Weird and Wacky Drinks

Some drinks just make sense. Take a Tom Collins: gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, a drizzle of sugar syrup, and some carbonated water to taste. It’s light, refreshing, and perfect for a balmy spring afternoon (or a summer or fall afternoon—winter would be okay too).

But other drinks defy logic and good sense. Here are some of the weirdest drinks, ranging from stupid (Diet Water) to scandalous (beer for kids) to reportedly sensational (Pizza Beer).

Pizza Beer
Chef Tom & Mamma Mia (also known by their legal names, Tom and Athena Seefurth) chop and smash basil, oregano, tomato, and garlic, spending at least four hours on brew day making sure the bits and pieces are small enough so that they don’t get stuck in the equipment. Chef Tom told me they have produced 300 barrels of the beer, sell it in more than one hundred establishments, and currently ship to certain states. Their Web site claims pizza beer is the “World’s First Culinary Beer.”

Japanese Beer for Kids

Apparently Camel was really on to something when they marketed cigarettes to young kids. According to a Japanese blog, Kodomo no nomimono is a sensation in Japan—it is a nonalcoholic cola that is made to look like real beer, complete with brown dye and froth on top. It is manufactured by Sangaria and made popular by commercials featuring giddy kids with beer foam mustaches. The company now offers wine, champagne, and cocktails for kiddies.

Bacon Martini

Next time you have the urge to order your martini shaken, not stirred, consider asking instead for it “porked, not poked.” At Double Down Saloon, an off-the-strip dive in Las Vegas, bartenders pour from bottles of vodka that have bacon drowning in the bottom. Your oily martini might have a slice of bacon floating on top—not the olives you’re used to seeing. Did anyone ever say meat and liquor don’t mix?

Diet Water

From Japanese manufacturer Sapporo comes … Diet Water! I can’t seem to find the ingredients—at least in English—of Diet Water, but the whole concept seems bunk. How could water possibly have fewer calories than zero, and fewer fat grams than zero? Maybe consumers really are willing to swallow anything.

Pocari Sweat

Forget the euphemism of Gatorade or Powerade. When we sweat, we want to drink … sweat? Pocari Sweat is an energy drink appropriately named. According to the drink’s Web site, the health beverage, introduced in Japan in 1980, replaces lost fluids and minerals, and can be bought in fourteen countries—ranging from Malaysia to the United Arab Emirates—around the world.

Pepsi Ice Cucumber

Photo source: yoppy on flickr (CC)

According to the Washington Post, Pepsi unveiled a—swallow, burp—cucumber soda in Japan last summer. According to the news account, while the special edition of Pepsi does not have an actual cucumber in it, artificial flavors deliver the “refreshing” taste of cucumber. And the masses were apparently enjoying it: Japan’s Pepsi distributor, Sunbury, Ltd., planned to sell 200,000 cases over three months.

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