May 28, 2007

Chubby Soda (now in 6-packs!)

If there’s one thing that can’t be denied it’s that Trinis love their soda (or ‘sweet drink’ as its commonly called). Growing up here I was spoiled to an endless array of flavours that I thought would be matched or surpassed when I went to the US for 5 years. Sadly this was not the case. Flavours here mimic the natural (passionfruit, banana, mango, mauby, apple, grapefruit etc etc..) as well as the fanciful (cotton candy, bubblegum, cream soda). Growing up grape and cream soda were my favorite flavours. When I moved to the US I was thrilled to find cream soda in the supermarket. I bought a whole bunch! But when I got home the flavour was totally different! Here cream soda literally tastes like carbonated sweetened cream :)

Now of course we all know that soda is not good for you (mmm high fructose corn syrup!) which is why Chubby is my favorite brand of soda. Chubby gets its name from the small rounded fat bottle that it comes in. It holds 1 cup of soda and is cheaply priced. It is also chiefly marketed to kids (though it never warns them that drink too many and they may end up looking like the bottle). Many of my US friends giggle uncontrollably when they see a bottle or hear me talking about a ‘chubby’ as the expression has rather dodgy connotations over there. Fortunately I think -that- was the furthest thing from the manufacturer’s minds 😆

Chubbies are normally sold freeform in huge bins like the one shown at the left. Sometimes I have to go digging to the bottom to find my fave flavors (cotton candy and grape) so imagine my shock when I saw that they were now being sold in 6-packs!