[And without further ado, here’s Brian’s first post -Krishen]
        I have this very morning rediscovered Cherry Coke. Once my passion in the dark-ages of high school, this fine brown elixir has found its way into my heart once again. To give you some context: I used to drink at least two 12oz cans of the stuff a day, much to the delight of my then-girlfriend who discovered it made an excellent proverbial-carrot. As I rewrote myself in college, I phased the drugs known as soda and television out of my life in favor of those with more staying power and thus Cherry Coke was forgotten. When I began my career as a professional alcoholic (read ‘software developer’), sodas of various flavors trickled back into my beverages as mixers in my holy quest to find the perfect mate for Vodka.
        Have you ever stopped to consider how the selection of sodas for a given multi-flavor fountain is chosen? Restaurants, bars, and the like have machines offering 6, 8, and sometimes as many as 16 flavors but how often do you see Cherry Coke? Such businesses, if they offer Coke products at all, usually have Coke and Diet Coke but frequently neglect Cherry Coke unless they happen to sell pizza. Has there been some secret market research that links pizza and Cherry Coke as a match made in heaven? Pizza joints aside, Cherry Coke from a fountain is a rarity these days and personally I have never seen it in a bar which means my exposure to it in recent years was minimal. Couple this with the fact that the packaging for the product has also changed several times in recent years and it seems as if somehow the product was trying to evade my consumption altogether. What did I ever do to you, Cherry Coke, if not appreciate you? Are you bitter that I left you by the wayside in favor of other drugs? I assure you, its not you, its me.
        Later, when I joined the software industry full-time, I was inundated with free soda in the workplace and worse than that, a democratic power to influence the flavors available to me. I sullied my innards with the likes of Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper primarily for their caffeinated prowess. I frowned upon coffee drinkers but there was a small void inside me where my beverage-satisfaction should be… until today.
        I was surreptitiously scanning the refrigerator to steal a caffeine-source from our sister company when I found one of those oddly long-and-thin 12-packs of Coke in the fridge. With ninja-like stealth, I made it safely back to my desk, crack the can, and take a victory sip only to find my past flooding down my throat: Cherry Coke! I take a second look at the can in my hand and find that sure enough, the packaging has a subtle cherry drawn upon it despite looking a hell of a lot like the Coke Classic packaging of modern day. Once again reunited with my syrupy lover of yore, I savored her inner juices… I am sorry I ever left. Now where can I get some fucking pizza this early in the morning? <3 ~B