Jun 10, 2025
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They call Me Mello Yello..
Whatever happened to the Best Stuff on Earth? English: snapple (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Recently in my area Snapple has begun to make its way back into combini coolers and breakroom vend machines with the new mango flavor and aside from that, the half and half tea blends (half iced tea / half lemonade). It seems like the 90s soft drink giant disappeared altogether there for a while and I…
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Coffee: No other drink did *that* in 1984!
Coffee: No other drink did *that* in 1984!
I’m such a nerd- when I clean or do chores such as taking batch photographs for the blog, I go to Youtube and put on 80sCommercialVault’s immense feed of 80s and 90s commercials (subscribe!) . It’s a great way to kick back into memories and learn about products, tv shows and the like I may have forgotten. A good time had by all. But this bizarreness caught my ears the other day as I was chasing…
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500 varieties!
Now that Valentine’s and President’s Day are both over, we enter into the Holiday doldrums in the United States until Memorial Day in May. In the northeast that means we have at least 27 3/4 more years of winter/spring/winter/spring/winter/touch of monsoon/winter/kiss of summer/winter before the temperature raises to above 70 around June 30. To keep our spirits up and our sanity in check, I propose we all go out for a drink,
No, not that kind. I’m talking a nice retro Soda! And opening up conveniently for this ridiculous cycle of Mother Nature is Rocket Fizz in the Homestead Waterfront right between Burgatory and Charming Charlie. Yeah, there’s actually a space I never noticed before there (though I have to wonder if this is some sort of time portal that opened up to bring us sodas from the past….it’s very Doctor Who. A bit bigger on the inside if you know what I mean) and it extends seemingly forever once you get inside. The massive rows of both retro and house sodas will dazzle you (the prices might make you step back but I’m not suggesting you come every day), the cute candy displays will bring out the ballerina in you to toe-dance by without knocking over rows of Astronaut ice cream (did it), and the vintage signs just might make it onto your porch.
Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop is a franchise dating back to 2007 under ownership of Rob Powells and Ryan Morgan with Rich Shanae stepping onboard as CEO in 2012. The company has stores in several states and is presently the largest soda and candy franchise in the country. You may have seen it featured on Undercover Boss (the episode with Major Peduto) with Rob Powells dropping in to check out the troops. I don’t watch that show but what I can tell you after a few recent visits is that the shop surely has something for everyone. Which is really nice because the Waterfront is full of boutique-y shops that cater to one population. Like Starbucks. You don’t give your kids coffee. Neither are you going to bring 90 year old pap pap to buy him a $5 coffee. because his teeth would fall out at the price. And the Children’s Place. People without kids turn back now. Or Yankee Candle or Bath and Body Works or Ulta or Ethan Allen. All of these are nice stores but frankly they’re for women between certain ages. Claires is for kids of certain ages. You get my point.
You can take your kids into Rocket Fizz after school or after a show over at AMC Loews’ or on a ‘sick day’ (we’re not telling) and buy em a cool soda. You can take Pap-Pap in and let him remember buying a Nehi Grape as a kid for 5cents or you Mum a Boylan’s cola. For you and your fellow 80s children it might be a Dad’s Red Cream Soda or a Raspberry New York Seltzer. Your nephews and nieces might dig a Jones or one of the bizarre specialty sodas such as Ranch Dressing and for the kids there are the always-fun Ramune sodas with the marble in the neck or the mild-tasting Crush or Faygo. And did I mention everything most items are in glass, screw-top bottles? Yeah, sit back and sink one back! According to BizJournals.com, Rocket Fizz goes to great lengths to find new sodas and carries 500 types, including 100 of their own.
It’s not all about soda- there are vintage and modern candies, special edition and international candies, retro toys and vintage tin signs. Look around and you’ll find there’s something everywhere to keep your attention and empty your pocket money. Rocket Fizz is on Facebook and Twitter so go on over and give em a like and a follow.
The perfect place in Pittsburgh for a retro drink? Rocket Fizz! Now that Valentine's and President's Day are both over, we enter into the Holiday doldrums in the United States until…
80s Food Week: Tang
80s Food Week: Tang
The longstanding General Foods logo used until 1985 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My dad loved Tang and I hope it was because it was the ‘orange juice of astronauts’ or because it was ‘cheaper than orange juice’ cos man did that stuff reek in the taste department. Turns out the public thought so too from it’s humble powdered beginnings in 1959 from General Foods(a non-powdered version was out in 1957…
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An 80s yuppie cocktail party!