Soda Pope
Winston Churchill made no secret of his
love of brandy and cigars; Margaret Thatcher was bereft without her
handbag, and Pope Benedict XVI, I can reveal, has Fanta.
When the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, visited the Vatican this
week, he gave the Holy See a case of Holy Grail beer, brewed in North
Yorkshire. The Pope, however, opted instead for the orange stuff.
"He doesn't normally drink," Catholic priest Fr Tim Finigan tells Spy.
"He prefers Fanta. I'm not really sure why, perhaps because it was
originally created in Germany."
And what does Fanta make of its most famous customer?
"We're very flattered," says a spokesman for Coca-Cola, which produces
the fizzy drink.
So might the Pope be fronting its next campaign? "I don't think so," he
adds. "He's not quite right for our target audience."
Well the Pope is right for all target audiences, but I don't think we want to see him with Fantanas saying "Don't You Wanta Fanta? "
Fr. Finigan who was quoted maintains an excellent blog here.
Known as 
Not so fast, Jeff! Pope Leo XIII was a fan of Mariani Wine which was a wine with coca leaves (cocaine) thought to have health benefits and his picture was used in ads.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Mariani_pope.jpg
It'd be good extra revenue for the Holy See--they could save more parishes and schools.
"Don't ya wanta be a santa?"
Fanta? The pope drinks Fanta? I had no idea the Holy Father was so down-market in his tastes regarding soft drinks. Maybe he wants to show solidarity with the poor and the opressed, or something. It's been years since I've had any, but as I recall, the stuff tastes like orange-flavored battery acid.
This brings back a lot of memories. When I was a kid, I prenteded to celebrate Mass with flattened bread for my hosts and Fanta grape for wine.
I heard a rumor that he also smokes red-pack Marlboros which of course would send anti's into apoplexy, but I've never seen confirmation of this.
"It's been years since I've had any, but as I recall, the stuff tastes like orange-flavored battery acid."
In America, the stuff is admittedly not so good. But for whatever reason, when you go to Germany, it's a whole heck of a lot better (speaking from personal experience). Maybe it's b/c they don't use high fructose corn syrup there or something, but it really does taste different.
European Fanta is superior to the junk they sell us in the USA. Over there, it is more natural in color and flavor to carbonated orange juice, with a distinctive tang. Over here, it is sickening sweet and bright orange (you can imagine the food dyes used to color it.)
Italy has a similar beverage to European Fanta, called Aranciata, which you can buy in the States.
Not Coca-Cola's target audience? A man who attracts 200,000 people (mostly young) for a Sunday afternoon in January? The marketing chaps appear to have taken their eye off the ball! Maybe they're suffering from the same delusions of "relevance to young people's lives" as the Bishops who are so very attached to the 1960s...
The media would exploit the fact and make an issue of it, even if the Holy Father only had one Fanta in his life.
It has been my experience that Fanta in the US is nasty. Fanta in Europe (France/Germany/Italy) is good. Fanta is Poland is great. Apparently they don't make them all the same. The "orange" Fanta in Poland tastes more like tangerine soda and the "orange" in the rest of Europe tastes like orange soda. I seem to have blotted memories of American Fanta from my brain.
Yes Fr Tim is our super Priest blogger!
Haha, looking at Fr. Finigan's blog, it appears the whole thing was made up. He was never interviewed. Proof you can't believe everything you read.
PerpetualMalcontent,
Wonder bread? It had to be Wonder. Awful for eating, but it squished just right for make-believe hosts.
Euro Fanta is great,USA Fanta is not. We buy it at Bobak's whenever we're in Chicagoland.
Fr Tim Finigan was interviewed for the Spy column in the Telegraph... just not for the Scots "Daily Record"... (It was the latter publication which fabricated the interview fisked by Fr Tim!)
As long as he isn't over indulging - more power to him. Which really is worse - beer/wine or Fanta? :-D Yes, Fanta of Europe is a very good thing - made with cane sugar and NOT corn syrup which is pumped into almost everything made in America!
You guys have to understand that German Fanta tastes different than Fanta in America! I mean in Germany Fanta is THE soda. They have about 20 different flavors and Fanta and Coke are the only two sodas available over there. Fanta is really good over in Germany, here they put too much syrup in the fountain and it just makes you feel thirsty, but over there it is just right.
My sister and I went over there for 6 weeks and we basically drank only Fanta. Over here in the US I would never drink Fanta because it is gross.
Re: Mariani Wine. "Coca leaves" does not really equal cocaine. You really have to process the heck out of a LOT of coca leaves to extract quality cocaine (I took an entire semester on the drug trade as an undergrad -- quite informative). I have also spent time in the Peruvian Andes, where coca leaf chewing and coca tea is common (they give it to most tourists to ameliorate "sorroche" (altitude sickness). and have gone native. It's got a little bit of a zing/numbing effect, but hardly anything worth writing home about.
Of course, if they put in a strong coca leaf extract in the wine, then we're talking a REAL serious drink.