You just have to love John Nese and spend 12 great minutes with a great American businessman. As Chow.comtells it:
John Nese is the proprietor of Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lovers destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers. Galcos also acts as a distributor for restaurants and bars along the West Coast, spreading the gospel of soda made with cane sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup if John can avoid it).No high-fructose corn syrup? Yes, yes, and yes! High-fructose corn syrup is perhaps the single most invidious ingredient in super-market foods. When I scan ingredients and see it on the list that item goes back on the shelf. It's not only calories consumed to no purpose, it's calories that taste crummy.
I've been dining out lately on the incredible difference between Mexican Coke (sane cane sugar) and the swill passed off as American coke (high-fructose corn crapola). It's true and you can taste and feel the difference with one sip. As a result I am very pleased to listen to this high-priest of boutique sodas, a man who knows what he's talking about.
Here's a few choice quotes pulled from the video:
Corn syrup is totally unnecessary. Why would you use corn as the sweetener? Once a year Coca Cola makes a kosher Coke. It's got a yellow cap. Try it side by side with the regular Coke. The one with the cane sugar just goes pop! And it explodes and it's delicious., The one with the corn just goes fzzzzt.....
"Energy drinks? UGH! Energy drinks just taste bad."
"Big business loves big government. It just uses it to take over the market and then jack up prices."
"What I always wanted to do was to do business with other businesses my size."
"People still come in looking for RC Draft which was a soft cola. Very smooth."
"Coke and Pepsi love recycling. It gets them out of ever have to wash a bottle. If we really cared about the environment you'd have 're-use' and not 'recycling.'"
Re-use rather than recycling. I guess he's hip to the ever expanding glass mountains accruing at municipal garbage dumps around the nation since, surprise, it's cheaper to make glass from sand that to recycle it. Men like Nese should be in government rather than the substandard toads, right and left, that currently infest it. But then again, no. If he did we'd be out one really great soda store and that is just not worth it.
[UPDATE: Yes, Nese's Galcos Soda Pop Shop lets you buy on line for shipping to your parched home address. Check out Galco's Soda Pop Stop for details. ]
Posted by Vanderleun at October 26, 2009 1:22 PM
But Dear Leader says soda pop no good for JD...
Wants me smokem pot instead.
Gerard, God bless you for posting that clip! What a wonderful American Mr Nese is! His enthusiasm almost brought tears to my eyes, in this day and time when so many retailers/vendors could care less about their customers. I'm moved to wonder what a "pop tax" that the clowns are now considering would do to his business. (Guess there's no chance he'll open a branch up here in Rapid City.) This is why I read your site every day: you've almost always got something interesting, or (as in this case) refreshing! Now, I wonder if Mr Nese does mail order?
Posted by: dhmosquito at October 26, 2009 8:08 PMBack in the day, when pop bottles were reused, a kid could clean up the neighborhood of its abandoned bottles, AND make enough money off the bottle deposits to buy more pop. Along with some penny candy. Or a lot of candy if you were really industrious.
Posted by: Boots at October 26, 2009 8:48 PMI'm fortunate to live within driving distance of Galco's, and my family does a pilgrimage to the store about twice a year to stock up on favorites. Mr. Nese is wonderful to talk to, and he's always been in the store when we go. To anybody in So Cal, I recommend a visit to the store.
Posted by: walkercolt at October 26, 2009 10:08 PMWait for Hannukah or other Jewish holidays or find a good kosher deli. Coke makes kosher Coca Cola with real sugar. No corn syrup.
Posted by: Cargosquid at October 27, 2009 1:28 AMGerard - You continue to surprise me, on a daily basis.
I'm making up my soda order right after this note.
Posted by: BobH at October 27, 2009 8:43 AMIf there is such a pronounced difference in the taste of high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar, why doesn't Pepsi switch back and run Coke out of business? Pop made with high fructose corn syrup was extensively taste tested before the switch was made. It would be counter productive to deliberately hurt the taste of your product. Indeed, recall when Coke was reformulated, public demand caused Coke to reintroduce the original formula as Classic Coke. Fructose is fructose whether it comes from a kernel of corn or from cane sugar,or beet sugar for that matter. Your tongue can't tell the difference.
Posted by: feeblemind at October 27, 2009 9:42 AMAmen. I basically quit drinking Coke way back when when they went to fructose. I live for the yellow cap koshers. It's a completely different thing altogether.
Posted by: Velociman at October 27, 2009 10:33 AMAround 8:05 he mentions doing business directly with other businesses his size.
This is a critical idea in a truly free market economy. It struck me as precisely the grass roots free market model that transformed the economy in de Soto's Peru, where it had the happy side-effect of discrediting - and ultimately defeating - the redistributive policies of Shining Path marxism.
Posted by: goy at October 27, 2009 12:06 PMThis is why I have a voracious appetite for intelligent people discussing what is important to them, even if it doesn't seem immediately important to me. They focus on the important details in their niche, and that is a shortcut I can learn. I don't care if the person is an expert on Bolivian flaming frogs or early Greek lawn care, there will be something in that discussion that I can use now or later.
Posted by: Scott M at October 27, 2009 2:24 PMThere is no joy so complete as that of a man doing what he was put on this earth to do.
1:17 - "Thank you very much Pepsi-Cola for reminding me that I own my own shelf space and I can do any thing that I want." That is the sound of a liberated mind. This is how you can do one specific thing that people want better than anyone else does. When we all become as wise as John Nese, we'll find our own paths to nirvana.
Posted by: mezzrow at October 27, 2009 2:26 PMSorry to wander off in a tangent, but, whatever happened to New York Seltzer Water? I used to love that stuff but it just seemed to disappear. Curses.
Posted by: DS Craft at October 27, 2009 5:57 PMNo mention of Dublin (Texas) Dr. Pepper.
And there are other sugar-based drinks made in the US.
Why fructose? Something about US trade laws, I think, but I don't understand it.
Walmart has a no-sodium seltzer water--dunno how that differs from "New York".
Posted by: Larry Sheldon at October 28, 2009 1:40 PMTwo words, Larry: Corn subsidies.
Revoke those and HFCS no longer has a cost advantage.
Posted by: B. Durbin at October 28, 2009 3:25 PMI used to work just a few blocks from Galco's in the late 80's, early 90's. Then they were locally famous for their gigantic subs, among other things. I'm definitely going back up there in the near future. I gotta' try rose, cucumber, Moxie, and banana. And I haven't had a rock n' rye since I was a kid. Yummy.
JWM
Posted by: jwm at October 28, 2009 4:55 PM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.
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