RED-EYED & RAVENOUS: Brand Name Me

I have developed a few specific brand-name loyalties over the years. To the diminished extent that I still drink soda, I drink Coca-Cola, not Pepsi. I buy Ford cars; I haven't owned any other type of car since 2006. I wear Wrangler jeans. I can be promiscuous in my at-large consumption of potato chips, but when I'm getting a bag of chips to eat at home, it's gonna be a bag of Lays Potato Chips. No one can eat just one, and I don't consider purchasing any other brand.




My most steadfast daily exercise in brand loyalty is my coffee: Chock Full O' Nuts. That Heavenly coffee. Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy. This was just the result of a choice I made many years back to pick a brand of coffee and stick with it. Decades ago, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna wrote in Kicks magazine of their affection for (or addiction to) Chock Full O' Nuts, and I figured that was as good a recommendation as any. Great choice. I favor the dark, bold taste of its New York Roast, and I enjoy a 20-ounce mug of it each and every morning. I'm not kidding when I say there are some nights when I go to bed looking forward to my cup of Chock Full O' Nuts as a reward for getting up to face the day. I'm not a coffee snob at all. When I'm out 'n' about and in the mood for a cup, I readily go to war with the coffee a diner has, not the coffee I wish it had. I'm also quite fond of Paul DeLima coffee. I think the coffee at Starbucks tastes like it was made with hair. 




Most mornings, especially work mornings, I have a bagel for breakfast. The fact that I'm fine with store-bought, pre-packaged bagels from Thomas' or Wegmans destroys any hope I could ever have of achieving bagel hipster status. I slather the bagel with peanut butter, and in that regard, I'm a choosy mutha: I choose Jif. I never buy any other kind. 

(My favorite bagel overall would, of course, be a real bagel, preferably an everything bagel. I want it with lox, cream cheese, and capers. But there is no element of brand loyalty in play here.)

As a proud Central New Yorker, my chosen brand of hot dog is Hofmann, period. Hofmann is the brand served at the locally-iconic Liverpool, NY hot dog stand Heids, and there just ain't no substitute for Hoffmann. I recall a period years back when Heids stopped using Hofmann hot dogs, and I saw a customer buy a birch beer from a Heid's stand at Great Northern Mall, then move over to a competing stand to buy a Hofmann hot dog. Ouch! Heids and Hofmann have since reunited, and it feels so good. Taste tells.



Those are my primary examples of brand loyalty. I think Kasteel Winter Ale is the best beer I've ever had, but it's not to be had, so I settle for others (usually Blue Moon) while occasionally experimenting with random choices, preferably of Belgian derivation. I tend to buy Progresso soups, but I'm not opposed to Campbell's. When treating myself to a chocolate milk--a smile in a glass!--I use either Bosco or the more readily-available Nesquik rather than Hershey's syrup. And, as noted in our opening paragraph above, if I'm buying cola, it's Coca-Cola, ideally the Mexican variety made with real sugar. It's the real thing!



Although I have my loyalties and preferences, I'm really not all that picky, honest. We all have our likes and dislikes, but I try not to be militant about mine. Hell, sometimes when I'm at a restaurant and in the mood for a cola, I'll even order a Pepsi if the joint doesn't have the good sense to offer Coca-Cola.

I'll drink it under protest, mind you, but I'll drink it. Cheers, then.

But given a choice? No Pepsi. Coke. And a cheeseburger while we're at it.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).