Pop-free: Three years and counting

People have been trying to get me to drink hard root beer. “You’ll like it!” they tell me. However, I’m steering clear. Not only have I never liked root beer — root beer floats, maybe, but not straight root beer — but I also don’t drink pop.

Is hard root beer pop? Is there at least root beer in it? Nobody who recommends hard root beer to me knows. (They also obviously don’t know me well enough to know I don’t like root beer, or the fact I don’t drink pop.) Regardless, I assume something with “root beer” in its name includes root beer. Root beer is pop. I don’t drink pop and haven’t for three years.

That’s right — it has been three whole years since I last drank pop on August 2, 2013. That day I drank a Mountain Dew at Oasis before taking Zee German to the airport. Since then I have not had a drop and no longer have a desire to.

I’ve been tempted, however. When Surge returned last year I played with the idea of buying a can. It was mostly out of nostalgia because I liked Surge and fondly remember the “SURRRRRRGE!” commercials when it was introduced. I even have an old (but empty) bottle of Surge as a keepsake (see above). (I don’t remember where I found it but do remember it being in my Jetta forever. It has to be from 2000 or 2001 because the “20 oz. Flavor Under the Cap Game” advertised on the label ended on “2/26/01.”) Surge hung around for a few years, trying to compete with Mountain Dew, but in the end it didn’t work out and, according to Wikipedia, was discontinued in 2003.

Needless to say, I have not had any Surge since it returned. Whatever draw there is to reacquaint myself with a pop of my youth is far overmatched by soda’s lack of nutritional value and my desire to keep my pop-free streak going.