Not the Type of "Brew" I Expected

Where does one draw the line when collecting cans?  Some people pick a brand or two and focus on just that.  But if you choose to collect Coca-Cola cans, soda cans are obvious but what about Coca-Cola energy drinks?  Or Coca-Cola coffee?  For a brand-completionist the lines can quickly become gray.

The brand Pepsi would include Pepsi soda.  But do you also collect Brisk since it's under the Pepsi umbrella?  If yes, now you're collecting soda and tea.  And then juices show up.  And what about those weird relaxation drinks?  How do you decide which cans to keep and which to refuse?

I've stated many times on this blog that an easy line to draw is whether the drink has alcohol or not.  I'm not against alcoholic beverages, but with that as the deciding factor it's a simple YES or NO whether to include a can in my collection.  Now that does open the door to a HUGE can pool (any non-alcoholic drinks), but the more the merrier, right?

So when someone handed me this can for my collection, I almost threw it away.  It's a "cold brew" and I don't collect cans with alcohol, which includes ALL beer cans.  

But wait!  That symbol looks familiar.  Upon a more careful read of the label I realized this was a Starbucks coffee can, not some micro-brewery beer can.  OOPS.

Ok kids, the can-collecting lesson of the day: Be sure to read the label carefully.  Don't glance and assume.  Other than Monster, black cans aren't real common so it's nice to have another cool black can.  And to think, I almost threw it away.

And my other surprise... this can only has 10 calories!  Wow.

Pretty as a Peach

Isn't it great when a week is themed?  Let's take last week for example.  All three cans that found their way to me were peach flavored.  Neat.

I've still been trying different brands of flavored water and the last 12-pack I bought was AHA peach + honey.  My daughter saved a can of Just Peachy Peace Tea for me.  And my son came home with a can of peach Crush.

Summer is quickly approaching.  And with juicy flavors such as peach, I just can't wait for the scorching temperatures, high humidity, mosquitoes, thick air, sunburns, etc.  On second thought, I can't wait for fall to get here.

Those Aren't Cans

Every once in a while an exception is made for my can collection.  And this time it was for a couple of bottles someone gave me.

What makes these two bottles so special?

They both come from Mexico.  And living in the Midwest, I don't often see cans/bottles out in the wild from exotic foreign lands.

I've heard the tales of yesteryear of people tracking down Mexican Coca-Cola and soda-smuggling rings at the US-Mexico border because Mexico's soda is still made with real sugar, not like America's high fructose corn syrup variety.  And that means the Mexican version tastes better.  But now in the future, it's not so hard to jump online and have a crate of whatever delivered from wherever to wherever.  So this find may not be as rare as it once was, but it's still neat to have these bottles.

And both bottles came with their bottle caps which takes me way back to when I was young and started a bottle cap collection.  I sure do wish I still had all those brown paper grocery bags full of caps I collected from the early 80's.  But they were tossed out with other "trash" during one of my house moves through the years.

Mi coleccion sigue creciendo.

Curb Find

Yesterday we had awesome weather here and it was my return to a couple flea markets after more than a year of shutdowns.

While strolling along a sidewalk I noticed a Dr Pepper Zero Sugar can I didn't have yet lying against the curb.  When I first began my collection a decade ago, this was how I found a lot of my cans.

Fortunately I had a plastic bag with me, so I was careful to pick up the can without touching it.  I got home and cleaned it very thoroughly.  

And that's how I got a new can yesterday.  Things are starting to return to normal...

More Caffeine, Please

 I was recently given my first Coca-Cola Coffee can.

There are three flavors in the line: Caramel, Dark Blend, and Vanilla (which is the flavor I have.)

And just to give an idea of the caffeine content of this can, Mtn Dew has 54mg of caffeine, Surge has 68mg for a 16oz can, and this 12oz can has 69mg.  

So if you need that extra pick-me-up:

Coca-Cola + Coffee = Energized

When Life Gives You A Lemin

Yep, the brand is Lemin.  The drink is strawberry lemonade.  Sounds delicious, but the can was given to me empty so I didn't get to try it.

I've been on furlough for over a year now.  But I try to stay positive and remember the old saying: When life gives you a Lemin, write a blog post about its can.  Or something like that...

10th Anniversary Post

On this day, April 11, ten years ago the first entry for this blog was posted.  It was titled "My First Can (This Time Around)".  That was 568 posts ago.

In that first post I set an immediate goal of collecting 100 different soda cans.  I had NO idea what I was getting myself into.  Ten years later, I now have more than 5000 cans stored in my basement and garage.  I have cans from at least 30 different countries.  My oldest can is from the 1960's (not as old as some soda cans out there.)  And I've traded with some great collectors throughout the years, a couple of which I still maintain contact.  

My personal life has changed immensely since this blog began.  I read back through the years and remember those different stages of my life.  In that way, this blog has also been a personal journal recording many trips, purchases, gifts, and surprise finds in physical stores and online.

When does it end?  I still can't go to a flea market or antique shop without scouring it for cans.  People still bring cans to me to see if they have a new addition for my collection.  I still occasionally jump on eBay "just to look around" at the cans.  As of now I have no plans to stop.  

And what currently has me excited is the pile of new cans in my pantry that I haven't blogged about yet.  So you can expect many more weeks, or months, or years(?) of exciting stories chronicling "The Thrill of the Hunt."

Thanks for reading!

Easter Treat

While I don't have any new cans that feature bunnies or Easter eggs, I went with the closest thing I could find in my pile of new cans.

Cotton candy bang energy drink.  I think it speaks for itself.

Happy Easter!!

Monster of Spring 2

 Another week of spring, and another spring Monster showed up.

This one is called Khaotic and has a tropical-like flavor, with pineapple and citrus standing out the most.

Bring on the spring, and bring on more Monsters...

Monster of Spring

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox when we had roughly an equal amount of daylight and darkness.  And now the daylight will increase over the next six months until the Autumnal Equinox.

Also yesterday somebody gave me this Monster energy juice can.

What better can to be given on the first day of spring than a can featuring butterflies.  This is Papillon Monster which has a light subtle flavor with hints of peach and nectarine.

What other new cans will this spring bring?  Tune in to find out.

"Bottled Up" documentary

Are you a fan of Dr Pepper?  Do you like what the company stands for or are you in it just for the taste?  I discovered something this week that I want to share.

It's a documentary released in 2013, shortly after Dr Pepper/Snapple Corporate forced Dublin Dr Pepper to shut down.  I wish I'd found this years ago.  It's been eight years and I'm curious what has happened since then to the people and the town of Dublin, Texas.

What is Dublin Dr Pepper?  It goes back to 1891 when Dr Pepper, made with real cane sugar, was first bottled and sold in Dublin, Texas.  Eventually High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) became a cheaper alternative to cane sugar and the Dr Pepper brand switched to HFCS.  Except for Dr Pepper bottled in Dublin, which kept the cane sugar and with it the soda's original taste.  And that's what made Dublin Dr Pepper and Dublin, Texas, legend.

Life and business was good in Dublin until 2011 when Dr Pepper/Snapple Corporate stepped in and pulled the plug on the now-legendary Dublin Dr Pepper for their various legal reasons.  How does a small town that revolves around one product survive when that product is taken away?  Or can it survive?

After losing the short David vs Goliath legal battle (if you can even consider it a battle), the Dublin Bottling Works came up with a plan B to keep the business alive.  It's great to see how "the little guy" picked up the pieces to move on.

And then in 2013 things heated up at Dublin's annual fair called the Birthday Celebration when Dr Pepper Corporate showed up to promote their own version of soda made with the real sugar called Dr Pepper with Imperial Sugar.

This really is a bunch of mini-documentaries in one.  It features:

• A history of Dr Pepper
• Dublin Dr Pepper bootlegging
• The hidden Dr Pepper museum at the time, now there's a public museum
• Corporate Dr Pepper vs Dublin Dr Pepper

As of the posting of this blog, you can stream "Bottled Up" on Prime Video free w/a subscription or free on Tubi.

Does the documentary make you root for "the little guy" of Dublin, Texas?  Yes.  Is Dr Pepper/Snapple given a chance to tell their side of the story?  Yes.  Is Corporate's story told from a different perspective?  Yes.  Which side is correct?  That's what you have to decide when you watch this very informative and entertaining documentary.

Summer Can in Winter 2

That cold, snowy weather mentioned in last week's post was here for another week.  So why not feature another summer flavor to remind us it'll soon be too hot and muggy to go outdoors.

Yummy kiwi strawberry from the Arizona desert.  Cheers!

Summer Can in Winter

We're in the middle of the coldest weather we've had in a while here in the Midwest.  And what better flavor to remind us summer is just several long months away?

Yummy watermelon from the Arizona desert.  Cheers!

The Jumex Secret?

It's been a while since I got a new Jumex can, but here is my new Mango Nectar.

I don't have many Jumex cans in my collection (less than a dozen), but this is my third different Mango design.  

Jumex is a product of Mexico and can be found at Walmart.  I've tried a couple different flavors of Jumex juices and don't care for them.  This can came from a friend and was bottom-opened.

Have I discovered the secret?

Ju(ice)Mex(ico)?

Yoo-Hoo Comparison

Yoo-Hoo doesn't change their can design very often.  But this week I noticed some differences in the current design, and by "current" I just mean the newest design (which could still be a few years old), and an older can in my collection.  How many difference can you spot between the newer can (top pic) and the older can (bottom pic)?

My answers:

1. The newer Yoo-Hoo logo is smaller
2. The newer "Good source of vitamins" written in red above Yoo-Hoo has fewer words
3. The newer "Shake It!" is smaller
4. The newer can has the calorie marker
5. The newer "Drink" underneath the word Chocolate is aligned to the left now instead of the right.
6. The bubbling chocolate ooze at the bottom of the cans is slightly different
7. The newer "11 FL OZ" is in a slightly different font

What's my point?  To someone who doesn't care, the newer can may look like the same design as the older can at a casual glance.  But when a collector is interested in any slight design variations between cans they will certainly notice.

And this is why my basement and garage are full of cans.

What Is a Coce-Cola?

You might ask, "What is a Coce-Cola?"  

It's this "can" of soda with Asian writing on it.  You might ask, "What kind of a can is that?"

It's a pencil sharpener.  You might ask, "What does the 2-in-1 sticker mean?"

It also hides a pencil eraser under the lid.  

This is a miniature novelty item someone gave me a while back.  But with no new recent soda cans to report on, I rediscovered this on my bookshelf and decided to feature it.

And no matter how tumultuous the world around you may seem, remember to...

"Have a Coce and a smile!"

A Major Can Find

Several years ago I wrote a post about gaining over 700 cans from one Craigslist ad.  Now THAT was a major can find.

But last week I made another "major" find... Mtn Dew Major Melon.

It sure does sound delicious.  And this is some of the coolest Mtn Dew art in a long time.  Often their designs are just shapes and explosions and other visually-caffeinated imagery.  But this has an actual character on it... Major Melon.

And I can see why they brought out the big guns.  Just look at this wicked and corrupt malfruit.  It's actually a watermelon with fangs.  You don't see that everyday.

Another recent Mtn Dew flavor featured a shark in the design.  I like this new direction for their designs.  These colorful cans on the shelf have more of a graffiti mural look now than some video test pattern from the 1980's.

So next time you need a flavorful pick-me-up, call in the reserves and have a Mtn Dew Major Melon!

* All parties involved apologize for the clickbait nature of this post's title *

My Most Fragile Coca-Cola

For Christmas, my collection-tolerant kids gave me this Coca-Cola glass.

It's about the same size as a standard 12oz soda can.  Of course it can be used as a glass to drink your ice cold Coca-Cola, but this will go into my collection as "my most fragile Coca-Cola."

And it's the perfect item for those who can't decide whether to start a bottle or a can collection.  It won't help with the decision, but it's a good start either way.

The Christmas Monster

Someone gave this can of Monster Ultra Watermelon to me for my collection.

I thought it was appropriate for the Christmas season since the can is red with green trim.  

The person who gave it to me normally doesn't like energy drinks, but they said this one actually tasted pretty good.  I guess so, watermelon flavor is usually good.

It's not an official "Christmas flavor," but I have entered it into my collection as The Christmas Monster.

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S

CODE RED

 Stand down, this is not an emergency.  But it is a Code Red.

Yesterday someone asked me if I had this can in my collection.  I was pretty sure the 24oz Mtn Dew Code Red can I had was a different design. So I took this one and compared it to the one I already had.  Yep, a different design.  This one has the red circle behind the words "Code Red" with rays coming out of it.  The old design was this:

The only emergency at this point is getting my hands on a can of Bob Ross energy drink someone told me about.  Maybe in 2021...

Bubly Lime

 

Another new Bubly sparkling water can for my collection... Lime.

One thing's for sure about Bubly cans... they're always smiling regardless of how bland the water tastes.  

Bubly Watermelon

It's another cool, dreary fall day outside.  But if we look at my new watermelon Bubly can, it's "all smiles."

We're still drinking a lot of flavored waters in the house and this was a flavor we hadn't tried yet.  But as with the rest of the Bubly flavors, it's more of a hint rather than a bold taste explosion. 

So if you like slightly-flavored carbonated water I highly recommend watermelon, the flavor that will take you right back to the good ol' summertime of four months ago.

Rainy Day Energy

Today is the sort of day I associate with November.  It's gray, chilly, rainy, soggy dead leaves are everywhere, and I barely have the energy to even write this post.

I could use some bland grapefruit-flavored energy water with zero sugar.  How about some dull orange coloring to liven up the white and gray can? 

Someone gave this to me a few weeks ago.  They had bought a few of them and didn't like it, so I inherited one for my can collection.  It's unopened, but I just might try it today to see if it tastes as bad as they say.  

I'll consider it after I take a nap.

Fishing for Mr. Brown

My post last week was about being called back to work from being on furlough... to permanently close the building.  Yesterday, on Friday the 13th, the job was completed.  The building is closed and I have returned to furlough.

As the building was emptied, it became harder to do certain things without having all the "stuff" that used to be lying around.  So when I looked and saw a can standing upright at the bottom of the the 40-yard container where old furniture was being tossed, I looked for a ladder to climb down into the container to see if it was a can I needed for my collection.  

But all the ladders had already been sent away.  It's hard for me to accept something as impossible when one wants it bad enough, so I started scrounging the empty building for anything useful to reach down and get the can.  We had nothing long enough to reach that far down.  Since it was standing upright, could I fish it out?

The first thing I needed to make that possible was a "hook" and "line."  A discarded metal rod and an old microphone cable would work.  I taped the bent rod to the cable.

Now how could I extend the cable out far enough to drop down to reach the can?  A broom I had used to sweep the floor earlier could be the "pole."  I taped a roll of duct tape to the end of the broom handle and fed the cable/hook through it.  Now I could extend the hook out over the can and feed the cable through the roll of tape, slowly lowering the hook to the can.

It was a windy day, so aiming that lightweight hook into the mouth of the can was a bit of a challenge, but once it went in it caught the can and I was able to slowly pull the cable and raise the can from the bottom of the dumspter.

Once the can was high enough, I carefully pulled the broom handle in and brought the can to me.

Not only was I proud that I scraped together the parts to make a can fishing pole from a nearly-empty building, I was also able to take pics to document the process so I could write about it today.

Once the can was safely in my hand, I saw it was indeed a can I didn't have.  In fact, I've never heard of it before.  The can is strange also, the bottom is the same as a steel soup can.  And it's a non-standard 8.12 oz sized can.  This can of iced coffee was the last I would get from that building.  But what a last can it was.  Not only is it a very interesting can, but it also made for one of my most interesting can-collecting stories.

And I may have just found a new hobby for this next phase of my furlough... fishing.

A Positive End to an Era

My job is in the public service industry.  And back in March everyone in my building was put on furlough because due to COVID there was no longer a public to service.  The days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months, and in September I received a call asking if I wanted to go back to work in the building... to permanently shut it down.  "Sure'', I said.  I needed a paycheck.

After two months of distributing equipment to our other locations, taking down shelving, taking apart furniture, filling multiple dumpsters with trash, making many recycling runs, etc. next Friday will be my last day there.  We will all remain on furlough so hopefully if/when the business picks back up they will call us back.  Not to our old jobs, but somewhere else within the company. 

During one of our tips to the dumpster this week, I glanced in before we started filling it and saw two lonely cans.

Yes, I hopped down into the empty container and discovered it was a can I didn't have yet in my collection.

These were Adrenaline Shoc cans, an energy drink I've never heard of.  They were both the same, so I chose the one with the least amount of dents and rescued it.

Back in what's left of my office, I took this somewhat blurry picture of the can.  I've scored many cans from work over the years.  In fact, my collection blog started at work 9.5 years and two buildings ago with this post.

It's certainly the end of an era for me.  And I'll wait as long as I can to be called back, but unemployment benefits only last so long.  

But for now, I suppose I'll have more time to dumpster dive for cans for my collection.

Trick or Treat

With the pandemic still haunting us, it's questionable whether kids should be out trick-or-treating this year.  But there's no scientific evidence yet to support the theory that COVID affects aluminum cans.

The original can

So I chose this pitiful (no offense) Big K cola can from my collection a couple of months ago and asked what it wanted to be for Halloween.  It said it wanted to be a big, beautiful can of Coca-Cola.  Not "New" Coke, but one with the original taste.

We started on its costume back in late August.  Some parts of the costume were found in thrift stores.  Some parts were donated by family members. And the remaining parts were ordered online, which may be considered cheating.

But in the end, the Big K can LOVES its costume and we doubt anyone recognizes it tonight when it knocks on peoples' doors (socially distant, of course) and utters those memorable words "Trick or Treat."

Big K can in its Halloween costume

H A P P Y   H A L L O W E E N

COVID Surge

COVID is still running rampant in the USA.  And the latest can given to me was the 16oz Surge can below.  

It's not my fault the title of this post wrote itself.

Stay safe!

Shark Week

The skies are overcast today and an autumn wind is blowing.  Rain is headed our way.  Although rain makes a sloppy mess of the dead leaves in the yard, do you know who doesn't mind being wet?  A shark!

I received this from someone last night.  Mtn Dew Frost Bite.  Winter is on its way and soon water falling from the sky will be frozen.  But shark don't care!  He crashes thru the ice and is poised to bite your fingers as you grab the can to taste the new limited time cool icy melon flavor.

And that's the story of the new can for my collection.

This for That: A Can Trading Story

A coworker recently de-cluttered his house.  He said he would bring some DVD's, CD's, and books for me to donate to my small-town library.  He brought the tubs yesterday and it was quite a bit more than I expected.

On the left is the tub of DVD's and on the right are the CD's.  Thinking of others, I didn't want to overwhelm the library with so much media so I went thru both tubs and took a few things from each for myself.  And then I thought of someone else who might like to check it out.  He said he'd come over and look thru the tubs... he had a can for me anyway.

He handed me this can of Duff energy drink and took a few discs for himself.  I immediately recognized this as the brand from the Simpson's TV show.  On the show it's beer, but IRL it's a "wonderful orange flavored" energy drink.

So I consider this a win-win-win-win situation; my coworker cleared up some space in his house, my trader ended up with some discs, the library will have new material for the town to enjoy, and most importantly... I have a new can for my collection.