Soft Drinks

A Machine That Separates Oreos, Plus 20 Examples of Counterfeit Meat

Check out this video of the Oreo obsessive David Neevel, a man who loves the cookies but hates the cream filling -- hates it so much that he built a complex contraption (over a period of ".04" years) to wipe the cream from each individual cookie. Naturally, the charming robot and its maker's dry Ron ... More >>

5 Great Sodas in NYC

Now that the days of dropping five bucks on a jumbo, movie theater Coke will be going the way of smoking in bars, New Yorkers might want to consider a carbonation contingency plan. Despite Mayor Bloomberg's approved soda ban, plenty of NYC restaurants are crafting their own sodas in-house. Although ... More >>

Weekend Drinking: The Citron Collins

In July, I picked up a bottle of Bittermens Citron Sauvage, a deliciously bitter grapefruit liqueur produced locally by Bittermens Spirits. It's a smoggy orange syrup, but not too sweet, which makes it lovely for sipping straight. Throughout the summer, I've poured it over ice and enjoyed it plain, ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg, Soda Cop: 60 Percent Of New Yorkers Hate Proposed Big-Gulp Ban

There's good news and bad news regarding Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposed "Big-Gulp" ban. First the good news: a new poll shows that even fewer New Yorkers support Hizzonor's idiotic plan now than they did when it initially was proposed.The bad news: it's no skin off Bloomberg's ass -- he's not runni ... More >>

Lil Wayne Hits The Decks With The Deweezy Videos

Last night at recently reopened Greenhouse, Lil Wayne the rapper welcomed Lil Wayne the skater to the world via the premiere of DeWeezy. Maybe it's because he started rapping professionally at an age when most kids where still learning their multiplication tables, but Wayne has always seemed to have ... More >>

Recipe: Shiso Slim from Haru Sushi

[See More Daily Shots: Rhubarb and Apricot Margarita | Jamaica Margarita] The drink: Shiso Slim The bar: Haru Sushi The price: $13 Ingredients: 1 1/4 ounces Voli Lemon (or any vodka), 1/4 ounce St. Germain, 2 ounces pink grapefruit juice, 1/4 ounce yuzu juice, 2-3 shiso leaves, splash of soda ... More >>

Harlem Walking Tour Reveals Why Mike Bloomberg's An "Idiot" And His Big Gulp Ban Will Only Hurt Businesses (And Piss People Off In The Process)

As you know, Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposed "Big Gulp Ban" is one of the stupidest ideas in the history of both stupidity and ideas. In addition to doing literally nothing to curb obesity, it also will hurt businesses, piss people off, and it relegates adults to children who are incapable of making ... More >>

Anti-Bloomberg-Drink-Ban Advocates Hit the Beach for Petition Signatures

"This is New York City. No one tells us what neighborhood to live in, what team to root for or what deli to eat at." Or so the logic goes. In the New Yorkers for Beverage Choices' first viral video, the narrator attacks Mayor Bloomberg's sugary drink ban by sticking to the basics: Big Apple den ... More >>

10 Foods to Pack in Your Zombie Apocalypse Go Bag

One can only read so many stories about flesh-eating humans and the zombie apocalypse before considering a go bag. Here's mine:

The Flavor Lab: How To Make Cola

A couple weeks ago we gave you the molecular formula for making a strawberry: furaneol (cotton candy), y-Decalactone (creamy peach), methyl cinnamate (fruity guava), and ethyl butyrate (fruity). During that same session, Marie Wright, chief global flavorist for Wild Flavors also provided us the re ... More >>

Bloomberg Seeks To Ban 'Big Gulp' Sizes of Soda

Wednesday at City Hall in a news conference, Mayor Bloomberg announced his plans to ban sugar-bearing beverages - including sports drinks, sodas, and energy drinks - over 16 ounces. This ban, which won't go into effect until March, must first be approved by the city's Department of Health and Mental ... More >>

13 Reasons Why Banning 'Pig Gulp' Sodas in NYC Isn't Such a Bad Idea

I'm not a fan of Mayor Bloomberg. In fact, I'm often heard railing against the mayor's real estate policies, which have seen ugly condo towers soaring around the city at random, granted huge subsidies and tax abatements, disfiguring historic neighborhoods. The same policies have driven homegrown ma- ... More >>

Buffalo Wing Soda From Lester's Fixins -- Brilliant or Demented? And Snooki Wild Cherry Soda?

Lester's Fixins - a project of the Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shops, LLC, a franchising operation founded in Camarillo, California - has recently released a soda pop, somewhat unbelievably, with a Buffalo chicken wing flavor. Does that mean lots of vinegar? And spicy as hell? Probably not. The b ... More >>

Bittermens' Janet Glasser on Bitter Liqueurs

After trying Bittermens gentian liqueur in The Shanty's Sauvetage cocktail, we decided to check out Bittermens Spirits, a Brooklyn-based company that specializes in bitter and herbal liqueurs. We found that its products have been embraced by some of the city's top bars like PDT, Amor y Amargo, and D ... More >>

The Wayland's Brian Hawthorne on Spring Drinks and Impromptu Bar Concerts

Brian Hawthorne is one of the owners of the Wayland (700 East 9th Street, 212-777-7022), where he tends bar and sometimes performs late-night impromptu concerts for his customers. We asked him about one of our favorite drinks on the menu -- a margarita made with kale juice -- spring cocktails, and h ... More >>

Taste Testing Saranac's Shirley Temple in a Bottle

While food shopping at Polpette (254 Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, 718-399-8800) recently, we chanced upon a soda we'd never seen before: Saranac's Shirley Temple. Having drunk many a Shirley Temple in our youth (gotta train for cocktail consumption early in life!) we were excited to see the beverage in ... More >>

Man Who Wrote About Suicide on Mountain Dew's Facebook Page Says 'It Was a Joke'

​The above screengrab (via Reddit) from Mountain Dew's Facebook page shows a man's apparent cry for help. Naturally, this has spread around the internet, and people have found it anywhere from hilarious to disturbing and offensive. Runnin' Scared got in contact with Michael Abraham, the man wh ... More >>

Chick Beer Might Be For the Ladies, But Dr. Pepper Ten Sure Isn't

Girls, go drink your diet soda​Seems like just the other day women were getting their panties in a bunch about Chick Beer, the brew whose six-pack has been fashioned to look like a purse and which is low-cal and low-carb because it was a beer that was "exclusively for the ladies." Well, now c ... More >>

Our 10 Best Last Sips of Summer

Lauren ShockeyOne of ABC Kitchen's fine homemade sodas​Oh, how quickly Labor Day, signaler of summer's end, approaches. The back to school commercials are airing repeatedly on television, and mannequins are donning fall clothes in store windows. And while the temperatures may be beginning to ... More >>

Dr. Pepper Sues Dr. Pepper; Boqueria Goes to the Capital

​A trademark infringement lawsuit has broken out between the original Dublin, Tex.-based Dr. Pepper Bottling Co., which has been bottling the soft drink since 1891 and still sells cane-sugar-sweetened "Dublin Dr Pepper" online, and brand's current owner, the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. [Wall Str ... More >>

Courage Campaign and Pepsi: Is $50K the New Sell Out Price for LGBT Non-Profits?

​Yesterday, we got an email from the Courage Campaign with the subject line, "We won! Here's what's next." We assumed it would be a belated fundraising appeal responding to New York's Marriage Equality Act, asking for donations to fight on the federal level. Instead, what we found when we op ... More >>

Do Diet Sodas Make You Fat? A University of Texas Study Seems to Say So

​Do Not Drink? It was too good to be true - the idea that you could drink massive amounts of diet soda and suffer no ill consequences. The NY Post reports today on a University of Texas medical school study that shows that people who drink diet sodas are 70% more likely to suffer an increase ... More >>

Michelle Obama Writing a Healthy Food Book; Coffee The Musical Coming to Broadway

​Vikram Chatwal is being sued by the group that owns such Meatpacking spots as Abe & Arthur's over the deal he had allegedly promised them to run hospitality operations for his forthcoming Downtown Dream Hotel, which he later gave to the group that owns Marquee. [NY Post] Michelle Obama will ... More >>

Meet Bruce Cost of Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost

Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost​Bruce Cost, of Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost, is also Bruce Cost, Chinese food expert and founder of Big Bowl Restaurants, a fast-casual Chinese and Thai mini-chain in the Midwest. He started bottling the housemade ginger ale from his restaurants, ... More >>

No More Diet Soda For Me! It's Lethal!

​I swear! My cute shtick about drinking Diet Coke every day is no longer terribly amusing. A new study says that people--and journalists--who do that have a 61% higher chance of a "vascular event."

In Praise of the Maple Egg Cream

​ While guzzling our way through a couple of egg creams last week, we found ourselves thinking of how easy it would be to make one at home, thanks to our trusty Sodastream seltzer maker. And then we thought of the jug of maple syrup sitting next to our Sodastream. We knew what we had to do.

The 10 Easy Diet Rules of the Sietsema Weight Loss System

​This could be your diet lunch! Jenna F. asks: How the hell do you stay so skinny doing the job that you do? Dear Jenna: Glad you asked that. Actually, I'm not quite as skinny as you might think. It's partly a matter of wearing flattering, billowy clothes. If I could get by wearing a caftan ... More >>

Which Diet Sodas Taste the Best?

​As someone who's obsessively tried every imaginable brand and flavor out there, I can definitively tell you which diet sodas manage to most closely replicate the taste of real sodas. And that's not an easy feat considering they basically have to imitate a delightful mix of chemicals and corn ... More >>

Soda Tax Dies As Beverage Industry Outspends Health Groups

Don't make him angry!​When New York lawmakers finally passed the budget on Wednesday, Governor Paterson's tax on sodas and other sugary drinks was not included. The proposal would have taxed sweetened beverages--not diet sodas--at a penny per ounce, or 12 cents on a can of soda. The governor a ... More >>

American Barbecue Goes Asian; Heinz Cuts the Salt

​Flavors used in the grilling traditions of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and other Asian countries are becoming popular in American barbecue joints. [Wall Street Journal] Heinz ketchup is changing its 40-year-old recipe to lower the salt content. Fans of the original recipe fear the ch ... More >>

PepsiCo Is Taking Sugary Beverages Out of Schools Across the Globe

Corn syrup knows a world with no boundaries.​Although New York's proposed soft drink tax faces an uncertain future, PepsiCo has taken a decisive step in placating some critics who equate its products with a slow, liquid death: This week, the company announced its plans to remove its sweetened ... More >>

The Amazing Baby Single "Supreme Being" Now Available Without the Words "Faggot," "Stoned," or "Stonerman"

Mountain Dew's MP3-as-single imprint Green Label Sound has an exclusive download of the Amazing Baby single "Supreme Being." The psych-pop track was a shimmering stand-out from the Brooklyn band's 2008 four-song EP Infinite Fucking Cross, so it was surprising when the moony floater didn't make th ... More >>

Junk Food Tax Endorsed by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies

The notion of a junk food tax being bandied around several states, including New York, got a shot in the arm this week, when the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommended that a tax on sodas could help curb childhood obesity. Experts say that a 10 percent increase in the price of a ... More >>

From the Health Department's Beverage Program: A Glass of Fat, Straight Up

​Suck down a soft drink, suck down a blob of fat. That's the indelible message of the Health Department's new public-awareness campaign. "Are you pouring on the pounds?" asks one of the campaign's posters, which proudly displays a stream of yellowish fat, graphically webbed with blood vessels, ... More >>

Battle of the Dishes: LES Egg Creams

Katz's egg cream Russ and Daughters' egg cream This week's Battle of the Dishes concerns the most classic New York soda fountain drink--the egg cream, a simple concoction of chocolate syrup, seltzer, and milk that somehow tastes rich and creamy. There are a good handful of places to get a proper e ... More >>

A Bit of (Homemade) Bubbly

chefranden/flickrLiquor and its accoutrements long ago departed their pedestrian moorings for a more refined territory: We're now desensitized to -- if not quite accepting of -- the idea of $1 ice cubes, while whiskey bars have given the brown stuff more cachet than a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem. Now, ... More >>

Make Emporio's Squash Blossoms With Buffalo Mozzarella & Anchovies

As promised in our weekly dining newsletter, we bring you the recipe for Squash Blossoms With Buffalo Mozzarella & Anchovies from Riccardo Buitoni, the chef at the recently opened Emporio and the Aurora restaurants. Squash Blossoms with Buffalo Mozzarella & Anchovies Yield: 4 16 fresh squash blos ... More >>

Boston-New York Cocktail Smackdown

I first published this post last spring, in honor of the first Yankees-Red Sox game. And today the same occasion rolls around again, on a beautiful, blue-sky day. And so I thought I'd revive this post, in case you feel, as I do, that this evening deserves a nice cocktail. The first Yankees-Red S ... More >>

Colicchio Shills For Coke

I love both Diet Coke and Tom Colicchio, but I'm not sure how to feel about last night's Diet Coke commercial with Colicchio that played during the Oscars. It probably wasn't aided by being associated with, in my mind, the scary musical numbers and shots of Zac Efron that last night's ceremony fea ... More >>

Strange Snacks of the World -- Doubleheader!

Recipe Improv with Lon Symensma

I'm Giving Up Coke For Good!

Madonna Alert! She's Scheduled To Join the Gays Tonight!

Talking to Strangers: Mexican Coke on the Upper East Side

Fell Out of Love With a Band

Absurd bagpipes and half-assed prog retreads sink the Stripes' sixth manifesto

The Real Thing

Soda mogul screws up in this pop culture comedy

Liquid Thanksgiving

Sampling Turkey and Stuffing Flavored Soda

Beware of Pickpockets and Loose Women In Williamsburg

The Last Supper, Texas-Style

You Can Feel the Compassion Coursing Through You

The Consumer as a Fan

I'm With the Brand