Leave it to the French to give a soda a name that evokes oranges* with vaginas:
I lived on this stuff when I was in Europe. It's the sweet, tart nectar of the gods, as far as I'm concerned, and every swallow of this divine fluid evokes memories from long years past. Today, I discovered that the basement grocery in the building where I work is now selling Orangina, so I snapped up two bottles. I saw Orangina elsewhere, in Itaewon, not that long ago; the soda's sudden appearance in my local store makes me wonder whether we're in the midst of a tulip-frenzy-style surgissement of Orangina-ish excitement. One way or another, I must profit from this while I can, so for the next little while, I'll likely be eschewing my usual poisons to come back to one of my first loves... at least until the grocery stops selling it.
Back in the day, Orangina used to be sold in grenade-shaped glass bottles. In the late 80s, those bottles had metal twist-off caps. The bottle you see above hints at the original shape, but everything is plastic, now. Luckily, the flavor of the drink is the same; it's pretty much what I remember. Some might find Orangina too tart and acidic for their tastes, but I can't get enough of it. The Korean designation for the drink is "오랑지나"—"oh-rahng-jee-nah," with no real attempt to simulate the French pronunciation (gird yourself for a truly French commercial). Not that I care; I'm just happy to see an old friend again.
*Or is that orangutans?
Does it come in vegetable juice flavor? Vegina?
ReplyDelete*groan* at that pun above.
ReplyDeleteI will say, though, Orangina's been around here for a while, though when I first stumbled upon it (I'd say a decade ago or more) it was always kept on the bottom shelf on the bottled juices and drinks aisle in grocery stores. (As if to avoid people noticing it, a tactic that worked: eventually they sold the stuff off at a huge discount, long before whatever best-before date was on the box, and my ex and I bought up all the remaining cases of it.)
It was still in those glass bottles in those days, though I think it also came in cans, for a while anyway.
Gord,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time seeing it locally, and I suspect it's going to disappear from my grocery's shelves soon enough. Everything I like gets taken away eventually, dammit. It's the Jack Bauer curse: the universe doesn't want me to love anything.
Yeah, I think it became scarce again for a while, and then cropped up again. I haven't seen it at the local Homeplus, but then out local Homeplus kinda sucks. (Have they got the stand in your local that cells hotdogs covered in rotting fsh bits and then deepfried? Stinks up the whole building, literally—smells like rotting fish from top to bottom, and they're always positioned by a door or elevator so there's no escape. (At least, in the Homepluses down in our part of the country.)
ReplyDelete