Premium Cola

The majority of the people in the world are probably completely unaware of this, but when bands from the US tour in Europe they are taken care of very, very well by the promoters/venues. I mean I'm sure bigger bands are treated this well wherever they go, but when you're in a small band that maybe two people in the city have actually heard of before you get a bit overwhelmed with what they do for you. The food, lodging and drinks are more than we could ever possibly deserve. Recently when I played Frankfurt Germany we were basically given free domain over the bar, and lucky for me that included a decent selection of German sodas. As a result I drank way more pop than I ever would normally and I felt like crap. I also apparently stored this bottle of cola away in our merch for later enjoyment because I simply couldn't handle any more bubbles/sugar.

I had completely forgotten about it until we were packing everything up to fly home and I found it in some leftover shirts. Keep in mind it's 7am and we're about to leave for the airport and my luggage is at the maximum weight, so I can't store it away. Never one to let a potentially great soda go to waste I cracked it open and started to drink. Let me be straight here, no one should ever be drinking soda at 7am. I don't care if you stayed up all night on some adventure; you find water or juice to satiate your thirst. That being said, if soda was the only thing available and you were in one of those famous drink or die situations that everyone finds themselves in bi-monthly, you could do a lot worse than Premium Cola.

This is a dark, bold cola. Normally when colas branch out from the typical flavor, they do so by going the herbal route, which I enjoy but it's very different than what you expect from cola. Premium didn't do that at all. They somehow took a general cola and made it taste dark. This is kind of like what birch beer is to root beer. You know it's in the same family, but it's just stronger and more flavorful.

The Germans know how to make a cola. Of course I immediately regretted drinking it (and eating chocolate croissants) at 7am, but hell my tour/vacation was coming to an end and why not try to enjoy the last of my beverages?