In this month's SWORDcast on Celtica Radio Bill talks about TREE TOP fruit drink from his SpaceX-filled childhood. To jog my own and maybe your memories, here it is courtesy of twitter. Looks delicious! The gimmicky drink I personally recall, from the UK's Seventies, is Rise and Shine, an atomic orange powdered cordial straight out of some future war's ration store! It was however delicious in a sachet powdery watery sort of way! Do you remember either Tree Tops or Rise and Shine readers?
The other orange drink from the Sixties is actually one of today's marketing miracles. Back when I was nipper the ONLY tome you saw this particularly chemical-looking amber fluid was during bed-ridden recovery from advanced appendicitis or full-on measles. It would mysteriously appear at your bedside draped in a billowing orange cellophane wrap making it look like a bottle of depleted nuclear waste. I am of course talking about Lucozade! Just how the marketing boffs turned it into the must-have everyday energy quencher for today's Xbox-addicted kids I'll never know! They're not even ill!
Speaking of drinks straight out of a Thomas Salter toy chemistry set, did you ever sneak into the first aid cupboard and try, from the bottom shelf, Alka Seltzer, and from the shelf above, Andrews? I'm not even sure I can describe the reaction they had when introduced to water. Fizzing doesn't quite cut it. Effervescent they would say. I'd say downright violent when you're only 6! Man, those bubbles went straight up your nose!
Any discussion about kids and bubbles must inevitably include that age-old question, which has been known to divide nations: which tastes better, Coke or Pepsi?!"*? As a hip kid thirsty from playing with my monsters and Matt Mason it had to be Pepsi for me because a. I loved the glass bottle's shape b. the red and blue logo was very American and c. it tasted better. Nowadays I'm not fussed! Either will do as long as they are a. diet and b. on offer! I have tried other 'colas' like Rola Cola but they never quite do it for me. What about you readers? Pepsi or Coke?
POSTSCRIPT: READERS' FAVES
Royal Crown Cola in Holland, Beermat
For Paul V
catawiki
Jerry Lewis drank Royal Crown Cola!
Choc-ola
"packed aseptically" !?*?
The Corona Fizzical!
Fizzies!
Buzz Candy Blog
An iconic line of powdered drinks whose cartoon characters fascinated me, Funny Face:
ReplyDeletehttp://theyalwayscomeback.blogspot.com/2008/01/funny-face-drink-mix.html
And the Bromo-Seltzer of kids drinks, Fizzies:
http://0366217.netsolhost.com/WordPress/2013/01/03/fizzies/
I can't even begin to imagine how much of both I consumed in the Sixties. A significant portion of my molecular structure must be composed of those ingredients.
I preferred Coke when soft drinks were in glass bottles or actual tin cans (as opposed to aluminium), but I tend to drink Pepsi Max now so as to cut down on the sugar. Also used to love Cresta - and does anybody remember Zing?
ReplyDeleteHere Stateside who can forget 'Tang' the drink of astronauts or 'Fizzies' or 'King Stir', both of which bubbled and burbled delightfully while providing a sugar high!
ReplyDelete"The real thing"
ReplyDelete'nuff said!
--
Paul
One of my favourites was Cresta - "Its Frothy Man!" Unfortunately, they changed the recipe sometime in the 1970s, and not only did it loose it's smooth frothiness, it also lost its taste...
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall it was something to do with Antifreeze!
Corona - Every Bubble's passed its Fizzicle
ReplyDeleteKi-Ora - Cinema Ads!
Those little ribbed, square tubs you pierced with a straw, filled with plain squash in unrecognisable flavours!
And Pesi every time, the other one is too fizzy and too sweet!
H
Ha ha, great memories guys! The only others I can add from my tender years are Vimto cordial, Um Bongo and the art form that was Sodastream - like having a small gas lab in the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteSodastream was brilliant, esp if you gave it a squirt of gas too many. :) It's still being made and is even sold in Sprout City, and every time I see it I'm really tempted.
ReplyDeleteUm Bongo ("they drink it in the Congo") I remember seeing in Creative Review before seeing it in Sainsbury's. Lovely illustrations by Oscar Grillo, the animator who also did the commercial (which I was glad to see again on yoobtoob + a recent graffiti tribute). Still have a small brickpack of it somewhere. :)
Cheers -- Paul
@ Patron Zero:
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall Royal Crown Cola being sold in Holland in the 60s. (way North of the Mason-Dixon btw! :°)
Best -- Paul