"Marie, do you want a drink?" One of the other safari-goers had the cooler open in the back of the Land Rover.
"A... whatsits... Stoney. Is there a Stoney in there?"
"A what? Oh yeah, here's one." He handed it over. "What's a Stoney?"
"I'm not sure exactly. It's ginger-flavored. I started drinking it at Red Chilli behind our house in Murchison, but to be honest, I'm not even sure I like it."
Some things are like that. I wasn't sure if I liked Stoney or not, but because I wasn't sure, I kept trying it. One day last summer, I decided I disliked it intensely, and I announced to HM that I was done with Stoney. The next night I ordered one again, and decided I kind of liked it. (To his credit, HM always stuck with Nile Special and never wavered. I still hear the Nile Special jingle in my head. To my knowledge, Stoney does not have a song.)
Here's the Wikipedia on Stoney:
Stoney tangawizi is a soft drink sold in parts of Africa. The product is made and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company. It is sold in a brown bottle. The drink has an unusual taste and gives the consumer a sensation in the mouth. This sensation can often be too much for foreign visitors to handle.
That's about right.
4 comments:
I gotta say, I like Stoney. It just seems to fit in with being in Africa, and the ginger (in theory, at least) is good for settling the stomach, which is often welcome.
But man, it burns when you drink it to fast. :)
I preordered your book, which Amazon still says is shipping in April. Bummer.
August 28!! It ships August 28.
Thanks for the pre-order--that explains the movement from #514,571 to #492,060.
*ouch*
Agreed on the too-fast Stoney effect. To be enjoyed, a Stoney must be savored s..l..o..w..l..y.
I hear Mentos and Stoney go great together.
Someone should do a roundup of all the cool things Coca-Cola sells outside the U.S. and force them to sell them at home. When I was in Japan, I lived on Water Salad, a horribly pink drink, non-carbonated, made of 21 fruit and vegetable juices, and one of the very few actual thirst-quenching soft-drinks. Anything with mango and spinach juices in it can't be all bad! Unfortunately, I don't think it's available any more. But somewhere the formula is locked in one of those secret Coca-Cola vaults!
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