I ditched a bit on work (only hurts me 'cause I'm a contractor) to go with some co-workers to Aloha Tower Marketplace to see the periphery of the Thunderbirds airshow in Waikiki. I'm guessing we missed all the really good bits from so far away, but the jets used downtown Honolulu to turn around. It was quite impressive, and there were times when it looked like they were going to plow into the skyscrapers or the docked cruise ship (which is part of the thrill - waiting for an accident to happen). At one point, one of the jets *hovered* over the roof of the large gazebo we were in, then he slowly flew past, and the jet was close enough to see the pilot. My friend Nesan had a huge grin on his face after that (clearly still a little boy at heart - and I mean that in the warmest sense).

The show went on for an hour, at which point, in the heat and humidity (me complain about 90 degree heat after living in Arizona? Shocking!!) we were all sweaty and dehydrated. Another co-worker (Darin) and I sought out refreshment. Darin took me through the bowels of a nearby skyscraper to a perky little convenience store tucked within. I had no idea it was there (and there were several restaurants as well). I was feeling, adventurous shall we say, and decided to try something new, something I had been eyeing for quite awhile - one of those, only-in-Hawaii food items.

Calpico is a "non-carbonated soft drink", "the Softer Sensation" (yikes!), with a "pure and gentle flavor". Hmm. I checked the location of manufacture. Yup. Japan. The ingredients are as follows:

• water
• high fructose corn syrup (yeah, yeah, horribly bad)
• sugar (a double dose?)
• nonfat dry milk (treated with a lactic acid culture)
• lactic acid (wow, not for the lactose intolerant)
• natural and artificial flavors (always ambiguous there)
• citric acid (a vitamin!)
• soy fiber (fiber?)
• sodium citrate

The whole shebang is 220 calories at 16 fl oz. What does it taste like you say? That's actually what Darin asked me, because although he's a long time Hawaii resident (not sure how long, but longer than me), he has never tried it. I thought it was very sugary (no surprise there), but it took me awhile to nail down the actual flavor. It was a bit orangey, but still milky. I finally decided that it tasted most like creamsicle. Which is odd when you look at the color, and it makes me wonder how much "flavor" is actually color and packaging. After I told Darin I committed a horrible faux pas and said "not the flavor you would expect from a fluid that color and consistency". Oh the shame. At least he laughed.