1.9.15 Kick-Start

As we kick-start 2015, we give some thought to how folks kick-start their day.

Almost five thousand years ago, a Chinese emperor named Shennong found a better way to wake up. He realized that if you dunk tea leaves in hot water, the resulting brew proved to be a great way to start the day. The practice spread throughout China, and it wasn’t long before the world found out. Soon tea was being traded regionally, with bricks of tea being used as a form of currency. Over time, China became almost synonymous with tea, and went on to become the world’s preeminent tea grower. Today China produces almost a million metric tons per year.

Next came coffee, heathen punk. It was discovered in Ethiopia in 600 AD, just as Islam was spreading throughout the Middle East. The plants didn’t grow well in Europe, so of course the Christians demonized coffee, and continued to do so for a thousand years. But, as soon as the Spaniards realized they could grow coffee themselves in the New World, they had a change of heart. Around 1600, Pope Clement VIII blessed the stuff.  Suddenly, coffee was hot. It soon overtook tea as the western world’s jolt of choice. Today, Brazil holds the title of “The Caffeineator” thanks to its yearly output of six billion beans worth of beans.

But we were still yawning. So in 1962, a Thai businessman developed a drink called “Krating Daeng,” which was co-opted in 1984 by an Austrian named Dietrich Mateschitz, who translated the name into “Red Bull.” Loaded with taurine – an amino acid found in ox bile – as well as buckets of sugar, a week’s worth of B vitamins, carbohydrates and caffeine, Red Bull is a real eye opener. Even the packaging is hyperbolic, claiming that Red Bull “improves performance, increases concentration and reaction speed, increases endurance and stimulates metabolism.” This must be true, because millions of adolescents are slurping the stuff by the gallon. Red Bull sales will easily top $7B this year.

Now it seems that the only people still sleeping are the US Food and Drug Administration. Outside America, selling bovine stomach acid to minors seems suspicious. Red Bull is being investigated by the Swedish National Food Administration after being linked to the death of three consumers. Red Bull marketing is restricted in Denmark, Norway, France and Iceland. The Brits won’t sell it anyone under 16, and the Finns will sell you only one can per day. But here in the U.S., you can sell and drink all you want, with no age restrictions.

We were intrigued. We were tired. We swigged a can an hour ago.

Would we have another? Not for all the tea in China.

12.6.13 The AeroCar

Born from jets, this little brand refuses to die.

It’s always been pretty quirky. Most automobiles are made in Detroit, Stuttgart or Japan; this one came from…Trollhattan? On the outside, it was all round and puffed up, which some folks found eccentric but others found just plain ugly. Instead of an uncomfortable hump down the middle of the back floor, this car offered the middle passenger equal legroom. How’d they do that?  With FRONT wheel drive! Weird!! There were curious safety features like a “roll cage” and “diagonal braking.” There was a hole that opened in the roof. Look at this, the whole back seat folds down flat.  And – what’s that? – my butt’s getting hot!  Heated seats? No way!  And what’s this funny gauge that’s sort of bolted onto the dashboard that say’s “Turbo”? And where the heck is the ignition??

All these idiosyncrasies spring from the brand’s origins; the first models were built on an airplane assembly line.  In 1949, the Swedish Airplane Corporation created the “92,” a two-cylinder automobile which featured cockpit-style seating and instrumentation.  The three-cylinder “93” arrived in 1955, followed by a wagon, the “95,” in 1959.  Also in the 50’s came the “94,” a sporty version which may be the funkiest car ever built and which came to be known as the “Sonnet.”  (Don’t ask, just look that one up.)  In 1969, the company merged with Scania Vehicle and launched the “99,” which featured a “combi coupe” body design which would come to define the brand.  This would in turn give birth to the “900” in 1978, which would eventually sell over 1 million vehicles.  At every step in this evolution, the brand remained defiantly iconoclastic, which won it the undying love its customers, but which also severely limited its appeal.

And then.  In 1989 the company foolishly aligned with General Motors, giving GM a 50% stake in the company.  This resulted in a new, more mainstream “900” in 1994 that increased sales but eroded the brand’s reputation for innovation and quality.  In 1997, on the 50^th anniversary of the brand, GM jettisoned the car’s classic styling and launched new sedan models built on Cadillac frames, and an SUV that looked like the Chevy that it was.  This led to a decade of brand erosion, the failed launch of numerous new designs, the movement of manufacturing to an old Opel plant in Germany, and then, inevitably, complete failure.  GM tried to sell the brand to seemingly every car company in the world, and then unloaded it to Spyker, a Dutch sports car manufacturer, in 2010.  But Spyker couldn’t save it either, and threw it into bankruptcy in 2011.

And just like that, Saab, the oddly awesome car created by airplane engineers, was dead.

Ah, but don’t underestimate the power of the bizarre.  You want kooky?  Try this:  a Japanese-Chinese joint venture called National Electric Vehicle Sweden.  Over the past two years, the assets of Saab were reorganized and the company given a reboot.  This week, something funny happened at that old plant in Trollhattan, Sweden.  On Monday, December 1, new Saabs started rolling off the line for the first time in years.  These first cars are throwbacks, gasoline powered models available only to a limited number of customers in Sweden.

But next will come an electric model, which will be built in Sweden, fitted out with battery technology in Japan, and then sold in China.  The design is based on a concept car first presented in 2011, which beat competitors from brands like Alfa-Romeo and Jaguar.  It integrates many traditional design elements, and features gull-wing doors reminiscent of a, um, fighter jet.

And what’s the name of this potential savior of the brand?  The Saab Phoenix.

The story isn’t finished.  Innovation and idiosyncrasy live on. The world’s strangest car just might fly again.

6.10.11 Sweet Summer

It’s celestial, revolutionary, and simply good.

Camellia sinensis came down to humans from high above.  Originally found growing on the slopes of the Himalayas, it was brought into China as a medicinal herb about 5000 years ago.  Legend has it that the emperor Shen Nung was the first to realize its most potent property, when he placed some of the leaves into a pot of boiling water.  The result was a delicious brew that was safer to drink than pure water, and which sharpened the mind while providing a calming break.

When the Portuguese reached the Celestial Empire in 1557, they took a liking to the stuff and brought some of the fresh, green leaves home to Europe.  But it didn’t travel well, so soon after the Dutch opted to buy the “black” version of the leaves – dried and oxidized leaves pressed into a handy brick – which the Chinese were happy to sell, since it was lower quality.  Within a century or two, these bricks became a kind of international currency among European trading nations.

The power of the plant was truly revealed in England and throughout its empire, when the drink replaced beer as the standard mid-afternoon break for the working class. The plant was one of the primary commodities of the world’s first publicly traded company, which was wildly profitable for over 250 years.  It became such a part of the culture that when London attempted to tax sales of the plant in the New World, American colonists rebelled and dumped several tons of it into Boston Harbor.

South Carolina was the first state to grow the stuff, but consumption was limited during the oppressive heat of summer.  In 1879, a publication called Housekeeping in Old Virginia suggested a cold version of the drink, made with a simple sugar syrup, poured over ice, with a slice of lemon.  But ice was not widely available until the invention of refrigeration.  At the 1904 World’s Fair, this cold version exploded into the national consciousness.  So sweet, so simple, so good.

It’s June, and summer has unofficially begun.  Welcome to National Sweet Tea Month.

May we suggest a sprig of mint?

8.6.10 Blue Ribbon Beer

China provides the U.S. with lots of inexpensive goods.  In return, the U.S. sells back to China many high-end luxury products.

Here’s a case in point.  If you pick up a copy of Window of the South, a highly respected bi-weekly business magazine in China, you’ll find lots of advertisements for expensive luxury products.  In the latest issue, there’s an ad inside the front cover for a delicious imported alcoholic beverage.  It shows a tall champagne flute holding a beautiful amber liquid, next to an elegant brown-and-gold bottle, standing together proudly upon an oaken cask.  The copy raves that the premium wood and craftsmanship of the casks creates the product’s wondrous color and flavor, and ends by describing it as “truly a treasure.”  Mmm, yummy.

Is it Scotch?  No.

Wine? Uh-uh!

It’s a beer.  But not just any beer, a beer with a long and distinguished tradition.  First brewed in 1844 by German immigrants, this ambrosia has won many international awards.  It was the choice of the rich and powerful for years, including Bob Hope, who famously served it in his home. It was once one of the most popular beers in America, selling as many as 15MM barrels a year.  It is synonymous with American craftsmanship.  It is, quite simply, a legend.

No wonder, then, that it is craved by the Chinese quaffing cognoscenti; in China, it is known as “Blue Ribbon 1844” and retails for $44 bucks a bottle.

But here in the States, you can buy a six-pack for about 4 bucks.

You know it as Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Mmm, yummy.