The times they are a-changing

They changed the Jolt packaging. Take a look. Now, I'm a purist in most respects, so I'm not sure if I like this. I don't see anything wrong with a simple bottle, and I think all this energy drink marketing stuff is kinda stupid. Sure you want people to know your drink will pep them up, but is shaping the can like a big battery really the only way to do that?

I don't even consider Jolt to be an energy drink. It's a cola with a lot of caffeine in it. If that makes it an energy drink, then coffee is an energy drink. You don't see coffee being sold in battery-shaped cans covered with lightning bolts.

Maybe one reason I'm opposed to this change is because Jolt holds a special place in my heart. (Geek Alarm) Way back when I first started going to LAN parties, our drink of choice was Jolt. At that time, the only place in the area that sold it was Becker's in Vankleek Hill. We'd drop in there, buy their entire supply if they had any in stock, and over the next 24 hours we'd consume it all. Soon enough a friend's parents' store started selling it at his insistance, and we took our business there for everything.

After that, we wouldn't get as many bottles as we used to. There were more people at each LAN, so we had to divide the supplies up so everyone got some. Normally this would result in each person getting maybe 3 or 4 bottles for the entire LAN, sometimes less. I don't think we ever fought over it, but if we did it wouldn't surprise me.

Eventually the need to have it passed. We managed to get by on regular drinks and coffee, with only the occassional Jolt to supplement the other drinks. Soon we didn't even need the supplement, and I stopped buying Jolt completely.

So what does all that have to do with changing the packaging? Admittedly not a lot, except for the desire to not see something you once loved get changed beyond recognition. To me, Jolt is a 600 mL bottle with a black and red label, the word "Jolt" with a lightning bolt through the O, and a small graphic comparing the caffeine content to a cup of coffee.

I know the drink will remain the same even though the package changes, and there's no stopping the march of progress. I still have my memories, but soon what I used to treasure more than gold will be but a footnote in memory.

This won't be the first memory to be lost to history, but it's the first that I can watch happening. It shouldn't upset me this much, but for some reason it does.