Soft Drinks

These Are the Strangest Hip-Hop Soda Commercials

Earlier this month Mountain Dew pulled its Tyler, the Creator directed commercial wherein a trash-talking goat in a police lineup (full of black men) taunts an assaulted women attempting to identify the perpetrator. Accused of both racism and trivializing violence toward women, it was another Tyler ... More >>

Happy Kentucky Derby! Death to Mint Juleps!

Happy Kentucky Derby! This is the place where I'm now supposed to tell you that today would be a great day to go out and drink a julep in celebration of a horse race in Kentucky you barely care about, but hey it's an excuse to drink and wear a big hat so who cares? But alas, I'm not going to do that ... More >>

California Takes Up Soda Tax Idea

California lawmakers are considering a bill this week that would tax sugary drinks to the tune of one cent per fluid ounce. That would add 12 cents to your typical can of Coke -- but not Diet Coke. It would also affect the price of sweet tea, but not tea that you add sugar to yourself. Yes, this is ... More >>

Sugary Drinks Linked to 180,000 Deaths Annually

Now we know you were all really mad at NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg for trying to ban large-sized sodas. But the man may have had a point. Sugary beverages are linked to more than 180,000 deaths worldwide annually, according to new research presented this week at an American Heart Assn. conference. ... More >>

Mountain Dew Introduces Kickstart: A New Breakfast Drink

If you're the sort of person who wakes up not to a demitasse of espresso or a nice pot of tea, but instead prefers the neon glow of Mountain Dew in your morning cup, the marketing folks at PepsiCo have a new drink for you. A breakfast drink, to be specific, which the company is rolling out later thi ... More >>

Pepsi Debuts 'Fat-Blocking' Soda

In what could be seen as the latest desperate attempt to get cola drinkers to choose what my Southern ex-brother-in-law will only refer to as "the P-word," Pepsi Co. is launching a new version that it claims acts as a fat blocker, the Daily Mail reports. Pepsi Special is made with dextrin -- an ind ... More >>

Pepsi Is Tweaking Its Diet Soda Formula

PepsiCo Inc. is trying out new artificial sweeteners that would let its diet soda keep its sweet taste for a longer period of time, The Washington Post reports. The current sweetener used in Diet Pepsi -- aspartame -- loses its potency faster than high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener that's used ... More >>

Latter-Day Sodas: Mormon Church Approves Pepsi Coke

Well, it's official -- after an announcement by the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday, one mystery surrounding the Mormon faith has been dispelled for good: Caffeinated sodas are now fair game for thirsty church members. A statement on the LDS website states that ... More >>

Summer Drinks, Part III: The Shandy

The very first drink my father ever made for me - the first drunk not behind his back in some friend's basement, but in our basement, with him - was a shandy. That must be part of the reason I love them, but that shouldn't detract from the fact that a properly-made shandy just might be the most refr ... More >>

Q & A With Jelly Belly Inventor David Klein: On Getting His Jelly Belly Due, His New Line of Jelly Beans The Astro Pop Connection

If you've never heard of local candy maker David Klein, it's likely because the inventor of the Jelly Belly sold the rights the formula a few unfortunate years too soon -- perhaps not surprising for a guy who signs emails with dangling consonants ("thankssssssssssss"), talks like he is on a constant ... More >>

L.A. Tries to Ban Soda Vending Machines From City Parks, Libraries

The highly politicized crackdown on America's fat people hits Los Angeles today, with a motion from L.A. City Councilman Mitchell Englander to ban all soda vending machines on city-owned property. Englander, a physically fit frat-bro type who is clearly trying to one-up New York Mayor Michael Bloom ... More >>

New York City Mayor Proposes Ban on Large Sodas

As we count down the days remaining to enjoy foie gras in California, we should also count our blessings that we do not live in New York City, which has just proposed a ban of large-size sodas. (Or maybe we shouldn't; maybe it is good idea.) The far-reaching ban would prohibit the sale of large soda ... More >>

Majority of Californians Support Soda Tax

Three out of five California voters would support a special tax on soda and soft drinks to fight childhood obesity, according to a new Field Poll. New data collected as part of the Field-The California Endowment Childhood Obesity Prevention Survey found that 48% of participants cited unhealthy eat ... More >>

Jean Paul Gaultier Stars in Bizarre Videos as Diet Coke's New Creative Director

Jean Paul Gaultier, designer of Madonna's epic cone bra, now is set to style another icon: Diet Coke. The fashion designer was just named Diet Coke's new Creative Director for Europe and, as part of his creative duties, will create limited edition Diet Coke bottles and cans. According to his state ... More >>

Coca-Cola, Pepsi Will Modify Recipe to Use Less Cancerous Caramel Coloring

As if you need another reason to scale back on all that soda pop: NPR and Reuters report that Coca-Cola and Pepsi will change their recipe slightly to reduce the amount of 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), a chemical that, in high very doses, has been known to cause cancer in animals. In sodas, it's used t ... More >>

Coca-Cola Freestyle: The Soda Machine of the Future ( the Past)

We have seen it, the promised land. The soda dispenser of the future. A machine so sleek it should be in a technology museum and so smart it can dispense more sodas than you can imagine. If you haven't tasted Peach Mello Yello or Raspberry Coke Zero, have you truly lived? We don't normally go gaga ... More >>

"Game of Thrones"-Inspired Fire & Ice Cocktail: A Recipe for the Golden Globes

HBO is hosting its 10th annual Luxury Lounge at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills on January 13-14 to ply the stars of its hit shows, plus all of the Golden Globes nominees who deign to show up, with gifts, services and booze. Basil Hayden's Bourbon, one of the event's sponsors, asked hot L.A. mixol ... More >>

Pre-Golden Globe Pampering Noshes: But Not for You

Let us make clear from the outset that you, Common Person, cannot go. This event is only for celebrities and their hangers-on (aka "plus ones"). Members of the hoi polloi, the riff raff, the masses or the Occupy Movement best not show up. Nine Zero One Salon in West Hollywood is hosting a two-day ( ... More >>

800 Degrees: A Sneak Peek Into Westwood's Newest Pizzeria [Photo Gallery]

If Adam Fleischman is aiming to become the Henry Ford of the pizza world, he's made a good start of it with 800 Degrees, the Westwood pizzeria he officially opens on January 3rd. It features a long counter where diners choose from dozens of toppings in a process more common to Subway or Chipotle tha ... More >>

DRY Bubbles: The Growing Lemongrass Non-Alcoholic Options

It's not often that rounding the corner at a chain supermarket leads to New Year's drinking resolutions, but such was the case when we spotted new additions to our local Ralph's soda shelves: DRY Soda. Last we checked in with Sharelle Klaus, the Seattle-based company's founder, her line of lightly s ... More >>

Does Soda Make Teens Violent?

fimoculous​Stay away from high schoolers in Boston who drink more than five cans of soda every week. A Boston-area study found that teens who consumed five or more sodas in a week had a higher tendency for violence. They were also more likely to have consumed alcohol or smoked within the month ... More >>

5 Awesomely Weird Japanese Soft Drinks

B. MesirowThe Soda Case at Mitsuwa​ In recent years the Japanese people have displayed a radical and unique sense of style and an amazing ability to innovate and create in fields as diverse as clothing, video games, game shows, and urination technology, among others. It should come as no surp ... More >>

Cola Up: Jellied Japanese Soda

Guzzle & NoshCola Up: The soda that eats like Jell-O.​If light can be a particle and a wave, why can't cola be a liquid and a solid? Cola Up bridges the chasm between traditionalists who insist that soda should be sipped and hydrocolloidal optimists who believe anything can be slurped down in ... More >>

"Poptails" All Around: Galco's & Charles Phoenix Band Together for the Southwest Museum

J. Ritz​ Galco's Soda Pop Stop is a magical place. For carbonated beverage fans, the Highland Park shop is a retail marvel, an unparalleled source of sweet bubblies and even some sour pops, and everything else along the soda flavor spectrum you knew and didn't know existed. Even folks whose be ... More >>

Diet Sodas Make You Fat, Study Finds

Flickr/GoodNCrazy​ They may be calorie-free, but diet sodas can still make you fat, apparently. A 10-year study by the University of Texas, San Antonio has found that diet sodas can actually make you gain weight, especially in the stomach area, the London Daily Mail reports. The beverages and ... More >>

30 Scoops in 30 Days: Jerry's Soda Shoppe (Day 13)

Guzzle & NoshThe ice cream soda at Jerry's Soda Shoppe at the De Soto Pharmacy.​A spectacular ice cream float doesn't cure the pain of existence, but it goes a long way toward soothing the ache. Yesterday, while Leo Bloom was munching on mutton kidneys and we were sorting through the detritus ... More >>

Weird Science: Soda Detectives Ask "What's In Your Cola?"

With new and ever fancier "gourmet" sodas hitting the market, consumers (presumably) want to know whether those gourmet drinks, advertised as being made with natural ingredients, actually contain natural flavoring. Now scientists think have a way to find out -- at least with cola.

30 Burgers in 30 Days: The Fix is In (Day 5)

The BYOB policy and high-quality, humanely-raised meats at The Fix Burger in Silver Lake, earned it "Best of LA" status in last year's mega-issue. This time, we visit The Fix with an eye toward comparing their classic burgers with their kimchi-laden Seoul burger, a concept we recently sampled at K ... More >>

Weird Soda Review: Filbert's Watermelon

There are two schools of thought among soda connoisseurs: Those who prefer their sodas as naturalistic as possible (cinema vérité) and those who prefer neon-hued creations not derived from any fruit flavors found in this world (science-fiction). A watermelon soda can fall anywhere along this spect ... More >>

BNWT Jones Soda Releases Collectable Emily the Strange Labels

Aaron Stein-Chester​ Attention nerds who collect things and eBay store owners who sell to nerds who collect things: Jones Soda Co. has partnered with Dark Horse Comics for the release of six limited edition Emily the Strange soda labels. For the uninitiated: Emily the Strange is a quasi-punk ... More >>

FDA Cracks Down on Green Tea Claims

Flickr/KankoThe real stuff. ​ Seems "green tea-adjacent" doesn't really count. The Food and Drug Administration has told the makers of Canada Dry ginger ale and Lipton tea to stop making unsubstantiated nutritional claims about their green tea-flavored beverages, the Associated Press reports. ... More >>

A Brief History of North America, in Coca-Cola Ads

It's an anniversary of sorts for Coca-Cola. 25 years ago today the soft drink giant launched New Coke, a product that the company hoped would help them win the Cola Wars. It was an unmitigated disaster. People hated it, and quickly began hoarding cases of the original Coke. They staged protests, fil ... More >>

Top 10 Cocktails Inspired by Los Angeles A Mulholland Drive Cocktail Recipe

The Beachcomber CafeThe Beachcomber's Surfrider Cocktail​ New York has the Manhattan, Moscow the Moscow Mule. Even Long Island has a cocktail named after it. But what is Los Angeles' signature cocktail? Something to immortalize the City of Angels in drink? Fortunately, local bars, whether insp ... More >>

Root Beer Milk: A Float In a Bottle

Is this a cry for help? Very well, it is a cry for help. But Hildebrand Farms Dairy, a small, family-owned operation outside Junction City, Kansas, makes something called Root Beer Milk - imagine a cold glass of the richest, sweetest chocolate milk you have ever had in your life, except flavored wit ... More >>

Top 10 Kit Kat Flavors You've Probably Never Tried

A licensed product of America's own Hershey Company, the American Kit Kat is a timeless chocolate bar. It's sturdy and it's brown. Like the logs that built Lincoln's cabin and equally as exciting. Yet overseas, and in the rest of the Kit Kat-eating world, the bar is made by the Swiss corporation Nes ... More >>

The Bubbly Bride Cocktail Book: Drinks for the Bride 2 Cocktail Recipes

Books about weddings are usually sappy and serious, filled with romantic (read: corny) traditions. But for her new book, The Bubbly Bride: Your Ultimate Wedding Cocktail Guide, which comes out today, The Liquid Muse blogger and cocktail consultant Natalie Bovis-Nelsen ups the ante. With cocktail rec ... More >>

Now Open: Soda Pop's on La Cienega Is Ready for Lunch

Soda Pop's, a new mid-city lunch spot, soft-opened Wednesday on La Cienega. The menu is divided in to old and new school, hot and cold sandwiches, ranging in price from $7-$12 and salads. Custom-built wooden tables, benches and a bar, plus antique school chairs make the place look clean, but not sev ... More >>

New Culinary Historians Website, Jonathan Gold Podcast, Free Root Beer AND A 1894 Trifle Recipe

Any residual high school class-cutting guilt can now been assuaged by a fantastic modern invention: podcasts. The Culinary Historians of Southern California (CHSC) has launched a new website that includes podcasts of recent lectures. That means you can catch Jonathan Gold's recent talk on regional c ... More >>

Current Obscure Product Obsession: Schweppes Bitter Lemon

Photo credit: Dave WhiteStill life with Bitter Lemon​If you were born anytime before the advent of, say, Crystal Pepsi, then you may remember a time when Schweppes Bitter Lemon was widely available and people actually drank it. Around since 1957, it was never incredibly popular in this country ... More >>

The King of (Soda) Pop, or Adventures in Musical Capitalism

Funeral Potatoes and Bundt cakes may be more traditional culinary offerings when one attends a memorial service, but this is LA, and he was the King of Pop, so traditional is pretty much out.

New Kid-Created Root Beer is All Bark, No Bite

Jessica RitzCute overload! Root beer, kitties and doggies at the Larchmont Larder. If only more kids' school experiments turned into successful entrepreneurial ventures instead of too often becoming emotionally scarring exercises in failure. Seven-year-old Oscar Youd's first grade soda making scie ... More >>

Gold Metal Press Release: Customized Vintage Soda Machines for Your Recording Studio

Each week West Coast Sound gets thousands of emails from bands, publicists, labels, fans, writers, haters, and miscellaneous eager souls looking to spread the word about their band/label/mp3/myspace page/masterpiece. Many of these releases fit neatly into a catagory: Band has new album out. Band pla ... More >>

Easter Rescue Package: Take a Farmer John Ham, a Bottle of Vernors Ginger Ale and Two Future In-Laws ...

The first time I ever made a ham was for my future in-laws. They were in town for a visit and my husband told them that we'd love to prepare them an Easter meal. By "we" he meant me, but what he didn't understand was that as a Reform Jew I ate pork but didn't have a clue about how to prepare it. So ... More >>

Mexican Coke vs. Pepsi Retro, Part 2

"What does it taste like to you?" ask the promo advertisements for the new soft drink Pepsi Retro on bus stations and billboards in Mexico City. Clearly, they're asking for it. We've dealt with this question before, suggesting that maybe Pepsi is hoping its new product can dig into the market so ... More >>

Where's the Duff?

Burbank gets a Kwik-E-Mart, minus Apu

Beyond Bubbly

The Style Council’s New Year’s Eve party mixes

Inconspicuous Consumption

Different Chairs

The Pig

Barbecue, Memphis-style

Mr. Happy Does the Dew