Who needs to tote around a cup of coffee or soft drink while browsing the aisles of their local big box retailer when they could have a glass of wine in hand instead? While shopping and drinking can certainly be a dangerous combination for some people (not myself, of course), that could be the next step for Target. [More]
beverages
McDonald’s Billboard Offers Free McFlurries For The Hot & Hungry
By 7.20.15
Everyone likes to get free stuff, especially if that stuff happens to include food and drinks. Earlier this year companies began using “drinkable” billboards to dispense beverages to thirsty consumers. Now, McDonald’s has taken that idea and made it their own by giving away free McFlurries to pedestrians when the temperatures reach scorching levels. [More]
7-Eleven Isn’t Just Giving Away Slurpees For One Day This Year, It’s Creating A Week Of (Almost) Free Stuff
By 7.10.15
Who wants a free Slurpee? Well, good thing tomorrow is July 11 – otherwise known as 7-Eleven Day – a day in which the convenience store will once again bestow free sugary, icy drinks on customers at no cost. Not content to merely give away free frozen drinks this year, 7-Eleven stores are expanding their yearly celebration to an entire week. [More]
Coca-Cola Debuts Bottle Made Entirely Of Plant Materials
By 6.4.15
If you thought that Coke was sweet before, then Coca-Cola’s newest bottles will give you a sugar rush. That’s because the company has developed a beverage container made solely from plant materials, including sugarcane. [More]
Who Doesn’t Want A $1,150 Machine That Makes Coffee And Soda?
By 5.20.15
Keurig, maker of digital rights management-laden coffee pod brewers, has seen its sales fall in recent weeks as customers made it known that they do not care for the latest version of the company’s machine. Yet what if there were a machine that could make both hot and carbonated beverages, and was available for the low price of $1,150? That device is coming, from Whirlpool and AB InBev. [More]
Why Is This Store Charging A Bottle Deposit On Dryer Sheets?
By 5.8.15
Some consumer mysteries are very tiny, which is what makes them somehow even more frustrating. For example, why did a bodega charge a customer ten cents in bottle deposit fees when she bought laundry supplies? The store was somehow charging the deposit on dryer sheets, but not charging it on beverages which should be subject to it. Why? The store say that it was all a mistake. [More]
Americans Losing Taste For Artificial Sweeteners, Pepsi Retakes #2 Sales Spot
By 3.26.15
Recently released data about the beverage industry tells us some interesting things. Plain old high fructose corn syrup-laden Coke is the top-selling soda in the United States, but its calorie-free cousin has to give up its silver medal: Regular Pepsi is now the #2 seller out of all fizzy non-alcoholic drinks, following an overall trend against diet sodas. [More]
Is This Just Zima?
By 2.11.15
This week, ABInBev announced that it’s unleashing something terrifying sounding called a Bud Light Mixxtail, a malt liquor beverage that pretty much sounds like someone dropped a couple cinnamon red hots in a vat of Zima and called it a day. But hey, it’s sweet, and millennials like sweet stuff! According to the powers that be. [More]
PepsiCo Thinks Its Drinks Aren’t Smelly Enough, Wants To Add Scent Capsules
By 9.17.13
Have you ever cracked open a bottle of Tropicana orange juice and thought to yourself, “I would drink so much more of this juice if it smelled even more orange-y”? Probably not, but the folks at PepsiCo are seeking to patent technology that would arouse the customer’s sense of smell from the moment the container is opened. [More]
Perhaps You Would Like To Dress As A Sexy Banned Boozy Beverage For Halloween
By 10.22.12
Banned party fuel Four Loko may now lack caffeine, but that doesn’t mean it’s left the public consciousness. Witness this Halloween costume: a can of Four Loko. A sexy can of Four Loko. [More]
Coca-Cola Says Revealed Recipe Is Not The Real Deal
By 2.16.11
The internet has been abuzz this week with reports that Coca-Cola’s secret recipe had been inadvertently leaked in a 1979 newspaper story. But the beverage behemoth is attempting to kill that buzz by saying that the revealed recipe isn’t authentic. [More]
One Serving Of Crystal Light: Half Of This Pre-Measured Packet
By 1.27.11 — Updated: 10.22.12
Foods that are bad for you have long fudged their calorie and fat content by putting the information for an impossibly tiny serving size on the package, instead of the amount that real people actually eat. Sandar thinks that Kraft is trying to pull the same trick with a new Crystal Light line. The packets of drink mix are designed with a 16-ounce water bottle in mind, but one “serving” is half the bottle–and half the packet. [More]
The Starbucks Drive-Thru Left Me Soaked In More Ways Than One
By 1.11.11
K says a Starbucks employee mishandled his drink order, handing him a time bomb in the form of a hot chocolate cup that exploded all over his car. He says Starbucks apologized with a couple of drink coupons but is balking at paying to clean his car. [More]
Starbucks' Prices Going Up
By 9.27.10
Citing a 13-year high in the price of its coffee beans, plus “significant volatility” in other ingredients like dairy, Starbucks last week said it plans to raise prices on certain “labor-intensive and larger-sized” beverages. The small tall coffee will remain at its current price for now, says the company. I wonder if those truncated menus the company introduced a few weeks ago were really about hiding the least expensive option from consumers, especially since it isn’t being included in the price hike? [More]
More People Buying Mexican Coca Cola
By 9.21.10
Perhaps it’s the glass bottles. Or it could be the lack of high fructose corn syrup. Maybe it just tastes better. Whatever the reason, a growing number of folks on the north side of the Rio Grande are drinking Coca Cola bottled in Mexico. [More]
It Could Take 20 Bottles Of Tea To Get Health Benefits Of 1 Home-Brewed Cup
By 8.23.10
Bottled tea has seen a substantial increase in recent years as more people turn to it as a purportedly healthier alternative to sodas and energy drinks, but a new study claims that if you’re really out to get the health benefits of tea-drinking, you’d be better off brewing it yourself. [More]
Would You Like A Complimentary Upsell While You Wait For Your Sub?
By 8.19.10
Todd writes that after he paid for his sub at a local pizza/sandwich shop, the helpful counter person asked him, “Would you like a drink while you wait?” Assuming that she was offering him a beverage while he waited for his sub to be made, Todd accepted. Except the drink wasn’t complimentary. [More]
Is Ordering Drinks Without Ice Just A Scam To Get More Delicious Beverage?
By 7.28.10
I like to order my cold drinks (especially soda) without ice, because–shocking revelation–I don’t really like ice. I didn’t realize that all of these years, I’ve been running a massive scam on the eateries of America, weaseling extra beverages out of them with my innocent request. That’s what a barista at a Borders store accused JD of doing when he ordered an iced chai with no ice. She gave JD what he describes as “half a cup of lukewarm chai” (pictured). New Borders policy, or was she a vigilante anti-ice crusader? [More]
