h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now there's Vanilla Pepsi. Nasty. Really nasty.

I can't imagine not having a coffeemaker. And if you drink instant, no wonder you don't care for coffee that much.

We've had cherry coke in cans here for ages. I don't care for it either. And I've never liked Dr. Pepper or root beer. I buy orange pop sometimes, but usually I stick to my diet Pepsi and ginger ale when my tummy is wonky.

H

Haven't seen Vanilla Pepsi here, only Vanilla Coke. I've tried Pepsi Blue .
My favourite soft drink is Sarsaparilla. Not too fond of Ginger Ale, though I agree, it is nice for an upset tummy.

Do you guys have Ginger Beer? Or is that what you call "Root Beer"? I used to make my own, 'till our fridge broke down and we only had a bar fridge to store it in. Got a new one now, perhaps I can start a new plant this summer. Mmmm, home-made Ginger Beer.

Don't think I'll even bother with the cherry coke. Every time I hear about it, I get that 'Lola' song in my head. (Not that, that's a bad thing.)

Okay, agreed, 'real' coffee is better than instant, but instant is quicker. Though, even with 'real' coffee, I still think it smells better that it tastes. Give me a nice cuppa tea any day.

I've never met a single person who actually likes Pepsi Blue!

I didn't even try it. Pepsi Blue. Didn't have the nerve after I heard the reports.

I don't know if ginger beer is root beer or not. I always assumed that it was ginger ale. But since that isn't the case, it very well could be. It's dark brown, very sweet, smells wonderful but tastes worse than it smells.

My husband used to make home-made root beer. He coked it on top of the stove in a hugh pan - my water-bath canner, actually - put a lot of yeast in it and root beer extract and a ton of sugar. Then he bottled it and let it sit in a dark closet to age. One time the bottles all exploded and we had a foul, yeasty smell in that closet for ages. I wanted to kill him. That's the last time he attempted it. He hasn't had the nerve since.

Reports? What reports?

Sounds as if Ginger beer is not the same thing as either root beer, or ginger ale. Though, I could see how a Ginger Beer bottle might explode. (I hope there wasn't anything too damaged in the closet )
Ginger beer (from memory) is made from powdered ginger, water, lemon juice, sugar, a couple of sultanas and sometimes some instant coffee. This is the basis for the 'plant'. The plant sits in jar in a warm place to for a while (I use the kitchen windowsill) and is 'fed' with more ginger and sugar. Then the plant gets drained through cloth, and water added to the liquid. This is then bottled and kept till ready to drink. The solid bit of the plant is divided in half, half is discarded and the other half is the beginning of a new plant. The older the plant gets, the fizzier and tastier the Ginger Beer gets.

Very refreshing in summer.

The reports from people I knew who said it tasted gross.

Root beer extract is made from sassafras root, hops, corriander, wintergreen and I thing sarsapirila. Or maybe they stopped using he sassafras. It can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I think some folks put juniper berries in their root beer. It's extremely popular. It smells wonderful, but is just too sweet for my taste.

When I was a kid there was a root beer stand in town that served root beer in frosty mugs, root beer floats (that's root beer poured over vanilla ice cream)and root beer slushes (sort of like a freeze). They also had root beer milkshakes and malts.

You can buy root beer popsicles, ice cream bars with a root beer coating instead of chocolate, root beer candy (shaped like little beer barrels) and root beer taffy. There are dozens of brands of the drink available for sale. A&W and Dads are probably the two largest brands in my area.

H

Definitely not the same as Ginger beer then. Sounds like something I would like though. We don't have anything like that here. Sounds extremely versatile!

While we're still on the subject, here's a questions that has been bugging me ever since I first saw M*A*S*H (so, basically my whole life). What on earth is Grape Kneehigh?

Grape Nehi It's grape soda. Nehi was a very popular brand. They made grape, orange, cream soda, root beer, lemon,cola and strawberry.

I always preferred the Grapette brand.

H

Ohhh! Now I can sleep at night , now that I know Radar wasn't drinking some weird chemical cocktail.

I could use a Orange Nehi about now. It's better than the Sunkist and the Slice.