New Stimulus Soda Sweeping the Carbonation
A money-green soda will make the bad economy taste better
By ANDREW PERGAM
Updated 6:50 AM CST, Fri, Apr 3, 2009
It’s green soda. Very green. Glowing green. And the blue raspberry and pineapple flavor combination sounds, well, a bit hard to swallow. And maybe that’s the point.
Just under the smiling mug of Uncle Sam, his hands outstretched, clutching moneybags, the bottle of Stimulus Soda proclaims it “the nation’s first bailout brew!”
“We made it green for money,” Rob Metz, the chief bottle washer at Avery’s Beverages, a microbrewer of sodas in New Britain, said.
This isn’t just a marketing campaign.
The company wanted to donate a portion of sales to charity, and then quickly realized that folks who are struggling in this economy ARE the charity. So, they’re handing out a free bottle of Stimulus Soda to anyone who brings a copy of their pink slip to the company’s headquarters.
And if you buy a bottle at the store, there’s always that 5-cent refund. So everyone wins.
So, like any good investigative reporter, I tried it. (For the record, any journalist will eat just about anything put in front of them.)
Remember Sweet-Tarts? It's like someone dropped a few of those in a bottle of Sprite and then poured in the contents of a glow-stick for color. And I like both raspberry and pineapple flavoring. True to its name, it will make you forget your financial woes for a few.
As for the bubbly business, Metz says it’s not quite foaming over the top, but it hasn’t gone flat either.
“Fortunately, we’ve got a bunch of great, loyal customers,” Metz said. And, in this day and age, that’s pretty sweet.
First Published: Apr 2, 2009 4:32 PM CST
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