Happy Hour [8/5/20]

You don’t have to drink alone.

It’s National have a Coke Day. As much as I detest cutesy made up holidays Coca Cola is an American icon, as representative of the USA as apple pie, and the Dunning Kruger Effect.

Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, was created as a nerve tonic but developed into Coca Cola, a non alcoholic drink, the following year as the temperance movement grew. It was first sold in Atlanta, Georgia on May 8, 1886. And the rest as they say is history. I don’t drink a lot of soda, it’s the one bad habit I never acquired. But on occasion I’ve been known to enjoy a Cuba Libre, a drink with interesting origins, and a close association with the Coca Cola company.

Cuba Libre Cocktail

  • 1/2 lime juiced
  • 2 oz light rum
  • 4 oz Coca Cola, preferably Mexican Coca Cola sweetened with cane sugar

Squeeze the juice from half the lime into a collins or highball glass, toss the lime shell into the glass. Add ice cubes and rum, fill with cola, stir well.

The Pause That Refreshes!

What’s your favorite cola based beverage?

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29 Comments

  1. I don’t drink soda anymore but if they brought back the original recipe w/ cocaine in it, I might rethink that.

    • Oh, I absolutely would!

      • …I know someone who, when they were younger, used to be prescribed cocaine effectively…in that their doctor would provide them with a couple of lines prior to a procedure that involves clearing their sinuses on a semi-regular basis

        …funny how things change

        • The more things change the more they stay the same – as in now they just prescribe opioids.

  2. in the bargain bin i found a slab of pork marinated in sticky cola?..thats what it said..
    anyhoo…i figured even at 2 bucks that sounded terrible…so i left it there
    nowadays i only drink 4 things.. water, coffee, beer…and rossi flavoured monster energy (regularly anyway…i will occasionally have wine with a meal… or accidentally drink the bottle of cooking porter i have coz that shits delicious…)
    but before i was quite partial to a rum n coke at the end of the day… usually in a pint glass… probably about a 3rd rum… sometimes closer to a half
    watching old movies with me aunt… we’d usually have weed with it too
    i slept pretty good back then…woke up bad tho

    • …oddly enough I’ve had ham marinated in cola more than once & it’s been pretty great

      …it’s one of those things that sounds like shouldn’t work but is wierdly tasty…like bacon & maple syrup or chilli & dark chocolate…at least I think that’s what it is…could be I just can’t be trusted about that kind of thing?

      • well….i guess if i see it on the cheap again i should give it a try
        sure does sound pretty damn iffy tho

        • …yeah…not sure about the bargain bucket variety, either…but I’d say the proof of concept at least is sound?

          • oh its 70% off if its on its sell buy date in my local supermarket
            nothing to do with quality…just means you gotta use it asap…
            its how ive been deciding dinner on me days off…what can i find in the bargain bin and what can i make with it

            • …I’d maybe give it a shot next time, then…if all else fails you can smother it in BBQ sauce or something?

              • sirachia fixes everything
                (but if that fails i have some homemade sambal that will guarantee you cant taste anything else…and you might be stop being on fire in a week or so)

      • In the American South it’s pretty common to use Coke or Dr Pepper for ham or pulled pork.

    • We used to simmer short ribs in a sauce that was basically equal parts ketchup and Coke.

  3. I can’t drink the way I used to, my body just doesn’t bounce back the way it used to. That might be a good thing.

  4. anyhoo… you forgot to add a music

  5. I live in the land of Coca-Cola. The Candlers – Asa Candler bought out Pemberton – have very distinct large Tudor style houses scattered around Atlanta. One is Callanwolde – an arts center now, over off Briarcliff Rd. This story isn’t about that house but the one we used in the CW tv series The Vampire Diaries in Sandy Springs. If you’ve never heard of Vampire Diaries – it is obviously a story about vampires – namely two, hundred and fifty year old vampire brothers and their love of high school girl that is part of some crappy doppelgänger storyline. The brothers live in The Salvatore Mansion – they were Damon and Stefan Salvatore – that was played by a gorgeous Tudor house on about twenty something acres next to an office park in Sandy Springs. The house was owned at the time by a Candler heir who was in her 20’s and worked(if I recall correctly) as a flight attendant. We would film at the actual house – interiors and exteriors the first season – then the interior of the great room/library and some hallways was built on a stage, so just the exteriors for the rest of seasons it was on. It was stunning to say the least. Anyway – the heiress sold the property to a developer for somewhere in the range of 20-25 million dollars. Our art department was told that they could come and salvage any thing they wanted from the house because – of course it’s Atlanta – and they were going to tear down the whole property and build – wait for it – more office buildings.

    We were horrified that they sold it for so little first of all and that they were going to tear it down – gorgeous grounds and all – but we were glad that our art department was going to get to get all of the good stuff out of it. I can’t remember the exact details – but the developer had told our people they could come on a specific date to pull stuff out. They showed up on the day too find work crews and a pile of rubble. The whole property had been demolished – they said there was nothing really salvageable. Turns out, the day before – some concerned citizens filed an injunction to block the demolition since the house was so beautiful and a Candler property – so the new owners got a wrecking crew to come in that night and destroy the whole place so they wouldn’t have to deal with being taken to court.

    Sorry this is so long – it’s just whenever anyone mentions Coke – this is what I think of – that gorgeous demolished house.

    Atlanta, GA’s c.1929 Glenridge Hall aka ‘Salvatore Boarding House’ Torn Down (PHOTOS)

    • OMG, that’s terrible! Didn’t any of the historical societies try to stop it? I suppose I should read the article, it’s probably addressed there.

      • I think it was a historical society that filed the injunction. We were all devastated and pissed at the same time.

    • …that story is tragic…but the knock-it-down-before-the-paperwork-goes-through thing is thing I’ve seen level more than one piece of architectural history…never gets any less shitty to see, though

    • This will not surprise you in the slightest but Donald Trump did the same thing when he built Trump Tower. It’s on the site of the magnificent old Bonwit Teller flagship store. When the property was sold the Metropolitan Museum of Art got an agreement that the artistically significant grillwork and bas reliefs would be preserved and given to them. Trump demolished them all. Oh well, photographs remain: the grillwork and bas reliefs were so significant they were photographed countless times over the decades that the building stood.

      • You’re right – I remember reading about that. I love old architecture so the fact that such craftsmanship gets destroyed like that is just a damn shame.

      • Of course he did, he has no taste.

  6. I always think of Andy Warhol, “the president drinks cocoa cola . . . You can too … you can’t get a better one than the one the bum on the corner is drinking” (sic). I like to drink bourbon and coke.

    • Bourbon goes with everything.

  7. I have never liked commercial soft drinks but like any modern white person I do enjoy myself a bubble water. We have a Soda Stream and I drink a lot of soda water with like a squirt of lime or whatever fruit I have around. However, my out of work and bored bartender husband has been making me treats – he made ginger syrup by boiling some pickled ginger and reducing it with cane sugar, so I’ve been having some sort of ginger ale, and he’s also been making shrub, which is basically my favorite fucking thing for a soda now:

    1. Take some berries (good use for berries that are about to go off), macerate them (let them “soak” in sugar) until they get mushy and start juicing, a few hours.
    2. Soak in apple cider vinegar for a few days. Taste it – if it’s too tangy, let it go a day or two longer (I like it tangy).
    3. Strain all the shit out of it and put a little splash of it in soda water or cocktails.

    On a side note, it’s night now and I’m drinking a Pina Colada to celebrate the fact that Stephen Miller’s wife has COVID.

    • I’ve been drinking coffee sodas, coffee and seltzer, and am thinking of getting a soda stream. The ginger ale sounds amazing. Elliecoo mentioned a raspberry shrub the other day, now you. I’m intrigued. I can’t fault you for the celebratory Pina Colada. I hope it goes through the White House like wildfire. If that makes me a bad person… *shrug*

      • We’re not bad people for wanting bad people to suffer the pain they are trying to inflfict on others. 🙂

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