"Afterall, Who Doesn't Like Instant Noodles?"

By Amir Said

The World host: "After all, who doesn't like instant noodles?"
Amir Said: "Uh, you mean aside from former habitually starving college students?"

Tang: The Cool Un-Kool Aid

By Amir Said

Tang, "the instant breakfast drink with more Vitamin C than orange juice."   That was the marketing pitch of this wildly popular American soft drink.  But for a kid growing up in the late 70s, I always thought it was a kind of special kool aid.  Tang was originally introduced by the General Foods Corporation in 1957, but it didn't gain popularity until the late 60s, when NASA astronauts started using it on manned spaceflights (a fact well marketed by General Foods).

For me, it wasn't the vitamin C pitch.  And I could've cared less if spacewalkers were drinking it or not.  No.  Tang represented something far more greater: freedom!  Tang was one of the first things that I was allowed to make on my own.  As the story goes, I was addicted to Tang.  It wasn't just a "breakfast drink" to me, it was the drink of all drinks.  I drank it all day.  It was better than orange flavored Nehi Soda, orange flavored Kool Aid, and RC Cola (all of which I was known for neutralizing on site).   So, tired of me hounding her to mix it up, (Tang required a very careful chemical mix of the orange powdered crystals and fresh water), my mother yelled back to me one late morning: "make it yourself!"  Therein began an addiction that would prove to be unbeatable... that is until the advent of Haribo gummie bears, some 10 years later.

Tang

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