Downtown Roanoke / Coca-Cola Mural

The long mural with multiple advertisements also features Mutual of New York and Caveness & Conner Insurance. The painter of the mural signed it in the bottom corner, but I didn't get a better picture of it. Originally, I assumed this was a vintage restored mural, but now I'm guessing it's probably from the 80's but with a vintage look.

Refresco Iberia Guayaba (Guava Soda)

Napa Valley Soda Co. Orange & Cream

Jarritos Tamarind Sodas

I bought this and was expecting the worst. I've tried some rather nasty flavored drinks from the Hispanic and Cuban sections of the grocery store. At the same time, I read this is Jarritos best selling flavor.

As as uninformed American, I had to read the Tamarind is a fruit indigenous to Africa. The taste is similar to a mixture of Sweet Tea flavor and the bubbliness of a Sparkling Grape Juice. I'd buy it again.

Jarritos is Spanish for Little Jars which you can see with the clay pots on the label and engraved on the bottle. This was with special 2010, 200 years since 1810 packaging.

Restored Coca-Cola mural - Adairsville, GA

If you drive along the "Old Dixie Highway" or "old US 41" going northbound through Adairsville, GA, you will see this old restored Coca-Cola mural.

This building is now the Bogle Dress Shop, but at some time, it used to be someone's General Merchandise store

Coca-Cola can from Greece in 2008

This is a souvenir my parents brought me from a European cruise a few years ago, 2008 I think. The can is 330ml which is comparable to our 12oz. cans. There's also a suggested price of 0,65 Euro. I learned the Greek alphabet in high school but hardly remember any of it.

Dryck Julmust, The Swedish Christmas Soda from Ikea

Dryck Julmust



This Sweedish Festive Drink was made in Germany and sold in America. Specifically, it's sold at Ikea stores. The soda connoisseur that I am, this drink mostly reminds me of a Faygo Rock N Rye or the Cuban soda Quinnabeer and maybe a little bit of Cheerwine mixed in.

The Jul part of this is pronounced like Yule (as in a Christmas Yule Log) or You'll. Thus, if you like sodas and are at Ikea, Julmust buy some.

Lemmy Sparkling Lemonade

Since 1939. With real lemon juice.
This soda was fantastic!
This vintage beverage is now produced by Orca Beverages. They still use the vintage slogan: Lemme have a Lemmy! I haven't decided whether or not it's creepy, but the lemon on the front is salivating.

Red Bull Simply Cola

Red Bull cola in it's tall-and-slender-but-still-12-ounces-can didn't taste as bad as I thought it would, since Red Bull didn't taste good. That's what they get for being the first energy drink before taste was a factor. Their cola lists ingredients like Carbon Dioxide, Mustard Seed, Licorice, Ginger, Corn Mint, Pine, Mace, Clove. Somehow all of it mixes together to taste like an RC, but it leaves a strange aftertaste.

And then, I saw this story:
www.nbcwashington.com/around-town/archive/Red-Bull-Simply...

Cool Mountain Strwaberry Soda

I don't know how far reaching this brand is, but I found it at a tourist attraction in Western North Carolina

Jolt Cola

Jolt is one of those drinks that's been around for a while but has been given new life, thanks to the energy drink craze.

Growing up, Jolt Cola was one of those things that I'd heard of for many years, but didn't actually see or try for a long time. Back then, their motto was "Twice the Sugar, Twice the Caffeine." With a motto like that, combined with its perceived rarity, gave it a mystique. It's as if this was the drink you weren't supposed to have; it's so good but so potent that if you could find one, you parents wouldn't actually let you have it.

and then one day I found it.
and I drank it.
and it tasted like an RC or any other generic cola.
There was no sugar rush so great that I would bounce off the walls.
Twice the Sugar. Twice the Caffeine.
Twice the disappointment.

Now, Jolt is back. Or perhaps Jolt has always been there and I just went 20 years without seeing it. They can be the energy drink before there were energy drinks. They've added taurine and all that other stuff that all energy drinks have. It still tastes like an RC.

Chubby Sodas from Trinidad & Tobago

So our local grocery store started to carry these marketed-to-kids sodas. Each bottle is a little over 8 oz..

The soda is made my the S.M.Jaleel & Co. out of Trinidad & Tobago.

The orange tasted like any orange soda. The Rock N Rolla Cola tasted like any store brand cola. The Tutti Frutti I didn't care for. Our local store also carries Pineapple and Blue Raspberry.

The 2011 Coca-Cola Polar Bear cans

Coca-Cola Mural - Downtown Chattanooga

This old mural, with the C's busted out for windows, is located in downtown Chattanooga in the building that used to be the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel is on Market street across from the parking garage next door to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Sierra Mist Undercover Orange from 2008

Original title:
Steve Carrell's sweat O'Gold

New mandarin orange limited edition flavor with a promotional tie-in to the Get Smart movie starring Carrell

Frostop Orange & Cream

Extra points for the small drawing of the cow at top licking an orange creamsicle.
More extra points for coming in a 16 oz. bottle.
Otherwise, it tastes like anybody else's orange cream soda.

W.T. Reed Groceries \ Coca-Cola Mural

Faded wall ad along the side of the what used to be W.T.Reed groceries in Gainesboro, TN. A vine has grown up the side of the building.

Mike Hargrove 1970's RC Cola Can

From the mid 70's. RC had a baseball player can collection. I can't wait for baseball season to start, but to help pass the time, I take photos like this.

King Size Quiky bottle - nearly 50 years old

at the bottom of the bottle, it is described as "A Delicious Grapefruit and Lemon Soda." This goes back to the days when King size = 10 oz, which if I'm reading the bottle right was 1966. I like the unusual ridged shape of the bottle, too.

Ale-8-One from Kentucky

By my estimation, it had been about five years since the first and only time I had tried one of these sodas, and I still remembered what it tastes like - a fruity ginger ale. The soft drink was invented by G. L. Wainscott in Winchester, KY in 1926 and they claim it's the only soft drink invented in Kentucky to still be produced.

Ale-8-1 => "Ale Eight One" => "A Late One"

Big Red Vanilla Float in 2005

Here's a photo of a soda I really had to pull out of the archives. I don't thing the Big Red people make this anymore as this photo was taken when I tried it 9 years ago.

World's Oldest Coca-Cola Mural

You see the old Coke murals all over the place, and it had to start somewhere. Not surprisingly, it wasn't far from Atlanta. This mural was painted on the side of Young Brother's Pharmacy in Cartersville, GA.

In 1894, James Couden, a Coca-Cola syrup salesman, felt the vast exterior of the building would make a great location to advertise his product. 100 years later, preservationists wanted to see what this sign originally looked like and 25 layers of paint were carefully removed. Thus, in 1994 the sign was repainted and preserved to look like it did a century earlier.

This sign is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When it was painted, the target audience would likely be train passengers (railroad tracks are right behind me.) but a few decades later, the Dixie Highway passed by also.

The Country Mountain Dew and the City Mountain Dew

The City Mountain Dew was purchased among the hustle and bustle while walking downtown Knoxville.
The Country Mountain Dew was purchased at Davis Gen. Mdse. during a leisurely drive through rural Williamson County, TN.

The City Mountain Dew comes in a sleek 12oz. longneck and should be enjoyed at a frenzied pace.
The Country Mountain Dew comes in a short and pudgy 10oz. bottle and should be enjoyed on a relaxing afternoon.

The City Mountain Dew has the latest MD logo painted directly on the bottle.
The Country Mountain Dew has the logo printed on a styrofoamy-paper, the way it used to be when I was a child and I'd tear off the label in horizontal strips round and round.

I think I'll drink both of them today.

Fanta Orange bottle from Mexico

Since Coke hasn't done the throwback/heritage/retro thing like Pepsi, We haven't had the chance to remember the taste of their drinks with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. However, at several stores in the area I've seen these bottles of Orange Fanta from Mexico sweetened with real sugar.

Schweppes Black Cherry Ginger Ale two-liter from 2011

Saw it around here for the first time. Definitely a unique flavor, with the black cherry being the stronger flavor with the ginger ale subtly mixing in

World's First Coca-Cola Bottler neon sign in Chattanooga

Now, there's a neon sign that I bet has quite a history. I just don't know what that history is because I can't find anything about this particular sign online. There does appear to be several Coca-Cola bottlers with a similar styled sign, but only one is the World's First.

The first Coke bottler did go by the name of "World's First Coca-Cola Bottler" and they were located in Market Street in downtown Chattanooga. They later expanded to a larger facility on Broad St. Then, in 1970, they moved to their current location, with their vintage neon sign out front, at 4000 Amnicola Highway.

Stewart's Key Lime Soda 4-pack of Glass Bottles

I'm a fan of Key Lime Pie, so this is one of the best sodas I have ever had.

RC Cola Cardboard cut-out

Be Mr. RC Cola can for a day

I made a blog post on a different blog where I explain everything in a little more detail, have the photos in order and even have a youtube video of part of the play. See it here:
brentkmoore.blogspot.com/2008/11/rc-cola-and-moon-pie-fes...

Jones Buried Pomegranate 2009 Halloween Soda 4-pack

Buried Pomegranate is a specialty/novelty soda flavor available during Halloween. It comes in a 4-pack of 8 oz. cans with a dracula design. While I suppose there's pomegranate flavor in there, buried stands for berries, and there is a mixed berries flavor

Sundrop 12 ounce glass bottle

I guess I haven't seen a bottle of Sundrop before, but there is something floating in it. I would assume that is supposed to be normal. :) You definitely don't get that in cans. I wonder if the formula is different depending on the bottler.

a bunch of vintage bottles at an Antique Mall in Bristol, VA

No, this is not my personal collection. Instead it is inside an antique mall along State St. in Bristol, VA. There are a small number of modern bottles, but most here are vintage. Some of the names here:
Big Giant Cola, Mil-Kay, Barq's, Crass, Sparkling New Orange Cola, Tasty, Nesbitt's, Old Colony Beverages, Sugar Free Dr. Pepper, Quality Beverages, Holly, Nehi, Kick, Sun-Drop, Fresca, Montreal Beverages, Grapette, Like, Sparkiling Johnnie Ryan, Canada Dry, Golden Eagle, Big Red, Crush, Kist, Ale-8-1, Cherokee Sparkling Beverages, Crystal Club, Double Cola, Caravan, Choc-ola, Sun-Ray, Dr. Enuf, Pop Kola, Anchor, Ayers, Sun City, Mountain Dew, Sun Crest, Pepsi Cola, 7up, Ski, Grapette, BirkLey's, Tri-City, Hires, Rock City Beverages, Diet Pepsi, Tru Ade.