hi. recently i've been reading for a folklore class Patricia Turner's _I Heard it Through the Grapevine_, which is about rumors in African-American culture. one of the rumors she focuses on concerns Tropical Fantasy, which was said back in the early 1990s to contain an ingredient that made black men sterile (a rumor that has since been discredited). the impression i got from turner's description of TF was that it had a limited distribution--that it was sold only up north, and only in small grocers. however, another part of her description--that TF was cheap and came in large, 20 oz. bottles (compared to more expensive namebrand sodas that came in 16 oz. bottles)--suddenly tripped some kind of mental wire for me. i seem to recall drinking tropical fantasy once, back in 1996. where i grew up (central texas) there was a small ma-and-pa grocer out in the middle of nowhere, basically, that had an astounding variety of hard-to-find and novelty sodas. i remember once purchasing some kind of tropical something or other beverage that came in a 20 oz. bottle, and which was bright blue-colored but that tasted like cherries. i think it might have been tropical fantasy, but i'm not sure. i've scoured the internet for pictures or descriptions, but so far have been unable to find any information that would confirm or discredit my suspicion. i'm curious not because i'm afraid of sterilization, but simply because that blue cherry soda i had back in 1996 was maybe the best soda i ever had in my life. again, if i remember correctly the soda was blue, and the label on the bottle was red and yellow. any information or leads would be greatly appreciated...thanks.

I thought that rumor was about Snapple having an ingredient that made black men sterile. I remember reading about that on some urban legend website.

Ok I can help fill in the blanks here that product was widly found in the New York City area during the 90's and had many flavors there was a blue one that very well could have been what you had

You guys are correct. It is a product made by Brooklyn Bottling Group. It has rebounded since that ridiculous rumor and does very well (especially in urban markets).

Inko

For a while they had it out here in Los Angeles and it was very inexpensive; under ten bucks a case. I think that rumor had been about Snapple as well, but I know that they were marketing that brand to the inner city; they sent some pushy big burly Russian guy to L.A. to launch Best Health's, Tropical Fantasy, etc and I recall that I was just starting in the biz and the riots had just occurred here and this guy was spouting off all sorts of obnoxious stuff and at one point we were driving down Slauson Ave where a bunch of places had been burned out and this guy was talking about demographics and he said "You see,... dis is de Tropical Fantasy Territory. De Bist Khelt vil sell in Biverly Khilz".

Anyway, I don't think the brand will make anyone sterile... but no matter what color you are, 20oz of that stuff will make you bloated; it is so sweet and artificial!! And yes I drank that blue version as well; I think it was a Blue Raspberry flavor.

Actually there are a bunch of blue sodas out and perhaps the best one is Jack Black's Blue Cream Soda but it's a blue cream and not a Blue Raspberry. The Cool Mountain Blue Razz is pretty good but once again, you gotta like the sweet stuff.

Brooklyn Bottling also makes a Kola Champagne drink that tastes kind of like a sugar cane syrup soda; actually it is similar to Salvadoran soda although the recipe comes from Jamaica. It is very sweet but it has a very nice flavor. Here in LA there is a Salvadoran brand called Kolashampan and it is pretty good!

Tropical Fantasy is made by Eric Millers Brooklyn Bottling both in NYC and Miami. Brooklyn Bottling has a division called World Foods/Iberia Foods and they specialize in ethnic drinks and foods. Great products and great prices.

It's the one soda I spit out on a train station platform. I believe it was watermelon flavor.

thye have this stuff at big lots now. Its Pineapple orange flavor. Tastes pretty good and only 60 cents. It says only a buck on the can lol.



almostr looks like that except the can is orange instead of red.