49 Comments on “There is No Coke Zero in the House, But There is One of These”

1. Also, “Pepsi Ninjas” is the name of my next band.

2. What have you done to offend the gods lately?

3. Nothing! Hell, I even just adopted a rescue dog! I should be on the gods’ good side!

4. Are you sure this isnt the cat’s revenge for bringing the dog in the house.

5. Perhaps you offended the Elder Gods. They don’t pay much attention to acts of kindness, so you should spread some bleak mad despair instead. That usually appeases them.

6. Removing a Pepsi’s power is easy. Get a black sharpie and turn it’s strange newish logo into a buttcrack.

   (http://bit.ly/cyWLOl as a reference)

7. Your house is clearly defective with its lack of CZ. Pepsi in any incarnation is unacceptable as a substitute.

   On a side note, I was at the Pittsburgh airport Hyatt this past week, and tried to purchase a Mountain Dew from a vending machine (since every shop at the airport was closed by 9:30). Of course the stupid machine gave me a Diet Pepsi — ugh!

8. Perhaps the rescue dog is in reality a trojan horse, assaulting your household from within. That’s what the cats will say.

9. It’s actually Coke Zero in the bottle. It’s in hiding so that you won’t consume it. Go ahead a drink it. We’ll just wait here and see what happens.

10. Is that Sunny D behind it! Wow! Sunny D! Drink that!

11. Stupid Pepsi Ninjas is going to be the name of my Pepsi Ninjas tribute band.

12. The Pepsi is all part of the John Sculley Rehabilitation Tour 2010. Next: a Mac SE30 is going to appear on your desk.

13. There it is, the monkey on my back. Alas, I have tried to fight the Pepsi ninjas but their carbonated ninjutsu it just too strong. For example, I have no idea what is in that white bowl hiding under the tub of Country Crock, but I’ll guarantee you it tastes a thousand times better with a nice cold Pepsi. Insidious.

14. I think you briefly stepped into a parallel universe, one so bizarre that your counterpart actually drinks that stuff. Kind of like Heinlein’s Earth-without-a-J, only in this one, it’s Coke products they lack.

15. You should obviously switch that with a Diet Dr Pepper, or even better, a Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, which is four great tastes in one!

16. Mmmm, Pepsi. I am one of the Pepsi Generation, but I work on a Coke-only campus. Many is the time I’ve had to settle for the vastly inferior Coke Zero. (And you can pretty much forget about Diet Dr Pepper unless I want to walk practically off the mountain…)

    Maybe Daisy is a Pepsi drinker? Could be hers.

17. Pepsi? Yecch! I would be less disgusted if I found a dead hobo in my refrigerator.

18. “[…] I even just adopted a rescue dog! I should be on the gods’ good side!”

    The gods are happy with you, but the cats are pissed and are taking it out on you in subtle, passive-aggressive ways.

19. Not Pepsi Edge? I’m disappointed.

20. Skip@15

    ‘Doctor’ is a flavour?

21. Is it just my imagination, or is the liquid in that bottle blue?

22. It’s the dog’s way of bringing taste back into your house by getting rid of yucky coke products and replacing them with yummy pepsi.

    Yes, we disagree on at least ONE point :P

23. agh! Shouldn’t you warn us when you’re about to subject us to a profane picture?

    Or are you testing the filters at the Dayton Airport again?

    ‘scuze me while I go find a unicorn chaser.

24. My money is on Daisy.

25. New household resident; sudden mysterious appearance of Pepsi products.

    I suspect a connection.

    Go Daisy!

26. Eww. This is the first thing I saw on waking the lapdog laptop today. Had been looking forward to brunch – now, not so much.

    I feel dyspepsic.

27. To borrow a line from Max Headroom, You said the “P” word!

    Seriously, though, Pepsi is evil. I think an exorcism may be indicated here.

28. If my wife saw that, she would throw the entire contents of the fridge in a double-wrapped bag and scrub the inside with bleach.

29. Your house has been tainted by the Anti-Cola – that most evil spawn of the Elder Gods.

    You should survive so long as you do not actually drink the soft drink which must not be named.

    @Chris B – Nothing can taste better with a “nice cold P-psi” because P-psi cannot be “nice.” However because lower temperatures do inhibit flavors, that would be an improvement for the substance.

30. Definitely something that needs to be removed forthwith!
    Over 30 years of drinking the black stuff and I think the P* brand has tainted my fridge less times than I have fingers.
    Although to be honest I’m a real coke kind of guy!

    Reminds me though of your price check of coke in Australia. Buying a 600ml (20floz) bottle is the most expensive way to satisfy the craving here. Ranging in price between $2.50 and $4 you wuld have been far better off buying a 2 litre bottle for under $3! Or – as many of us do – buy 375ml cans by the 24 pack at around 60c per can.
    It is unfortunate though that it’s the 600ml bottle that is the best tasting! Just can’t buy it in bulk from a retail outlet.

31. “Don’t touch it! It’s pure evil!”

32. Country Crock? I would have pegged you for an I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light man. But you can’t make good grilled cheese with the light stuff, therefore the tub of Country Crock in my fridge is strictly for making cheesy good things.

    I like Pepsi, sorry. Coke is king, but Pepsi is definitely the prince of all the other cola alternatives out there.

33. I don’t see what the problem is, you’ve got some perfectly good butter to drink.

34. I’m going to go against the general mood here and say that Pepsi Throwback is pretty damn good.

    *cringes, waits for Loving Mallet of Carbonation*

35. Instructions for proper P* disposal:

    Using tongs, remove from the food-chilling cabinet. Transport to kitchen sink and turn on water, hot. Using thick, yellow rubber gloves, rotate cap – slowly – counterclockwise. Hissing may ensue (then again, this being P*, it may not). Should foam appear within the bottle, rotate cap clockwise until it stops, wait 20 seconds, and repeat. Should foam not appear, continue to rotate until cap comes free. CAREFULLY pour directly down sink, avoiding splashing and attempting to avoid contamination of the food preparation surfaces. When container is empty, partially refill with water and repeat pour. Crumple bottle and replace cap. Place in opaque plastic shopping bag. Place this in opaque plastic shopping bag (so no-one can see what’s in it – oh, the shame!). Place in recycling bin – near the bottom.
    Alternately – using US Postal Service, ship to your worst enemy as a “peace offering.” Be aware – this may backfire if they are not felled by the vile stuff and respond in kind.

36. Pepsi has ninjas now? Go figure. New dog probably brought his own stash.

37. I am far more shocked by the Country Crock margarine…

38. What’s in the tupperware? And how long has it been there? :)

39. Mmmmmm… Country Crock. Once caught my daughter eating it out of the bowl. Chastised her roundly, then tried it myself. Not so bad.
    But for grilled cheese? Nothing is better.

40. I used to be a ‘nothing but Pepsi, forever’ drinker, but in trying to cut out as much high fructose corn syrup, I found Coke Zero and liked it so much I switched. Sure, Pepsi Max doesn’t have HFCS, but Coke has switched out HFCS on their cola choices and Pepsi hasn’t, so I’m sticking with Coke products for now. Besides, the black packaging is so edgy and cool….

41. I would actually prefer Pepsi O.O

42. Sometimes I think Americans can be saved. At this moment, though, I am less optimistic.

    C’mon people, you are talking about mass-mass produced beverages, through manufacturing processes so massive and anonymous that the average tap water in The Netherlands gets more production love per litre.

    Now, if we were talking about the subtle, enticing and intense differences between, say, a Westvleteren 12 and a Delirium Nocturnum, then we’d be talking about drinks in which their respective producers have put several orders of magnitude more effort, craftsmanship and pure love per litre than any coca cola drink in the whole wide world.

    I know what you’re going to say: these are alcoholic beverages while coke/pepsi are not. True. But, to give just one example, when I spent some high quality time with my sister in Melbourne after the last WorldCon, she — and her ex-friend who came to dinner: they’re still good friends, and they’re both teetotallers — both went the extra mile to get *that* specific fuzzy, non-alcoholic drink that went best with the meal.

    I, of course, had some wine, but I greatly appreciate their taste in non-alcoholic drinks, and neither Coke nor Pepsi were anywhere near their lists.

    Typically, Melbournians are *extremely* particular about their coffee. (I know, them being Aussies, you’d expect them to be particular about their beer, and they do have some nice microbrews. But coffee is first and foremost the beverage of intense scrutiny.) I’ve literally been stopped by one of my sister’s best friends from walking into a certain coffee shop in St. Kilda, being told “Jetse, you are *not* going to drink coffee *there*!” in the same manner I would protect innocent foreigners from walking into the wrong bar in my home town.

    I hugely appreciate that.

    But Coke Zero vs. Pepsi whatever? That’s like discussing the ‘merits’ of MacDonalds vs. Burger King. Excuse me while I have a ‘steak frites’ in Belgium, with a Belgian beer (only over 1600 to choose from…;-).

43. Jetse:

    “That’s like discussing the ‘merits’ of MacDonalds vs. Burger King.”

    Burger King. WHOPPER FOR THE WIN, BRO.

    (waits for Jetse’s head to EXPLODINATE!)

    That said, if someone wants to point me in the direction of a craft-brewed non-alcoholic carbonated beverage without sugar, I’m willing to give it a try.

44. Neither Mickey D’s or BK can hold a candle up to the White Castle Burger!
    (waits for Scalzi’s’s head to EXPLODINATE! in 5… 4… 3…)

45. Coz@35:
    CAREFULLY pour directly down sink, avoiding splashing and attempting to avoid contamination of the food preparation surfaces.

    Shouldn’t he check first to make sure to make sure his local treatment facility is up to the task? What if it just goes straight into the river untreated?

46. There is only one black beverage, the original and the best. Uncle Arthurs favourite and that is the Guinness of which there is a complete lack. It passes beyond being a drink to be a food group of it’s own and nothing, no NOTHING beats a Guinness.

    Pepsi vs Coke, who cares. As long as it’s got sugar in it that’s fine. Zero/Diet is just so so wrong.

47. OK Let’s Examine here….You have Approx. 3 lbs of a conglomeration that is minus one chemical of being able to be its own container, and you are worried about the Black Fizzy Nectar that was a Gift from the Junk Food Gods holding an Honorable place in your CFC driven Cooling Apparatus?

48. After seeing that picture there’s only one thing I can say “Mum! Dad! Don’t touch it! It’s eeeevvvillll”.

    There’s a restaurant I go to in Seattle, Endolyne Joe’s that has the most awesome bacon, thick and crisp and done just right. I think they get it from Nimian Ranch and whenever I go there for breakfast I get a side order of bacon with whatever I’m having for breakfast, even if that’s bacon and I wash it down with plenty of Diet Coke (is there any place that has Coke Zero on tap?).

    One day one of the waitresses asked me why I bothered drinking Diet Coke when I always ordered extra bacon and I had to explain to her that the reason I drank Diet Coke was so that I didn’t get all filled up with horrible, goopy high fructose corn syrup calories that would interfere with my ability to fill up with tasty bacon calories. I love Coke Zero for the same reason; it’s tasty, and leaves room for the bacon calories (which I think would be an awesome advertising slogan; “Coke Zero. Zero calories means more room for bacon!”)

49. Scalzi@43:[quote]That said, if someone wants to point me in the direction of a craft-brewed non-alcoholic carbonated beverage without sugar, I’m willing to give it a try.[/quote]

    Try this one:
    http://www.fritz-kola.de/en/fritz-kola/fritz-kola-sugarfree.html