Christmas Sodas... and a Road Trip

There's only 12 days left until Christmas 2005 and I can't wait! And yes, my Christmas shopping is completely finished too! This December has been an excellent time for Playing With Words Specialty Publications (that'd be my publishing company) due mostly to the addition of our special 'everything Coca-Cola' Christmas edition. We're on target to selling out in record time!

Last weekend, I took a 2 hour roadtrip down to Whitby, Ontario to Soda Pop Central for their one of their "soda sippin' Saturday" events. This time it was a very cherry experience with more than 20 different cherry flavored sodas to sample at their shop. It always amazes me when I stop in at Soda Pop Central - their inventory of sodas in glass bottles is always growing. The newest additions are Mexican Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light and Mexican Pepsi in 355mL glass bottles. Sodas from Mexico are a real throw-back to a simpler soda time and a nod to the history of the beverage industry. Plus, they're pretty great sodas. I'm officially addicted to Coca-Cola Light in the glass bottle.

Probably the most interesting thing to me about the Mexican sodas is that even though these bottles are imported into Canada from Mexico, they are priced significantly lower in Canada than they are in Mexico where they were originally bottled. On the crown bottlecap of the Coca-Cola Light is printed: "$3.00 Coca-Cola Light". I paid $1.75 CDN for a single bottle. Even that may seem like a lot of money to spend on a single bottle of pop, but I'd gladly hand it over without a second thought.

If you're ever in the Whitby area, make sure to drop in at Soda Pop Central (1001 Burns St. E. #4) where you'll be amazed at their selection of sodas: Orange Crush (and Grape & Strawberry), Kickapoo Joy Juice, Pop Shoppe, Faygo, 7UP, Mountain Dew, A&W Rootbeer, Stewart's, Bubble-Up, Sun Drop, and hundreds more - all in glass bottles the way soda pop was meant to be consumed.

Those of you in Canadian Coca-Cola collectors have probably already seen this as well, but I thought I'd point it out: Petro Canada gas stations (at least in Ontario) are offering a great little promotion for collectors. When you buy two 2L bottles of Coke or diet Coke, you can get a FREE Coca-Cola Christmas tree ornament. There are four different designs available but take note... if you're on the lookout for these, you could have a hard time finding all four. Last week I was in London, Ontario and had to stop at three different Petro Canada locations before I found one that had any left. The one pictured here is the ornament I chose - and it now joins our other ornaments, even though my wife thinks it's a bit too big for the Christmas tree.

Thanks for reading, and check back here later in the week - I'll be writing about the Christmas packaging of lots of sodas this year.