn't find the 5th can!  It was last week that I seriously began hunting for the elusive 7.5oz polar bear can.  I had seen them plenty of times throughout November and December, but now that I wanted one they had all gone away to hibernate.  Once the white cans were discontinued, the grocery stores didn't replace their stock of the cans when they sold out.

But alas, on the way home from work last night, I tried a smaller grocery store in a small town and they had ONE 8-pack left!  I grabbed it, didn't even look at the price, and raced home to complete the collection.  And with that, here are the five Coca-Cola 2011 Holiday Cans...

My First Coconut Water

While doing a little research into the beverage industry last summer to get some kind of scope on the variety of cans that are on the market, I kept seeing one "style" of drink in particular over and over.  It was coconut water.

It really does seem like coconut water was/is a fad.  Since then, I've noticed drinks with aloe becoming popular (the next fad?).  But I was interested in what coconut water was like.  A lot of people raved about the taste and the health benefits.  The problem was I couldn't find any in a can.  A lot of the brands come in those squarish tetra packs or in bottles.  And if I was going to try something new I wanted a can for my collection to show for it!  And then at Big Lots earlier this week I found the above can of Siboney coconut water for $.70.

"chunky" water

Earlier this evening I poured it into a glass and knew I wasn't going to like it... I hadn't noticed the "with pulp" printed on the label.  Coconut flavor is ok, but I don't like physical coconut in my mouth.  But I tried it anyway.  It was about as unpleasant for me as a drink can be.  Whatever taste there may have been was overshadowed by the small chunks floating around in my mouth.  I was done with that!

I may try coconut water again some day (after enough time has passed to forget this experience) but it will have to be a brand WITHOUT PULP. 

The Cans from the Netherlands Are Here

On December 29, I posted about a can trade I made with someone in the Netherlands.  Guess what was waiting for me when I got home from work today...

One of the labels shows that the box was shipped on December 16.  So the box took almost one month to travel from Europe to the USA.

The cans were well packed, therefore there were only a couple with minor dents that popped right out.  My first impressions of the cans were that their sizes reminded me of the cans I got from the Middle East last September.  Most of them are 330ml (11oz) and six of them are little 150ml (5oz) cans.  In all there are sixty cans.

In the upcoming days/weeks, I plan on highlighting a few of these cans here on the blog with pics and info about them.

A big THANKS goes out to "Allcans"

at The Can Museum for initiating this trade.

South Korean Coca-Cola Surprise

Last week my cousin mentioned he had a Coca-Cola can with Asian writing in his basement for quite a while.  And I could have it.  So he brought it to me today...

It is a 250ml (8.45oz) extruded steel can from 2001 advertising the first Tomb Raider movie.  I did a little research online and found out it is from South Korea.  Which makes sense because my aunt has a friend who has lived in several countries overseas with the military and one of those countries was Korea.  Apparently she brought it to the USA with her during a visit and gave it to my aunt, who then gave it to my cousin, who then gave it to me.  And now the can rests among dozens of other Coca-Cola cans in my collection.

* The artwork behind the can in the picture above was done by my daughter when she was seven.

Jones Halloween Cans - Year 5 - 2009

Jones Soda, known for its unique soda flavors, started releasing Halloween-themed 8 oz cans in 2005.  They released four flavors each year until 2009.

Since there were no new flavors in 2009 and I can't find any different cans for these flavors on the internet, I assume they just re-released the same four-can packs from 2008 of Buried Pomegranate, Candy Corn, Lemon Drop Dead and Spooookiwi.

2009 Jones Halloween cans

Arctic Home Set Complete

You can read the details on this post I started back in October, but in summary, I now have both the white and red Arctic Home Coca-Cola cans.

For many years Coca-Cola has released a special holiday can featuring Santa Claus for Christmas.  But surprisingly these were Coca-Cola's holiday cans for 2011. For 2012, I say, "Bring Back Santa Claus!"