Coke BlaK

Yes, Coca-Cola has done it again. Another new version of Coke for Cruft Labs to investigate. Coca-Cola BlaK is “Coke Effervescence with Coffee Essence”. You will note that I am spelling it correctly. It’s not ‘black’ it’s ‘BlaK’.
I spied Coke BlaK on the internet a week or so ago and looked for it at 7-Eleven regularly. Last night, while picking up a pint of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk, I found that Coke Blak had arrived.
Loyal Cruft Readers know that I have much love for Coke and even more love for canned iced coffee. Could this be some sort of beverage nirvana?


Coke BlaK comes in a small 8 ounce glass bottle in the classic curved bottle. 12 ounces bottles would be better, but it’s better than the plastic bottles.

Taking a look at the back of the bottle, the first thjng to notice is that Coke BlaK is a diet drink similar to C2. To sweeten it, Coke uses corn syrup, Aspartame (Nutrasweet), and Acesulfame potassium (Ace K), just like Coke C2. Coke BlaK has 12 grams of carbohydrates (think sugar) in 8 ounces, the exact same ratio of sugar in C2 (18 grams in 12 ounces.). While not promoting it, Coke is basically using the C2 base formula for Coke BlaK.

Enough looking, let’s get to the drinking. It has a lower amount of carbonation than a typical Coke. No striking aroma either. I took a drink and could immediately taste the coffee flavor. I was hoping to like it, but it just doesn’t taste that great. The coffee flavor doesn’t taste quite right. It’s so specifically coffee that it almost tastes synthetic. It didn’t taste like Coke with some cold coffee mixed in, it tasted like coke with drops of Coffee Flavor #57 dropped in. I don’t have a better way to describe it other than ‘artificial’.
Michele gave it a taste and said, “My god, that’s horrid. I mean truly terrible!” Zoe took a taste as well and commented, “That’s yucky.”. Sadly, I tend to agree.

On the bright side, I removed the label from the bottles and the kids want to use them as water bottle. The classic shape, screw top, and 8 ounce size make them perfect for little hands. Here is the bottle in use in today’s afternoon picnic in the front yard.

Yesterday’s prank aka My Little Travis

No April’s Fool Joke here today. Anil writes about it, and I have to agree that the weblog April Fool’s joke has jumped the shark. Real life pranks are the new hotness.
With April Fool’s Day landing on a Saturday, work pranks need to be done before or after the weekend. Here’s what happened at work yesterday.
One of my co-workers, Travis, is a fan of horror films and enjoys collecting ‘action figures’ from them. When he first placed the ‘action figures’ in his cube, he was sure that everyone knew that they were ‘action figures’ and not dolls, toys, or anything else not suitibly masculine.


Here is Travis’s area at the office. Note the long line of action figures.

Also adorning his cube are the friendly and welcoming Darth Maul and Dawn of the Dead posters.

Once Travis headed out to lunch, my secret partner (who is definitely not Mister P., wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and I took the action figures down and put them on a cart for safe keeping.

The next step was obvious as they were all replaced with cute My Little Pony action figures.

And the posters were swapped to bit different message.

The end result being a new look and feel for Travis when he returned from lunch. We thought it gave his cube a more friendly appeal for the casual passerby.

Travis was engrossed in a phone call when he got back from lunch and at first didn’t notice. Focused on his phone call, it wasn’t until others gathered around his cube in open mockery did he realize what was going on.

Travis’s neighbor Miles, also had a lone action figure from Halo, and we made sure that we ‘enhanced’ that figure as well.
I think everyone had a good laugh, including Travis. My only concern is what my office will look like on Monday morning… Payback’s a bitch.

Fridge versus Cupboard Recap

Thanks to you, the Loyal Cruft Reader, the poll about proper storage is up to almost 70 votes as I write this.
Take a gander at the results:


The results are fairly interesting. As you can see, people are generally split on whether apples, syrup, and soy sauce are stored in the refrigerator or not. Obviously, apples and syrup go in the fridge and soy sauce goes in the cupboard! It’s quite impressive that there is no consensus on these common items found in most homes. I’m sure many newly married couples have to debate these varied items.
This is the data set sorted by percentage that keep the item in the refrigerator.

You can see there is a fairly clear preference to store salad dressing, parmesan cheese, mustard, ketchup, and BBQ sauce in the fridge. I have to agree with these choices. Here at Cruft Manor they all live in the fridge.
Here the data is sorted by percentage that keep the item in the cupboard.

From these numbers you can see that peanut oil and chocolate are generally stored in the cupboard. We put chocolate in the fridge here, but as you already know, we are a little crazy.
There are three items that are more interesting to consider, bread, potatoes, and syrup are all around a 75%/25% split toward keeping them in the cupboard. Again, this kind of split in households has got to lead to some disagreements. I grew up with peanut butter in the fridge and Michele grew up with bread in the fridge. Due to compromise, they’ve both moved into the cupboard storage.
Well, what do you think? Is everyone else crazy?

Which go in the fridge?

At work last week, Brad and I were discussing which items go in the fridge and which stay out. Brad wrote up a little about this but I’m taking it to the next step.
Here is a poll to survey you, the Loyal Cruft Readers, to see exactly which food items belong in the fridge and which don’t. Assume for the sake of the poll that the containers have been opened.
The Poll
Which go in the fridge?
One of the things I remember when I moved in with Michele was her wacky idea that bread goes in the fridge. Her parents raised her that way for some reason. Seemed absolutely crazy to me. Then again, I grew up with peanut butter in the fridge at all times and Michele insisted it stay in the cupboard. We each had to give a little.
I’m sure you family has it’s own ‘rules’. Which of these seem crazy to common sense to you?
Here’s a direct link to the results
Results: Which go in the fridge?

Michele in the New York Times

If you take a look at the Style section of the New York Times today, you will see an article about pet adoption starring my wonderful wife Michele.


Earlier this week, the Times reporter Anna Bahney, got ahold of Michele about pet adoption based on a few posts about our troubles getting a dog.
As we read the New York Times daily at Cruft Manor and this is a very big deal indeed!