glass or bust!

Tasty mugshot

Last night I went to a party, had a little bit too much to drink and inevitably woke up a smidge hungoever. I have a fool-proof ritual everytime this happens: ibuprofen + a damn's worth of water + carbs. This time around though, water just wouldn't do and I craved something else: an ice-cold-make-your-eyes-water-fizzy coke... from a glass bottle. No, not a coke from a can nor a plastic bottle, it had to be its more elusive relative coke in a glass bottle. In my mind, fizzy drinks that come from a glass container always taste better. The best example I can think of besides coke, is beer. Since my brain couldn't concentrate on anything work related, I turned to trusty Google for an answer to my brainfart: does soda taste different from a bottle than a can?

"I'm not crying, there's just soda bubbles in my eyes"

Apparently it does! It all comes down to how long it's been sitting around in its container. The Coca Cola Company would set my pants on fire and call me a liar, but I still think otherwise. The reason is quite simple: all soda going into a container has the same amount of bubbles, but winds up "tasting" differently because the fizz leaks out easier from plastic and aluminium than from glass. And another thing which had never occurred to me, but my geek mind found fascinating, is that you can't "taste" the fizz. Your tongue feels the carbonation, the same way it feels pain when you bite it. This is why you still feel the fizz tingling on your tongue even after you swallow it. So go ahead and raise your glass not your can! Your taste buds will throw a party. 

A nerdier more scientific explanation of the taste-dilemma can be found here.

If you agree to disagree with my superaccurate googling skills and still think cans rule the soda universe, read this.

if you shock them, will they buy?

I read this question today on the WSJ website about the new Benetton Unhate ad campaign. I first noticed the images on my facebook feed this morning and thought they were a prank from some photoshopper with too much time in his hands. The images are supposed to "stimulate reflection on how faith, ideas and politics, even when they are divergent, must still lead to dialogue or meditation". I doubt I will be buying anything from the brand (or any other brand for that matter) just because of a racy ad campaign, but I've got to hand it to them for making this comeback. Whether you hate or praise the idea, benetton sure knows there is no such thing as bad publicity. I'm pretty sure I'll have nightmares tonight about Obama kissing a bunch of people. Please, no tongue Mr. President.

Check out the rest of the campaign here.

greatest hits

The past always seems to be better when you look back on it, than it did at the time. The past is filled with all of my personal greatest hits: graduated college, kissed the guy, bought a car, lived abroad. In my mind, the past holds only the best version of myself and of what has happened to me. All of the sleepless nights studying, the crying over the guy, the penny pinching? Who cares, because my memories surely don't! 

I think it's safe to say that we all, at one point or another, put on our rose tinted glasses and fall into a haze of romanticizing the past, not only about our personal lives, but about how life used to be so much simpler, the world was a better place to live in, music was so much better and the only small orange beings I could recall were oompa loompas and not this woman. 

Hands down, tv shows come off the worst if you take a trip down memory lane. Remember when MTV used to be about music? Remember Carson, Daria and Cornholio? Team Dawson or team Pacey? Was it really cheating if Ross and Rachel were on a break? Were you a Carrie, a Miranda, a Samantha or a Charlotte? And when I think about a "spiderman kiss", I don't think of Kirsten and Tobey, but of Summer and Seth. Of course TV back then had it's terrible things, like the whole Marissa Cooper downward spiral, but I think tv lately has gone the way of Felicity's hair. 

Feeling a little bit nostalgic? Check this out.