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Can of Coke

Happiness, apparently, is a warm embrace. At least, for Coca-Cola, which recently installed a "Hug Machine" that dispenses cold sodas in exchange for warm hugs on the National University of Singapore campus. According to Mashable, the huggable machine is part of the soda company's "Open Happiness" project to encourage consumers to "open a Coke and share a little happiness."

The machine looks like the company's typical red-and-white vending machine, with the words "Hug Me" printed on the front. As advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather says in a statement, "Those bold enough to embrace the machine were rewarded with cans of ice-cold Coca-Cola and left with huge smiles on their faces."

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Flickr/poolie

Sugary sodas are an American tradition

Three out of five California voters would support a special tax on soda and soft drinks to fight childhood obesity, according to a new Field Poll.

New data collected as part of the Field-The California Endowment Childhood Obesity Prevention Survey found that 48% of participants cited unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise as the primary health concern facing children -- an increase from 35% in 2003.

This opinion crossed all major segments of the voter population, including voters in all parties and across all demographic and regional subdivisions, although parents with children under age 18 were among the most likely to feel this way. The researchers found that 62% of voters would support a tax on soda as one way to combat the fat-kid issue. Of that 62%, 45% support the idea "strongly."

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chelle_1278/Flickr

Diet Coke

Jean Paul Gaultier, designer of Madonna's epic cone bra, now is set to style another icon: Diet Coke. The fashion designer was just named Diet Coke's new Creative Director for Europe and, as part of his creative duties, will create limited edition Diet Coke bottles and cans. According to his statement in Coca-Cola's press release, Gaultier wants to "show people the codes and signatures I love. The bottles have the shape of a woman's body, so it was great fun to 'dress' them."

As if the idea of Gaultier anthropomorphizing a soda bottle isn't enough, he also co-stars in a trio of bizarre videos with a few marionnettes. In all three, he plays a "Serial Designer" who, invigorated by Diet Coke, "helps" the marionnettes in the midst of a fashion crisis. The outcome, however, is less What Not to Wear and somewhat more awkward, uncomfortable assaults on puppets.

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We have seen it, the promised land. The soda dispenser of the future. A machine so sleek it should be in a technology museum and so smart it can dispense more sodas than you can imagine. If you haven't tasted Peach Mello Yello or Raspberry Coke Zero, have you truly lived?

We don't normally go gaga over food-service machinery (especially when it's designed by a multinational global conglomerate peddling a product we rarely consume), but when we first spotted the Coca-Cola Freestyle with its sexy contours and previously unsipped sodas at recently opened Westwood pizzeria 800 Degrees, it blew our mind. (It also made us feel like a 45-year-old suburban dad who just discovering texting.)

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Dry Soda via Facebook

Soda + Pastry Pairing

It's not often that rounding the corner at a chain supermarket leads to New Year's drinking resolutions, but such was the case when we spotted new additions to our local Ralph's soda shelves: DRY Soda. Last we checked in with Sharelle Klaus, the Seattle-based company's founder, her line of lightly sweetened sodas in flavors like lemongrass, kumquat and juniper berry were available in limited L.A. outlets (primarily specialty wine retail shops and the occasional Whole Foods). That the company has expanded into Coca-Cola chain grocer territory is a telling sip of our growing corn syrup intolerance (DRY sodas are cane sugar based).

More interesting is why the non-alcoholic drinks were originally found in wine retail shops.

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fimoculous

Stay away from high schoolers in Boston who drink more than five cans of soda every week. A Boston-area study found that teens who consumed five or more sodas in a week had a higher tendency for violence. They were also more likely to have consumed alcohol or smoked within the month preceding the survey.

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B. Mesirow

The Soda Case at Mitsuwa

In recent years the Japanese people have displayed a radical and unique sense of style and an amazing ability to innovate and create in fields as diverse as clothing, video games, game shows, and urination technology, among others. It should come as no surprise, then, that they also have a diverse and interesting soft drink culture. On a recent visit to the excellent Japanese grocery store Mitsuwa, we picked out a number of these soft drinks to sample in an effort to discover the finest in imported Japanese sugar water. After a long and arduous study, we can reveal to you with confidence our favorite 5 Awesomely Weird Japanese Soft Drinks.

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Guzzle & Nosh

Cola Up: The soda that eats like Jell-O.

If light can be a particle and a wave, why can't cola be a liquid and a solid? Cola Up bridges the chasm between traditionalists who insist that soda should be sipped and hydrocolloidal optimists who believe anything can be slurped down in solid form.

We spotted Cola Up in the aisles of the Mitsuwa Marketplace at Centinela and Venice, home to our favorite westside ramen shop, Santouka. Cola Up comes in a squat, red, aluminum can, about two-thirds the size of a standard can of Coke. Look for the meta-logo of an impish soda bottle maniacally shaking a can of... himself.

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J. Ritz

Galco's Soda Pop Stop is a magical place. For carbonated beverage fans, the Highland Park shop is a retail marvel, an unparalleled source of sweet bubblies and even some sour pops, and everything else along the soda flavor spectrum you knew and didn't know existed. Even folks whose beverage of choice rarely strays from L.A.'s finest might find themselves heading back to the parking lot on York Avenue schlepping a couple of mixed cases and a surprisingly large charge on that month's credit card bill for stuff they hardly ever touch.

An upcoming event on Sunday, July 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. proves that it's never too late for a retro-themed enterprise to try something new. Not only will Galco's owner and local Highland Park stalwart John Nese open the doors for his first ever soda tasting event to benefit Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, but historian/slideshow presenter/master showman/writer Charles Phoenix will take on a new role as soda mocktail mixologist.

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Flickr/GoodNCrazy

They may be calorie-free, but diet sodas can still make you fat, apparently. A 10-year study by the University of Texas, San Antonio has found that diet sodas can actually make you gain weight, especially in the stomach area, the London Daily Mail reports. The beverages and the artificial sweeteners they contain may increase a craving for sweets, distort appetite and even damage brain cells, according to Professor Helen Hazuda of the university's Health Science Center.

The study, which involved nearly 500 men and women, found that even ingesting small quantities of diet soda had these effects. The results showed that the waistlines of those who consumed diet drinks expanded 70 percent faster than those who eschewed them in favor of other beverages, including regular sodas. Even more alarming, frequent users -- defined as those who drink two or more cans a day -- saw a 500 percent greater increase in girth, Hazuda told an American Diabetes Association conference audience. Consumption of diet sodas also increased blood sugar levels over time. The results remained the same even when other factors such as exercise, social class, education and smoking were factored in.

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