If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I love food. We have our own little love affair going on. It’s seen me through breakups, deaths in the family, celebrations and so forth. And when it comes to beverages, I love soda. I know I shouldn’t drink it (high fructose corn syrup, yada yada yada) but it’s so good. It’s sweet, fizzy and…it’s sweet! I know a lot of folks who don’t drink soda and I look at them like they’re frickin’ crazy. I’ve easily killed a 2-liter soda in one day and still been feening for more. My favorites are Welch’s grape, pineapple and Sunkist pineapple. And Top Pop’s black cherry is pretty darn good too.

Mmmm, drink!

So imagine my amazement when I walked into my local bodega to get my fix and saw no Welch’s grape soda. This had to be a joke. I finally saw a purple drink in a bottle and immediately reach for it, but wait, this isn’t my Welch’s. I look at the bottle and it was Jolly Rancher grape soda. Jolly Rancher? Um, I ate Jolly Ranchers as a kid, I never drank them. I was a bit freaked out that this candy was now a drink, but I picked it up anyway. They also had a green apple flavored drink as well. Hmm, not so sure how I feel about drinking a green concoction, but I got no problem with a purple one.

I paid my $1.25 for a 20 ounce and hurried home so I could gulp it down. But first I had to place it in the freezer; I like my drinks ice cold. An hour later, I take my slushy grape dream out of the freezer and I’m in heaven. It’s sweet (29 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar) but not as super sweet as I thought it might be. I’m hooked man.

I asked a few friends if they’d heard of this Jolly Rancher drink and they all said no. I felt like I had stumbled upon some sugary treasure no one knew of. I attempted to go back to the store the following day but unfortunately there was police activity at the corner that kept me away. Darn! But I was back the next day and picked up two bottles. I still saw the green apple flavor, maybe I’ll try that one next time. The neon green color still skeeves me out though.

So has anyone else heard of or seen this sugary treat?