<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<item>
  <id>11930</id>
  <title>World of Warcraft&#8211;Flavored Soda</title>
  <published_at>Fri Oct 23 15:55:00 -0700 2009</published_at>
  <link>http://www.chow.com/stories/11930</link>
  <pubDate>Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:55:00 GMT</pubDate>
  <short_description>A beverage for gamers</short_description>
  <long_description>This week's mission: a beverage for gamers.</long_description>
  <img>http://www.chow.com/assets/2009/10/supertaster_wowdew_inline.jpg</img>
  <author>James Norton</author>
  <category>
    <id>88</id>
    <name>Supertaster</name>
  </category>
  <pages>
    <page>
      <page_number>1</page_number>
      <content>
        <![CDATA[<p>When did we become a culture that needs food explicitly matched up to the activities we undertake on a daily basis? There are special bars to eat if you&#8217;re a runner, a special powder to mix into your food if you&#8217;re a weightlifter, and this year—in a truly perverse development—a limited-edition specially flavored Mountain Dew to drink if you&#8217;re one of the more than 11 million people who play World of Warcraft.</p>


	<p>(If you&#8217;ve been living in a remote bomb shelter for the past 10 years—lucky you, in some ways—here&#8217;s the deal: Our president is a black man from Hawaii named Barack Hussein Obama, and WoW is a &#8220;massively multiplayer&#8221; online gaming experience that has redefined online socializing, pushed gaming benchmarks hundreds of yards farther down the field, and busted up countless already unstable marriages.)</p>


	<p>Game Fuel comes in two varieties: Citrus Cherry and Wild Fruit. The former is a road-hazard-orange color and smells almost exactly like Tahitian Treat (if you haven&#8217;t tried that relatively obscure soda, just think Hawaiian Punch + sugar + carbonation + more sugar). To be fair, there is also a mandarin-orange-like aftertaste that is rather pleasant. Wild Fruit is some sort of blueberry-meets-raspberry-meets-cotton-candy thing, and is a color of blue so ungodly that it should be exorcised.</p>


	<p>All things considered, neither flavor has the purity and focus of conventional Mountain Dew. So take note: Whether you&#8217;re slaying Gruul the Dragonkiller or challenging the denizens of the Temple of Ahn&#8217;Qiraj, you&#8217;d be better off with regular Dew—or maybe just a cup of good old coffee.</p>]]>
      </content>
    </page>
  </pages>
  <tags>
    <tag>
      <id>32358</id>
      <name>online game</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>32359</id>
      <name>virtual world</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>32360</id>
      <name>virtual reality</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>35</id>
      <name>supermarket</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>15764</id>
      <name>mass market</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>29776</id>
      <name>packaged</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>1</id>
      <name>chow</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>19819</id>
      <name>product tasting</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>9308</id>
      <name>packaged goods</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>85</id>
      <name>soda</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>21088</id>
      <name>soft drink</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>7554</id>
      <name>energy drink</name>
    </tag>
    <tag>
      <id>21549</id>
      <name>pepsico</name>
    </tag>
  </tags>
</item>
