Good Job, Brain! - 23: I'll Drink to That

Episode Date: August 6, 2012

We invite you to lean back, relax, and indulge in a nice refreshing beverage with us! Quench your thirst with amazing facts about beloved beverages: milkshakes, boba tea, sodas, and hot chocolate. Dana tries to stump us with Snapple lid factoids, and Chris hosts the game "Coke or Pepsi?" ALSO: 80's quiz battle, and a very special round of New York City trivia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Hello, lively and loyal, laughter-loving listeners. Welcome to Good Job Brain, your weekly quiz show and off-be trivia podcast. This is episode 23. And of course, I'm your humble host, Karen, and we are your scrappy, scrambling, but scrupulous scrutinizing and scrutinized screwballs. That's a good one.

That's a really good one. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. And I'm Chris. I think we all read our iTunes reviews pretty regularly. And this one really caught my eye. And I thought it was very adorable. This is from Wizard of Dreams.

And he or she said, hello to the best band of brain buffs in my own bedroom. I discovered your podcast just recently immediately became addicted. I have to restrain myself all the time. but I listen to one episode per night before bed in order. That's when we do the most thinking anyway. I'm only 17, though curious about the world around me, so I end up missing a lot of the trivia questions.

So when I get one right, it feels great, and I know I'll have a much better chance if a different one comes up again. Awesome. Isn't that sweet? That is very nice. Well, Anonymous listener. Wizard of Dreams.

Wizard of Dreams. I will tell you that we also sometimes miss trivia questions. when said trivia questions are from an era that are not our own. Speaking which... Speaking of Segway. So, you know what? Keep it up. We don't know everything either.

It's just fun to learn about things. I bet this next segment will illustrate that beautiful. Right. This next segment will... Let us show you our ignorance. So this is our general trivia segment. Pop Quiz Hot Shot. And it's a little bit different.

Like last episode, we're taking a break from our... random trivial pursuit cards, and we bought these trivial battle cards by Tops from 1984. Vintage. Vintage. And we opened them up and... We ate the gum. Yes. We have these trivia questions, and obviously this was back in 1980.

Well, let's see how well we do this week with Trivia Battle 1984 edition. Here we go. Red for People. Who played Lex Luthor in the Superman movie? Guessing it's not Kevin Spacey. Gene Hackman. Correct. I love, honestly, I love Kevin Spacey, but I like Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor more than

Kevin Spacey's like. All right. Yellow for books. Jane Eyre is a Victorian novel written by Emily Bronte, true or false? I bet it's a trick question. It was like one of the sisters. Yeah, I think it's, I believe it's Charlotte. Yeah.

It is true. Oh. Our usual hallmark of overthinking. Yes. Trick of a trick of a trick. I think we thought that, yeah, we thought this question was harder than it was. We have to remember, small children in the 1980s. I like how after we miss a question, the target group gets younger and younger.

Yeah, yeah. Well, this is, I mean, these are for a fetuses. We're too smart is the problem, really. All right, Blue for TV and film. A TV show set in the 1950s about a teenager trying to make it as a single. was called what? Dobie Gillis. Incorrect.

What is it? Boone. Oh. I know the name just vaguely in my consciousness, but I've never seen that show. I don't know. All right, this is Orange for High IQ. What organization was formed after World War II to help maintain peace? High IQ, you guys.

Colin, you do. I'm pretty sure it's United Nations. Correct. Indigo for music. What city is Diana Ross from? Detroit. Yes. Green for sports.

What football team did Alex Kara star for in the 1960s? I believe he played for the Bears. Is that right? Incorrect. It's multiple choice. Oh, oh. And by multiple, I mean two. New York Giants or Detroit Lions?

Detroit Lions. Correct. Okay, all right. I knew it was one of the Midwestern teams. Yeah, yeah. You guys know Alex Karris. No, no. You do, in fact, you know him from one and two things.

He was Webster's father. Oh, that guy. He became an actor after his football career. And so he was most famous before Webster's father. He was Mongo in Blazing Saddles. He's the guy who punches out the horse. Oh, yeah. That's Alex Karris.

Oh, right. And today's topic is we talked about booze before, and we talked a lot about different kind of soda trivia in the past. But, you know, we haven't done a dedicated episode on drinks, on beverages, carbonated or non-carbonated, just general beverages. Shubi-dubi-du-do-wap, I overdid it at the soda shop. Thanks for being my girl at the anonymous. know when to stop so to kick things off i prepared a quiz now i know that you've all been researching beverages so hopefully you'll have some of these answers to hand now for listeners i need to tell you that i've given everybody three tokens a red token a blue token and a black

token so you're not going to be buzzing in everybody is going to answer by putting up their token and then we'll keep score and see who wins the game is and again i know you've been researching this and this might come up later in the episode, it's called Pepsi or Coke. I'm going to name the drink, the beverage, and you are going to tell me whether it is owned by the Pepsi Company, the Coca-Cola Company, or neither. Okay. And, of course, red token is for Coke, blue token is for Pepsi, and black means neither. So, as an example, if I were to say, Fanta, you would pick...

The red token. Exactly, because it's Coke. Okay, and here we go. and I will let you guys know what everybody is guessing. So, Sprite. Karen and Dana say that Sprite is Coke. Colin says it's Coke, and it is, in fact, Coke. One point for everybody.

All right. Barks root beer. Barks root beer. Colin is buzzed in with Coke. Karen says Coke, and Dana says Coke, and everybody is right. Barks root beer is Coca-Cola product. Seven up. For the benefit of our international listeners, by the way,

I just want to throw this in here. I'm talking about the U.S. brands. Like, these brands are sold by other companies sometimes in other countries, so just let you guys know. So, seven up. Dana and Colin both say neither, and Karen says Pepsi. Seven up is neither. What? It is neither in the United States.

It is neither a Coke nor a Pepsi product. Sierra Mist, speaking of delicious, citrusy flavored beverages. Sierra Mist. Karen and Dana both say Pepsi. Colin says Coke. It is Pepsi. Yeah, that's hard. brand. Fresca.

Looks like Karen has buzzed in with Coke. Colin says neither. And Dana says neither. Fresca is a Coke product. All right. Mountain Dew. Back on the citrus wagon. Mountain dew. Is it Pepsi? Is it Coke or is it nothing? Karen says neither.

Colin and Dana say Pepsi. Mountain Dew is a Pepsi product. I suck. Dr. Pepper. Dana and Colin both buzz in with Neither. Karen says neither. It is neither Pepsi nor Coke. Mr. Pib, however, is Coke. Canada dry. Delicious Canada dry ginger ale. Would that be Pepsi? Would that be

Coke or would that be neither? Karen has made her choice and says it is Coke. I think this is a trick. Colin is holding up his Pepsi. Dana says Coke. Canada dry is is neither Pepsi nor Pepsi. See, I thought that they were independent originally but had been bought maybe. Again, I out thought it. All right. How about, wait, we got, no one got that one. How about Aquafina? Is Aquafina Pepsi or is Aquafina Coke? Trying to imagine the label. Delicious Aquafina.

One of them is Aquasina. One of them is Aquasina. What was the other one? Oh, Desani. One of them is Desani and one of them is Aquafina. Which one is Aquafina? Everyone buses in with Pepsi. Everyone is right.

Yeah. Aquafina is Pepsi. Finally, Tab. Oh. Everyone says Coke. Everyone is correct. Wow. Looks like the winner of

Pepsi or Coke with eight points, so everybody else's seven points, is Dana. Congratulations. So all of the neither's are all produced by the same company. Does anybody know what the name of that company is? So it's Dr. Pepper Mountain Dew, Seven Up. Not Mountain Dew. Dr. Pepper, Canada Dry, seven up. It's like, if it's not. In the U.S. If it's not just Dr. Pepper Group, then I'm going to guess Cadbury Schwab. So you are basically, you are there. So it used to be Cadbury.

they spun it off as like Cadbury, Schweps, soda, something or other, a beverage company. They've now actually rebranded it to the Dr. Pepper Snapple Corporation. Oh, Star is in there, too. Yep, that's the name of the company right now that came from, like, Dr. Pepper and Snapple and Cadbury and Canada Dry and all those kind of things. That is the third wheel of the, they also do RC Cola, they do Diet Right. Also, Tab, I found out when I was researching this, this was, of course, Coke's first diet beverage. Diet Right was the first Diet Cola, which was made by R.C. Do you know why they call it tab?

I do not. Oh, is that an acronym? No, they call it tab because it helps you keep tabs on your weight loss. Interesting. You're trying to keep tabs on your weight called a tab. Well, it's just very, very quickly as an aside, you know, you had mentioned Seven Up and they're, the Seven Up Corporation. So Seven Up originally was called Lithiated Lemon. Delicious.

That sounds wonderful. Lithuanated lemon. With chemicals. Yes. I love these old product names that are like, the miracle drug, heroin. Mountain Dew, the name is slang for moonshine. Moonshine, sure, right. And I mean, I think this was before my time, but I do remember seeing like an old logo flashbacks that the original mascot was like a little stereotypical kind of hillbilly mountain guy.

Yep. You know, as if he might be distilling in his backyard. Mountain Dew was basically bathtub alcohol. Well, I think we can't talk about these, yeah, without just getting some of the basic facts and histories of the, you know, you think carbonated beverage, Coca-Cola. Almost anywhere in the world, most people, that would be the first thing. Much to the disagreement of the Pepsi company, I'm sure, Coke and Pepsi. Quick little rundown here. I was doing some research into the history of Coke and Pepsi and all that.

And, you know, a lot of the stuff, it's pretty, there's nothing really controversial or, you know, secret history or anything. like that, but there's some amusing parts to it. John Steith, Pemberton, pharmacist in Atlanta. You know, Coke is a native Atlanta company. Basically, he had a lot of concoctions that he had sold that were health, health concoctions, and they had names like French wine, coca. You know, he really, he was on to using the cocoa leaf, globe of flour cough syrup. And they were health tonics.

Yeah, they weren't as snappy. And he eventually came across the formula that he dubbed Coca-Cola, which he mixed up himself. And, you know, one account says he actually mixed it up in a bathtub. with a wooden ore from an old boat in the first batches. Sure tasted like it. And it does, and it does have cola nut in it, Coca-leaves, you know, which it doesn't have any more

because it's where cocaine comes from, as you probably know, but did have caffeine as well. So it had a lot of pet to it, and it was a really uplifting kind of tonic. Are there still any formulations of Coca-Cola sold anywhere in the world that still use Coca-leaves, or is that done? Not officially. The company itself, I don't think so. Yeah, yeah.

But I'll sell you some if you want to do. So he, I mean, he sold the rights to the company for just a few hundred dollars, and the rights to the company, and the formula really changed hands several times. And when it took off, it took off big. By like 19, 19, 20, there were all these imitators that were trying to cash in. And this is always my favorite part of the success story, of cashing it on the name, right? I love these. We talked a little bit about these with the cereals, like grip nuts was one of my favorite ones as an example. Or even pop tarts, right?

They had like toastables and toastups and toast pops. Yes, yes. You could buy coca-cola. You could buy Cokeola. You could buy Clucocaola, okola. Ocla Cola. Presumably it was big in Oklahoma, I would imagine. Oklahoma.

Carbo-Cola. And then at the time, just one of the sort of the competitors, but now we know Pepsi Cola, which, you know, it really was one that managed to distinguish. extinguish itself over the years. Pepsi was, I think we've had this question before, Pepsi was called that because it was originally designed to combat dyspepsia. So it was

again, these were all very much tonics. What is that? Indigestion, you know, more or less, I mean, it was a, it was a, it was a, yeah, it was a soother, a calmative, a tonic. And kind of just. You would never have naming conventions today like that named

after maladies. You know what I mean? Like if, oh, I made a soda, it helps with your ulcer, you're never going to call it like ulcer cola, that entire rule. Right. They've had to go to court thousands of times to defend the name. They were really the first company to become famous with two official names. At the time that they had done it, they secured the rights to Coke in 1930. There had been a competing product, and they basically went to court and said, no, this is too confusing.

So they marketed officially under two names, both Coke and Coca-Cola. And it would really. was unheard of at the time. And, you know, I really the only other comparable example that I can think of is like FedEx and Federal Express in terms of officially doing business under two different names. Obviously the king. That makes so much sense. Obviously the king, if you can do business under two different names and not worry about customer confusion. Yeah. They really put everybody else out of business over the years except for Pepsi Cola. Pepsi actually has gotten to be a larger company than Coca-Cola primarily because they own all so many restaurants, Pizza Hot Taco Bell.

That's why you can't get Coke in those places. You can only get Pepsi at Pizza Hut because Pepsi owns Pizza Hut. But the mind is blue. And now you know the whole thing where, you know, you go to a restaurant and you're like, oh, can I have a Diet Coke? And they're like, is Diet Pepsi okay? No. Right.

Yeah. No one ever says, oh, God, I would never drink that swill. But the reason that they have to do that is because Coca-Cola, people using Coke as a generic term for a cola. And so Coke has to protect this and make sure that Coca-Cola or Coca-Cola or Coke doesn't become a generic term. So they send people into restaurants that only serve Pepsi products and they ask, oh, can I have a Coke? And if they give them a Pepsi for a Coke, like, they can take legal action because they're

selling them the wrong product. We're not going to sell you our syrup if you don't deliver it to customers the right way. Yeah. Yeah, I do believe the restaurants were sort of spun off in a subsidiary, but you still only get Pepsi in those. Yes. Yes. Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah, just a little overview of kind of just the big two, I think, that sort of sets the stage for all the other sodas that we... Brown liquid. Yes, brown cola. Yeah, and in fact, there are requirements to call yourself a cola. You must legally have, at least, I forget what the actual amount is, but you must have some small percentage of cola in your drink. Oh, cool. Yeah, the cola nut in there. I have had jones soda.

Have you had that before? It comes in the glass. Joan's soda has crazy flavors. Yes, they do. They're known for, like, their limited seasonal offering. of soda. In 2003, they started making novelty sodas like turkey and gravy flavor. Oh, I remember. I remember that when they did that. Yeah, yeah. God, they also had like mashed potatoes. Yeah. The next year, mashed potatoes, green beans. Cranberry sounds good. Fruit cake. Yeah. They've had

Brussels sprouts. I've tried some of these. They don't have sugar. So when you drink it, it does taste like if you soaked turkey in carbonated water and you're drinking it. Why would anybody bought this? And it's for that novelty factor. It sells out. It totally sells out. They started doing Christmas ones and Hanukkah ones, and then they did Halloween. They have candy corn flavored soda. I think that, at least now, they do these for charity, too.

So it's kind of why they're sort of the stunt novelty ones. They have a toferky and gravy for vegetarians. Wait, so that applies that there's actual meat in the turkey gravy one? Oh, I'm sure. Oh, there probably is, yeah. And speaking of Jones and their weird crazy flavors, Fanta had weird beginnings. I mean, referenced this in a couple of episodes ago. We did, right, in the humble beginnings.

Back in World War II, when allies and Germany stopped trade bans, they couldn't get Coca-Cola syrup into Germany to make Coca-Cola. So instead, they made their own syrup out of weird, random leftovers. They called it the leftovers of the leftover. Cheese byproduct. They used way, and they used the skins and flesh of grapes after being crushed in juice and leftover apples. Obviously, the phantom we have today now is not that.

No, no. But I would like to try old school fiftime. I think they should. They should come out with like retro. You know, they probably wouldn't be able to by health department regulations now. But I would try retro throwback fan to with the original wartime ration. Wartime fission with embargo with extra lead. So we have instead of a mnemonic of the week, we have a gift from our old trivia team member.

And we talked about this guy a lot, Rob, who used to be one of our original. members of our trivia team, but sadly he had to move... He displeased us. He moved back to New York, gave us the gift of some New York fun trivia for As a Little Brick section. Start spreading the news. I'm leaving today. I want to be part of it.

New York News. your these vagabond get your buzzers ready all right coney island is home to what famous hot dog chain oh

Nathan's correct also the home of the big hot dog eating championships right every year on the 4th of July what famous department store chain's landmark building

can be found in Harold Square Macy's correct what Greek Titan can you find in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Oh, it's Atlas, right? Incorrect.

Oh, no, he wasn't a Titan. It's also a name of a recent movie. Prometheus. Correct. It's all, you know, if all the people who watch 30 Rock, they have the little bit of. Oh, of course, yeah, yes. A little montage. It's a statue of Prometheus.

Yeah. The New York Mets team colors are said to honor what two now former New York sports teams. Oh, I didn't know this, but I would guess the Dodgers and the Giants, both of which baseball teams that moved to California. Correct, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Huh, huh, didn't I know that. Blue and orange, right? The city's so nice, they named it twice, isn't just a clever saying. If you were talking about New York City's five famous boroughs, what are the five boroughs?

Also, you might know them from Beastie Boy songs. Yeah, you probably do. When I lived in New York, I lived in Brooklyn. I know that Brooklyn is one. Manhattan, of course, the most popular, the Bronx, Queens, and the smallest, I believe, is Staten Island. Staten Island, correct, 5. All right. And the Bowery's CBGB, famous punk club, was instrumental in the 70s punk movement. But you wouldn't know it from the name. What does CBGB stand for? It stands for country, bluegrass, and blues.

Correct. Nothing to do with punk at all. Yeah, the seed club for so many punk bands. And here is Rob's final question and a little bit cheeky. He asks, who really did just like it better that way? Which is a reference to a very famous song regarding New York. I know what it is we're talking about here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Rob is referring to the they might be. be giants so Istanbul Not Constantinople Not Constantinople Even old New York Was once New Amsterdam

Why they changed it I can't say Maybe they liked it better that way So who liked it better that way It was James The brother of Charles II Who at the time Of England's conquering

Of the Dutch colonies held the title Duke of York Got it. So he was the Duke of York And he liked it better that way Yeah Okay

I get what he's saying Okay That was good Istanbul Istanbul Even Old New York Was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it, I can't say

You just liked it better that way Book Club on Monday Gym on Tuesday Date night on Wednesday Out on the town on Thursday Quiet night in on Friday It's good to have a routine And it's good for your eyes too

Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit specksavers.caver's to book your next eye exam. I exams provided by independent optometrists. Are you dreaming about becoming a nurse or maybe you're already in nursing school? I'm Nurse Mo, creator of the straight A nursing podcast and I want you to know that I'm here for you. I know nursing school can be challenging. I've been there, but it doesn't have to be impossible.

Sometimes the key to succeeding in nursing school is to hear the constant. concepts explained clearly and simply, which is exactly what you get with weekly episodes of the Straight A Nursing podcast. Each Thursday, I teach a nursing concept or share tips and advice to help you succeed in school and at the bedside. My goal is to help you improve how you study, get more done in less time, pass your exams, and feel more confident and clinical. And if you're already a practicing nurse, these episodes are for you too. Because as well, nurses, there's always something for us to learn. So subscribe to the stray day nursing podcast and I'll see you on Thursday. And so we talked about carbonated drinks. What about the non-carbonated

beverages? What do you guys enjoy? Growing up, one of the things I really loved was chocolate milk. I drank a lot of chocolate milk. And this is not any astonishing revelation. But I think we've all remember learning that chocolate, as at least introduced into the new world, or the old world, I guess, actually, and then back to the new world, was a drink and chocolate in its original formation. Oh, instead of a candy. Right. It's not, you know, we think of, you want to say chocolate now, the first thing that I think most of us think of is, like, a chocolate bar or a candy bar. But, yeah, you know, in its original form. Yes. It was delivered in the skin of a rabbit, and that is where the Nestle Quick Bunny comes from. What?

Oh. That is true. That's really dark. trivia you can really taste the rabbit it was a big part of myan and ashtic culture going way back and made its way through europe through spanish conquest and contact you know i mean it was part of religious celebrations and rituals like and they would have it both hot or cold depending on different styles there was no sugar or dairy these weren't things that it's not you who these weren't things that they put in it it was a so it didn't taste good it was a bitter it was a bitter it was a bitter beverage and it was a treat and it was a

was very rich, you know, like a coffee in sort of the sense of you learn to embrace the complexity of the bitterness and things like that. Yeah. I mean, I remember learning about this. I think when I was known at school and thinking like, oh yeah, I love hot chocolate. That sounds great. But it was not, you know, hot chocolate. It was definitely more of an adult version of what we go. Of course, the Spaniards are really the first ones to see it and they bring it back to Europe. And of course, the first thing that the Europeans do is add sugar and add sugar and add dairy, add butter and fat and make it kind of creamy and a sweet little treat. Hell yes.

Which really said it, yeah, a lot closer to what we know. And, I mean, you know, even today, if you travel around Europe, it's still, I would say, most popular in Spain compared to any other European country. And in Spain, I mean, it is very common at cafes. You'll get a little thing of, like a very kind of hot chocolatey syrup and... That sounds really good for now. That's right. And then a very famous name, Mr. John Cadbury.

You, oh. Mr. the Earl. John Caheyer, he was a little bit of. in fact the Earl of Youhoo. The seventh Earl of You. Mr. You Who. No, it was, yeah, John Cadbury. And he was a rabbit. He was half rabbit. He was half rabbit. He basically is the one who really kind of modernized the process that we now know of how to sort of emulsify chocolate correctly and get all the fats and everything mixed in and solidify it and make a bar. So he is the Cadbury in what bear, after whom Cadbury chocolates is named. So in terms of, you know, naming an etymology, I was like, all right, where does

where does chocolate come from? And I think this is one of the things like, I feel like I've learned this before, but it had kind of forgotten. So the most common etymology they give for chocolate is that it likely comes from a gnawaddle word for bitter water, chocoladol, starting with an X sound,

and I'm sure I'm not doing the proper pronunciation, but chocolatol, starting with the X, yeah. So bitter water, which is really what it was. In the book, The True History of Chocolate, Sophie and Michael Coe are the authors. They actually kind of dispute this theory that it may not come from a chocolatol. You know, I should say that we make a lot of poo jokes on the show.

But I feel like we do it an effort of enlightening. So I'm going to make a very enlightened poo reference here. So they kind of identified the word cacao water or cocoa water, as the nawattle word for the cold beverage that they said the Aztecs had. And they point out that using a word with caca in it to describe a thick brown beverage, probably not going to be a big hit to Spanish speakers because caca means in Spanish

exactly what you think it means. Oh, that's right. So their theory is rather than trying to peddle, yeah, right, or trying to mainstream poop water, their theory was that the Spanish colonizers decided to go with the my word chokol, and combine it with atol. So chokul-a-l-tel. That is their theory.

Good choice. That is their theory for why we call it chocolate instead of cacolet, I suppose. It's something else in cacol-old. Here's a, let me ask you guys this question then. We have had this at trivia before, so let me see if anybody can recall this. What, according to Men's Health magazine in 2010, was the worst drink in America? Oh.

Okay. He was going to give us some choices. Oh, no, no, no. Coldstone creameries. Peanut butter. Oh, what, like blast off. I'm sure the word like explosion or something. Yeah, you're there. No, it's actually called the, it's the, it is the PBNC, peanut butter and chocolate, the PBNC shake at Coldstone Creamery, in the largest size that they sell is 2,010 calories.

Oh my God. Wow. It is the worst drink in America. Which is more than a daily allowance, right, for most people, right? Yes. Yes. So this indulgence that you buy yourself, I'm just going to buy myself a delicious shape. Turns out to be worst, worst. worst thing you can drink. But anyway, I asked this because when I thought of non-carbonated beverages and what are my favorites, got to be a milkshake. I love milkshakes so much. Like that's, that's a, that's a, that is a weakness for me. Like, let's, let's research some of the history of milkshake. Why are they called milkshakes? Well, originally, the recipes that you see in the early 20th century for something called a milkshake is milk, crushed ice, and various flavorings. There's no ice cream involved whatsoever. And you take them and you put them in a, you know, cylinder and you shake them up.

Literally shake it. It's flavored milk with crushed ice and sugar or syrup or vanilla or whatever all shaken together and then you drink it, which is probably pretty delicious, but that's why it's a milk shake. This is what, as a kid, I was so frustrated. No grown-up, no grown-up was ever able to give me a satisfying answer. Like, I'm like, because I would see them put the thing on a little spinny blender. I'm like, where's the shaking? I don't get it. You bring up an interesting point that they would put it in the blender. So as it turns out, the milkshake is really, the commonly known milkshake that we have today,

is really like an industrial age drink. Because without a machine, without a mixing machine to take something as dense and difficult to work with as ice cream and froth it full of air and whip it like that, you couldn't make one. The milkshake developed alongside the mixer that made milkshakes. That makes so much sense. I mean, the blender was originally developed to mix milkshakes. together, you know, with ice cream. Even later into, like, the 30s, 40s, a milkshake might still be that original, some

variation on that original recipe. A frosted milkshake would be something with ice cream in it or on top of it or whatever. Trivia about milkshakes is, so growing up, so I grew up in Connecticut, and we all called them milkshakes. I just want to be clear. Like, that's what we all called them. But we also, there's the other word for them that's used on East Coast. Which is what?

Frat. F-R-A-P-E. See, it's so, it's so. It's so funny to me that you're like, what? Because we all knew that. If you went to, yeah, frat. Frat. Frat Chia.

Frat. Yeah. Dialects of things that people call milkshake. I find this out, and this is fascinating. I mean, to me anyway, this is fascinating. In Rhode Island, a milkshake is called a, well, before I tell you what a Rhode Island milkshake is called. I'm worried.

So I went up to Massachusetts for college, and one of the first times I went to the dining hall. They had, next to the milk dispenser in the dining halls, syrups. They had chocolate syrup. You know, if I want to make chocolate milk. They had strawberry syrup. And then they had something else that was light brown. And I was like, what is this? Is this like a lighter kind of chocolate? Yeah, caramel syrup? What is it? I got a glass of, yeah, exactly. So I got a glass of milk and I put it in there and stirred it up and drank it. And it was coffee-flavored syrup. And it was delicious. It was basically like, it was milk that somebody had poured coffee, into it was like a sweet coffee-flavored desserty kind of syrup that was just like chocolate or

strawberry syrup and I was drinking coffee-flavored milk turns out this is really popular in Rhode Island where they're used to I mean there are like three different brands of coffee syrup that they sell on store shelves alongside the chocolate strawberry and coffee milk is really a popular drink in Rhode Island just as much as like chocolate milk or strawberry milk. No, it's so localized. Now, obviously, some of it got out into Massachusetts where they had it in the dining hall. Some of the Rhode Islanders escaped. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, it's very localized just to Rhode Island. To the point that coffee milk is Rhode Island's official state beverage. True story. It is on the government

website. The official state beverage of Rhode Island is coffee milk. So they call, and this is the weirdest thing. They call milkshakes in Rhode Island, cabinets. C-A-B-I-N-E-T. Cabinets. You're making this up. Not even making this up. They call, yeah, this is not a, in England they call podcast lorries. They call milkshates cabinets. And so a coffee cabinet is very, very popular. Which is a coffee-flavored milkshake made with coffee-flavored ice cream or just like vanilla ice cream and coffee syrup. Because a lot of milkshakes, they don't make it with that flavor of ice cream. Yeah, it's vanilla ice cream and then cereal. Sure, sure. So, why would they call a milkshake, a cabinet?

There is no definitive explanation. Silly road. One of the explanations that I read was, oh, well, it must be because the people who were making them stored the blender and everything in a cabinet, and so they'd have to open the cabinet and get everything out. This makes, this is one of the explanations that's been floated, and it makes zero sense to me. to just call everything.

I keep my aspirin in a cabinet. Why don't I call that a cabinet? Like, here's the one that I read that I actually, whether it's true or not, I don't care. You choose to believe. Because I like it so much, I choose to believe. Right, exactly. That it comes from another English language word. And interestingly, it is an English language word that we have all said now multiple times on this podcast.

Can you think of what word? Cadbury. No. Over the course of the series of this podcast or this very much of it? This episode of this podcast, we've all said to think of soda fountains, mixed beverages. Carbonation? Yes. In fact, yes.

I'm a winner. If you say the word carbonate, which means soda in a strong New England accent, it comes out cabinet. Cabinet. I can see it moving from carbonated to cabinet. Carbonate to cabinet. Now, here's the thing. Yes. This may not be true.

However, it has been floated as an explanation. And again, I like it so much that I'm just going to go ahead and say that. I can't see Matt Damon say that. That makes sense. Right, right, right. Regional dialects, you know, they survive, but in this ultra-connected world, you know, what happens is everybody just lands on one word, and that becomes the word used everywhere. You start to lose those great regional words, and they're doing their part to keep frat in the vernacular.

I actually want to piggyback on all that stuff you talked about. I want to talk about is very similar, and that is a boba milk tea. Which has been making a splash for a couple years now in America, and I'm sure the rest of the world, too. It came from Asia. Actually, technically, it came from Taiwan where I grew up. Boba milk tea. For those who don't know, it is basically a, usually a creamy beverage or juice or tea or anything,

a beverage. And inside the cup, they have boiled tapioca balls in it. And you drink the whole thing with a giant thick straw because the balls are big. And they kind of, and they sink down to the bottom. They're chewy, so it's almost kind of like you're drinking something, but it's also a snack because you're eating these chewy tapioca balls. Can I tell you when I first saw them, I thought they were fish eggs, like really big fish eggs. They used to be called frog eggs, right? Because they do kind of look like frog eggs, yeah.

But they're not. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're tapioca, yeah, yeah. Just to be clear. I guess the term boba milk tea, a lot of different names, there's boba tea, but there's also pearl tea, bubble tea. They're all made from tea or liquid with tapioca balls in it. And it's hard to say when it was invented. Obviously, it's like when it was popularized.

It was in the 1980s. And in Asia, we eat shaved ice as a dessert and we put a bunch of toppings on it. And tapioca balls is one of a very, very popular toppings. You know, I think in the 80s they finally put them in beverages and you drink it that way. The thing is, and I want to talk about this because you talked about the different language and words and meanings and such. You can read about Boba on Wikipedia, on all. of these different sites and stuff, but really, as a person who lived in Taiwan and grew up with this, I can tell you what Boba actually means. Bova basically means big boobs, like a bimbo or a

bombshell, but really with the focus of big boobs, busty. The term is Booba, and Ba is kind of like, oh, I'm taking all the place, and bull is kind of like waves or bouncing. And so when you put it together, you're describing a person with giant, giant boobs. And this is, you don't know this. People don't know this. So it's really weird. When people are like, oh, I want some boba milk tea. I'm like, ha, ha, ha, do you know what you're talking about?

It used to be, like you said, they look like a frog eggs or fish eggs, regular size tapioca bowls that, you know, we would see in tapioca pudding. They're the small size balls. It wasn't until the 80s. They used these giant tapioca balls. And you've seen these. It's like marbles. Yeah, they're like marbles.

before it was like little, little beads. It wasn't until they had enough advances in tapioca making technology. Yeah, catch up. They built these big marble-sized tapioca balls, and they're chewing, they're giant, and they're like, well, what do we call these big ones? We're going to call them breasts, like big breast balls, basically. So now the thing with the boba, and it seems like I've always seen they always have the heat-sealed lid on there, too, right? You have to puncture the straw through it.

And actually, that really definitely helped the whole podcast. popularity of Boba because before someone has to boil and make the tapioca and then put it in a cup and then ladle in the milk tea and now they can do that all in advance they boil a big batch of tapioca they mix it in right they use the heat sealing plastic covering or lid on it so then they can transport everywhere it doesn't spill and so it's very easy for them to store and give away to people so it's not just about the novelty fun of it I don't like my food mixed in with my drink I don't think so You want it to do one thing or the other. Hot chocolate with marshmallows, I'll do that. Boba tea. What a melt. Yeah. That's why ice cream has to be whipped into a drink.

Into a drink for me. Yeah, exactly. Is it a drink? Is it food? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. And, you know, quite frankly, I don't like ambiguity. Have you guys heard of the unadulterated food company?

No. No. I've heard of the ultimate fighting championship. That also has the initials UFC. This one, I'll give you some hints. They started making a beverage line in the 70s, the UFC. an adulterative food. You might have seen, you have seen, on the bottle.

Wait, this is starting to sound really familiar. Is it like juice? Kind of, that sometimes can be. Oh, man. What is it? Snapple. Oh, yeah, okay. I was going to say that, yeah.

So I picked the most trivia full of the beverages that I could pick up. You know how under each lid there's a little fact of like a piece of trivia. Yes. Yes, so I backwards engineered some of those trivia facts into questions for you guys. Oh, okay. So there's no real theme about. about them. I just thought they were interesting factoid. So you flipped the lid, as it were.

Yeah. How long is a goldfish's attention span? Okay, so I just want to preface this by saying that for me, the Snapple questions are the total example of, I know what they're looking for, even though I don't think it's right. I think they're looking for 30 seconds. Three seconds. Three seconds. Yes, I agree.

Like some of their questions, some of the answers to these might be a little bit suspect, but they were on the bottom of a snappled. So it's true. It had a B. It's snapple true. And I got it wrong either way. So get off my high horse. It's like how do they test this?

Do you have like a bowl of goldfish and they put on Game of Thrones? I want to see your methodology. What journal was this published now? What is the only vegetable that is a flower? Mmm. zucchini. No. Oh, I was going.

going to get something like squash blossom too. Is it broccoli? Yes, broccoli. Oh, that's, oh, okay. The part of the vegetable you eat is the flour. But what about cauliflower? Take it up with Snapple, Karen. Snapple's fact was,

broccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower. Yep. Again, you've got to know what they're looking for. Yeah. To the internet. Karen's so angry right now. Okay. How about this?

What is the only mobile national monument? Oh, man. The global national monument. Oh, God. Air Force One, no. This is going to be one of those retail-to-us. I'm like, oh, of course. Yeah, it really will be.

It's located in California. Oh, it's located in California. It's located in San Francisco. It's a Golden Gate Bridge. Oh, it's the cable cars. It's the cable cars. That's good. Okay, what is the only animal that never sleeps?

Are they looking for shark? Nope. Hummingbirds. Nope. Keith Richards. Close, but no. Bullfrogs. And I googled that one.

I was like, really snapple, and it was true. They don't go into it. What is the fastest healing part of the human body? That one is the mouth, right? More specific. The tongue. The tongue. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, okay. The tongue part of the mouth. This maybe is an easy one. What is the only food that doesn't spoil? Okay. Honey. Honey. I was going to say gum.

Oh, we've gone out the hard way that it does foil. Last one. Almonds are a part of what fruit family? Peach. Yes. Now I'm a little bit hungry or thirsty. I guess I'm more thirsty than you want to frap. I'm not for a cabinet.

So that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you guys listeners for listening in. Hope you guys are thirsty and want to go get a. a boba or a cabinet you can find us on zoom marketplace on iTunes on Stitcher and also on our website which is good jobbrain.com and we're also on Twitter and Facebook so check us out there too and we'll see you guys next week bye bye goodbye Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Magellan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up. on your podcast app. That's the Explorers Podcast.