Weekend Debate: Soft Drinks and Hard Liquor

I thought for a brief time that I’d make this weekend’s debate an age-old classic: Coke vs. Pepsi.  Granted, I don’t think the brands themselves these days have half the visible – and often acrimonious – competition going as they did back in my youth.  Back then you couldn’t walk into the Quikee Mart without feeling the open hostility cracking between the products on the shelves.  Perhaps nothing typified that more than the famous (or infamous, depending on your view) “Pepsi Challenge”, which saturated the culture.

Speaking of said challenge, I think my older brother, deep down, still believes he was only one or two bottles away from finding that elusive “N” in the “Pepsi Challenge” collect-the-letters sweepstakes.  For one summer, it consumed us.

Oh, and for the record, in a Coke vs. Pepsi debate, Coke wins.  Period.  In you fail to understand the basic underlying truth in that statement, well, you’re obviously just plain wrong.  And I weep for your friends and loved ones, that they have to see you in such a state of wrongity wrong-headed wrongness.  But I suppose that’s your, and their, burden.

Unfortunately, I don’t really drink enough volume in the soft drink department these days to warrant a Soft Drink Debate.  If you’ll recall, I pretty much ended my three-decade-plus relationship with such fluids back in October of last year, and have largely been riding the wagon very comfortably evey since.  In fact, with the very very rare occasional treat (like, once every six months), the only time I consume the carbonated cola beverage nowadays is as an add-on to lower-end bourbons.

I got out of the soft drink game largely because I arrived at the conclusion that a lifetime of drinking chemicals I can’t pronounce and would certainly never pull down off the shelf and drink right out of a beaker probably wasn’t going to do too many positive things to my liver, kidneys, etc. 

And yes, I do see the irony in the fact that I drop Coke like it’s hot, but haven’t yet given up bourbon, although it is very clearly capable of doing the exact same kinds of things to my pinkish inner parts.  The thing is, though, see, there’s a quite a difference between having a drink or two every once and again that your body needs to work a bit to tidy up after, and drinking something similarly not so good for you, you know, from the firehouse, daily.

I could (and have!) regularly consume 3 liters of said soft drink a day back when Coke Zero ruled my life. So, I figure that even as alcohol is evil, overall, I’m ahead.

So, what’s up for debate this week?  Well, in realizing that the only time I go for that kinda beverage these days in as a mixer, it occurred to me that right at my fingertips was a potentially much more entertaining topic. It is with great pride, then, that I present the debate for the week:

Liquor of choice: Bourbon or Scotch?

I’m obviously a bourbon fan myself. I’ve tried to acquire a taste for scotch, but nearly all attempts have failed miserably. That irks me quite a bit, too, I don’t mind saying, because I’m a lad of some Scottish heritage myself.  In fact, I’ve always been a big fan of stuff from Scotland, including scotch eggs, Scottish ales, The Highlander, and fried Mars bars. Sadly, scotch whiskey has yet to make the list.

Note, I did say “nearly”. There was the one time with Johnnie Walker Blue, which may or may not be serious scotch since it’s blended and all, but regardless I don’t speak of it in polite company. Buy me a beer or three sometime before you ask about that night.

Speaking of polite company, who wants liquor-based poll?

Enough foolishness for one night.  Now, tells us, where do you fall on the whiskey Mason-Dixon line?

Pud’n