Rant #2,623: Eat to the Beat

It’s Passover, and I just finished off one box of matzoh for breakfast, eating the last board with cream cheese on it right before I sat down at the computer to tell you about it.
 
I just love matzoh, and so far, no ill effects, but as anyone who eats matzoh for the holiday knows, that could be coming.
 
Anyway, yesterday morning, I needed to go to the local supermarket to get rid of two bags of bottles and cans and to do a little shopping.
 
I got to the market early, and there was no one in the recycling area, so I made it through there in just a few minutes. Usually, the machines don’t work very well, and it takes forever, but this time, it went quite well, even though one of the machines was not working after I put just one bottle in.
 
But since that went pretty quickly, I was able to get into the store quickly, cash in my bottle receipts, and do what I came there for.
 
We needed paper plates—better than real plates if you are going to eat matzoh for breakfast, lunch and dinner—and we also needed hot dogs—which I love to eat with matzoh, with mustard all over it—and we also needed toothpaste—which we ran out of for the first time in a long time.
 
And when I retrieved all of these items, I though I would meander over to the Passover section—a separate section from the rest of the aisles in the store, which the store uses for different occasions as a flex area—and see what was left.
 
We are running out of matzoh and macaroons, so I thought I might be able to get reinforcements there, but when I got there, I completely forgot about what I really needed, because my eyes turned to see that they had not what I needed, but what I wanted—
 
Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola.
 
It is widely known that Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola is the top of the line of colas that come out during the course of the calendar year, because it is the only domestically produced Coke that uses real sugar as its sweetener.
 
During the rest of the year, Coke uses corn syrup, and while corn syrup probably has its virtues, it is not kosher.
 
So during Passover, Coke offers Kosher for Passover cola sweetened with real sugar, and boy, can you taste the difference.
 
It is smoother, and gives a better and bigger kick than the usual Coke with corn syrup.
 
But every year, it is being increasingly more difficult to find, and this year, I though I was going to have to settle for Kosher for Passover Pepsi and Dr. Brown’s instead of what literally is “the real thing.”
 
I was in the same supermarket the other day—King Kullen, by the way—and they did not have any of this type of Coke, and I do mean nothing. Then yesterday, I innocently go over to the Kosher for Passover section looking for something else, and what hits my eye? The good stuff, and you know it is the good stuff because it has the yellow cap that tells you that it is Kosher for Passover.
 
I bought two bottles and it was as if I had hit the lottery.
 
I know that even non-Jews wait for this time of year to get Kosher for Passover Coke, and in the old days, I even remember people buying boxes full of this stuff—like 12 20-oz, bottles at a time—and they would drink it throughout the year, held for special occasions.
 
Now, with the drink being scarce, you can’t do that—there were only about 18 or 20 bottles at the supermarket yesterday—but I figured that I should get my two bottles and be happy about it.
 
I truly thought that this would be the Passover where I would not be able to get the good stuff, but perseverance certainly paid off.
 
I had some yesterday, and boy, was it good!
 
Just as a side note, some stores, knowing that people love Coke sweetened with real sugar, have started to carry Mexican Coke in bottles. Mexican Coke is also sweetened with real sugar only—I don’t know the reason why—and they carry it throughout the year, and do it at a premium price.
 
I have had it, it is really good, but I am not going to pay exorbitant prices for Coke with real sugar, and I don’t have to if I just stock up during Passover with the kosher batch, but like I said, they are getting more difficult to find each year.
 
Look, I will drink the Pepsi and the Dr. Brown, but there is nothing like Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola. It is the version of Coke that I grew up with before the cheaper corn syrup replaced the real sugar as the drink’s sweetener, and while it is OK, there is nothing like “the real thing.”
 
So let me get back to my matzoh and my soda and my cream cheese—Temp Tee only please-and my tuna fish and my hot dogs and my macaroons and even my “from a mix” Kosher for Passover potato pancakes and let me eat the holiday away …
 
Is matzoh stomach coming?
 
Stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel, and find out … .