Mezzo Mix

This past weekend, I tried a new drink. It’s called Mezzo Mix and apparently it’s produced by CocaCola. It’s apparently (though I didn’t look too closely at the label when buying it) orange flavoured cola. Now, if I had knew this at the time that I forked over the cash, I probably would have picked something else…you see, I like to say that I’m allergic to Coke, Pepsi and Root Beer. I don’t think I am, but let me give you a bit of history about that decision.
Back in the day when there was always a cooler filled with a variety of pop cans in the trunk of the family car that toted me around from extra-curricular venture to venture (especially in the grey station wagon days), I used to enjoy a pop after a trip to the ballet studio (usually a good half hour drive to the intended destination – which could have been a variety of places…long enough to drink a pop, for sure). I enjoyed orange Crush, Sprite, 7up, Wink, Mountain Dew and maybe my favorite, Hires Root Beer. Anyway, at some point, I noticed that everytime after I drank root beer, I would get these rashes on my hands. And from that point on, I told myself that I was allergic to Root Beer, and similarly Coke and Pepsi (maybe because of the colouring or something?!?). I’ve heard of people becoming allergic to something that they’ve had in excess, so this was my rationale. I don’t know if I ever really seriously believed it, but I never actually drank the stuff, until quite a few years later, I drank a can of Dr. Pepper, and had no reaction. I also had a “shot” of Coke in 1st year university (whole other story) and didn’t react to that either. Bottom line is that every since I was young and got these rashes, I never really drank Coke, Pepsi or Root Beer. I figure it’s probably also better for my health that I don’t drink these products (although that’s more of a recent idea from a couple years back to convince myself to continue not to drink these products). I do enjoy root beer gummies though, and still like the flavour of the products, and enjoy smelling a friend’s pop every so often to remind myself what the stuff smells like.
So this brings me back to Mezzo Mix. I drank it, and I have to say that I probably would buy something different next time. I think it’s because I haven’t tasted Coke in such a long time that the “cokeness” of the drink was a little bit overpowering. I couldn’t taste any orange at all (don’t know if it was truly because there wasn’t much orange flavouring in the drink or the “cokeness” was too much for me to take)…it was a strange drink.
Leads to a question…am I still "allergic" to the stuff? Well, I didn’t get the same rashes that I got when I was younger, but after awhile I noticed these weird, itchy bumps on my palms. Was probably just a fluke, but I’m still going to tell people that I don’t drink Coke/Pepsi/Root Beer and if they ask why, I’ll either tell them I’m allergic, or if I feel like elaborating, well, I’ll tell them what I just wrote here.