Behold!

My new favorite beverage, discovered by yours truly today. Wednesday is my day off and I usually enjoy it by going into town and trying somewhere new for lunch or coffee. One of my favorite haunts is a place called Deluxe Cafe. I may have mentioned it before, but they have the best food of any cafe in town I've sampled thus far.

It was there that I was first introduced to a New Zealand soft drink company called Foxton Fizz. Their cola tastes great and doesn't have the acidic afterburn that Coke seems to give sometimes, particularly when drank from the bottle. So whenever I head to Deluxe and don't get one of their coffees (also one of the best in town), I'll get a Foxton Fizz. I like it better than Coke and plus I like to support NZ businesses as much as I can while I'm here.

Today I tried out a new cafe called The Lido Bar & Cafe, down on Victoria Street in Wellington. It's gotten good reviews in two of my travel guides and I've meant to check it out since I've been up here. It is too easy to fall into a routine and just go to the same places over and over again - especially when they're good, like Deluxe is - but I force myself to try somewhere new on a regular basis or else I'll miss out on all these great things down here.

Lido was a great experience today. Even though it's nearing the first day of summer (!), today was rather cold and windy - jacket weather. So when I heard that the soup of the day was a tomato basil with bacon, I jumped at it. I asked the waiter if they had any Foxton Fizz, and he seemed perplexed and then surprised as he realized there was a soft drink made in nearby Foxton! He then brought me a drink menu, and though I didn't see the Fizz I did spy another choice that wasn't Coke or Pepsi: Phoenix Cola.

I asked for a Phoenix and he said "Ah, great choice," so I knew I was in for something good.

As an aside, I should say that one of my favorite things to eat is honey. I've really grown to like it more and more these past few years, and I think it all started when I went to my first state fair in Virginia back in the late '90s. There was so much farm produce there, and one of the things I found most intriguing was the beekeeping industry and the honey market.

Honey in the States is a failing market, mainly due to the infestation of the terrible varroa bee mite, so we lose a lot of business to imported honey that is cheaper. Not wanting to let such a cool industry dwindle, I took it upon myself there and then to start being a regular consumer of honey so I bought a couple bottles and have been using the stuff whenever I can ever since. I always buy domestic USA honey, too.

It's gotten to be a little silly, really, as I'm now like one of those people for whom ketchup goes with everything. Except for me, instead of putting ketchup on everything I'll use honey. I don't use it in any novel, groundbreaking sort of ways, I just have made it a habit. I'll put it in oatmeal, cereal, my tea, on a sandwich with peanut butter (a favorite), cook ham with it, things like that. Every now and then I'll get a big gob of it out of the jar with a spoon and just have that, but don't worry, I'm not one of those gross 'double dippers'!

So imagine my pleasant surprise when the Phoenix Cola arrived and I found out that it was made with honey! It is a great taste combination. If you know me well, you'll know that I had a terrible addiction to Vanilla Coke while back in the States. I have only found it once over here so I haven't kept up that bad habit. But I have to tell you that, in one fell swoop (swig?), Phoenix's Honey Cola has replaced Vanilla Coke as my all-time favorite soft drink! The sweet honey takes away some of the bite of the cola, and it's a smooth and mellow and great-tasting drink.

I hit Woolworth's tonight after swimming and bought a bunch of bottles. As soon as they're cold enough, I'll be cracking another one open.