'True Blood' breaks out the real-world drinks

Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality is commonplace in Show Biz and The Real World.

The parade of drinks moving from fiction to reality is flowing unabated. This is the fourth time I've been able to report on such possibilities.

• The first was Pawtucket Patriot Ale from the animated TV series "Family Guy."

• The second was Booty Sweat, the energy drink created in the Ben Stiller action/comedy film "Tropical Thunder."

• The third was Slurm (motto: "It's Highly Addictive"), the official soft drink of the 31st Century, in the process of moving from the animated TV series "Futurama" to our very own dimension. Twentieth Century Fox has filed for the "Slurm" trademark which would cover (prepare yourself) "carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks; fruit drinks; fruit juices; mineral and aerated water; bottled drinking water; energy drinks; syrups and powders for making soft drinks and other beverages, namely soft drinks, fruit drinks and tea; coffee-flavored soft drinks; Ramune (Japanese soda pops); powders used in the preparation of isotonic sports drinks and sports beverages."

And, now, courtesy of HBO's latest pop cultural hit "True Blood," comes. ... well, Tru Blood.

In the show it's a synthetic blood replacement vampires can use to avoid wasting humans. In the real world, it is a blood orange (of course) carbonated drink in a bottle that is identical to the one used in the Sunday night TV series.

A few suggested recipes for using it:

• The Fangbanger: Tru Blood and vodka.

• Death On the Beach: Tru Blood, peach schnapps, pineapple juice and vodka.

• Plasmapolitan: Tru Blood, Citron, Cointreau and fresh lime juice.

It is packaged in a four-pack, carrying a suggested retail price of $16. Tru Blood will hit the market on September 10. You can pre-order it online at HBO Shop.

The new product was unveiled at ComicCon, the annual convention that draws fans of sci-fi, fantasy and the like from every segment of society. You can see the video of the intro below:



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Water bottlers pushed for label disclosure

• From the Associated Press

Consumers know less about the water they pay dearly for in bottles than what they can drink almost for free from the tap because the two are regulated differently, congressional investigators and nonprofit researchers say in new reports.

Both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit research and advocacy organization, recommend in reports released Wednesday that bottled water be labeled with the same level of information municipal water providers must disclose.

The researchers urged Americans to make bottled water "a distant second choice" to filtered tap water because there isn't enough information about bottled water. The working group recommends purifying tap water with a commercial filter, however.

[Go here for the full story.]

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