So yesterday I offered someone a Fresca and she said, “Oh NO. I’ve hated Fresca since I was little.”  So I replied, “Fresca’s been around that long?”  And she gave me the “look”.  “What are you trying to say?” she asked, and we laughed.  I said I thought it had just come out about 10 years ago and she indicated it had been around forever.  She was right!  The year was 1963.  Before my birth.  Who knew?

 So then I asked if she had ever tried those weird Jones’ sodas.  I bought the green apple soda once and gave them all to my niece and nephew.  Yuck-o.  Then I found out about their other soda flavors:  the Christmas Pack flavors:  Christmas Ham, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Sugar Plum; The Hannukah Pack flavors (kosher, of course):  Latke, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins, and Jelly Doughnuts; the Thanksgiving Pack flavors:  Turkey & Gravy,  Sweet Potatoes, Dinner Roll, Pea, and Antacid; the Athlete’s Pack flavors:  Perspiration, Dirt, Sports Cream and Natural Field Turf.  The company “prides itself on the accuracy of the tastes,” reports CNN.  Ewww…

 Then I remembered my niece and nephew telling me about Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Jellybeans.  Just for fun, I thought I’d list all their delicious flavors (sans the truly yummy ones):

 Bacon, Booger, Black Pepper, Buttered  Popcorn, Dirt, Dill Pickle, Earwax, Earthworm, Horseradish, Grass, Rotten Egg, Sardine, Sausage, Soap, Spaghetti, Spinach, and Vomit.

So my question is:  how many boogers did the tasters have to eat to determine if the taste is “authentic”?  Well, I know what my next made-up-holiday-tradition-of-eating-one weird-thing-every-year will be in 2008:  an entire box of Bertie Bott’s jellybeans.  Nice to know you don’t have to travel very far to find a disgusting food product.