In the UK, Coca-Cola is bottling its soda in unique bottles in honor of the World Cup. Instead of the usual decorated bottle caps or customized labels, the bottles are round, like miniature soccer balls. They hold 250ml, or about 8-ounces of liquid, and are available in both regular and diet. Of course, now that England is out of the Cup, there's no telling how long they'll remain on store shelves.

Since the packaging plant has been outfitted with new equipment to handle the special bottles, it is possible that more special-edition bottles will be released in the future, for Coke and its other brands, like Fanta.

 

The German beer supply is in danger as a result of British World Cup fans' unquenchable thirst. According to a recent article in The Mirror, the 70,000 England fans visiting Nuremberg drank about 17 pints each-roughly 1.2 million in all. One calculation put that at 200 pints per minute. "The hardest thing for the breweries is keeping up with the thirst of the English," said one brewery spokesman. I'm a little curious about how they attribute beer sales to certain groups of fans. Sure, a beer vendor can say, "Wow, the people in the ___ jerseys were sure poundin' em'," but how do you pin large figures on one group? Surely those vendors must have been selling to other fans as well. Nevertheless, there are the personal accounts. "Never have I seen so many drink so much in such little time," said one bartender. As Andrew noted, his people are a hungry bunch, too.

[Via Fark]

As the number of teams in the World Cup narrows, the anticipation to see who will win is growing, as is the desire of the players to win the World Cup for their country. If you're not on one of the advancing teams (and odds are good that you're not if you have the time to read this right now), the only way you're going to get your hands on a World Cup is if you buy a chocolate one. Shown with the creator/chocolatier, the chocolate World Cup is made of both milk and dark chocolates and weighs more than 5kg. It is hand-sculpted and covered in edible gold dust for an authentic and tasty look.

The base price for the trophy is £75, but that only includes shipping within the UK. If you're in Europe, the cost with shipping will be £100, and a whopping £125 ($227) to the US.

At least it's less expensive than the real thing!

 

Supermarkets and offices are going all out to grab a slice of the estimated £1.25 billion World Cup beer market.

There are innumerable money saving deals on all major beer and lager brands in Tesco, Asda Wal-Mart, Sainsburys and Morrison's, sparking a price war that the retailers hope will encourage consumers to stay away from pubs and drink at home. There has also been a marked uplift in wide-screen and high-definition TVs.

The country's second largest grocer Asda is offering a 20-can pack of Stella Artois, Carlsberg, Fosters, Kronenbourg or Budweiser for £9.98, a discount of £4 on the usual retail price. Two packs are even cheaper at £16, with each can costing just 40p each.

In another World Cup tie-in, Asda has launched a range of World Cup crisps, debuting flavors like French Garlic Frogs' Legs, German Sausage, British Vindaloo and Brazilian Salsa to capture fans' attention.

 

I like this cake on multiple levels. First of all, it perfectly fits in with the fact that the 2006 FIFA World Cup is going on this right now and even has the pattern of the official Adidas Teamgeist match ball down perfectly. When the cake was presented to its intended recipient, after being made by special request , it included tickets to the finals, as well! The cake was posted at Food Chronicles, who actually fulfilled the cake order. She did a beautiful job recreating the suitcase and ball. The only thing that would be better than looking at the cake - besides the US making it into the finals - is getting to taste it. Although I can't say that I'd mind getting a pair of finals tickets, either.

The first English match of the World Cup apparently brought a mad panic to the shops before an eerily quiet couple of hours while the (frankly, lackluster) game was played.

For those outside the US the only topic of conversation - apart from me boring the pants off everyone about Italy - is of course the world cup. Marketeers have jumped on the band-wagon like never before.

For example how about a World Cup Beer Balloon; a product you never knew you needed. The marvelous Beer Balloon holds and dispenses 6 pints of your chosen beverage be that beer, a cocktail (Oh, yah, lets have a World Cup Cocktail Party Tarquin) or soft drink. Unsurprisingly it has a football shaped 3 litre reservoir slotted into the base and can be rotated 360 degrees - Lazy-Susan style - so that everyone gets a go! Quality long-lasting stuff too being made from high density food grade plastic (PET) and has an inbuilt and removable ice container keeping your beer or favourite beverage perfectly chilled.

Cost is £29.99 on Ebay only.

The world cup starts today with Poland (hurrah) v Ecuador and Germany v Costa Rica.

 

 

If you're a football (soccer) fan, chances are that you've been watching the World Cup qualifiers and can't wait for the finals to begin in June. To support your favorite team and show your enthusiasm for the sport, check out the Football Bowl from Mixko. It is an earthenware bowl cast from a deflated football, giving it an authentic look without that rubber/leather smell that would result from trying to use a real football as a bowl. It's a great way to serve chips or other munchies during the game. The bowls are £50 each, but that's still a lot cheaper than flying to Germany to watch the games live.

 

Those lucky enough to be in Germany for the World Cup next month will no doubt want to sample that country's traditional food and drink. With that, ahem, goal in mind The Guardian published a guide to the 12 cities that will play host to the tournament.

In addition to general descriptions of the cities, "halftime snacks" are listed for each. After watching the first match in Hamburg, the paper recommends ending a night of clubbing with a vist to the Fischmarkt in St. Pauli at 5AM for some smoked eel and Alsterwasser (a mixture of beer and lemonade). Moving on to Berlin the pick is Moroccan restaurants, which are all the rage, and, of course the city's famous currywurst.

I won't be anywhere near Stuttgart for the sixth match but the brezen, buttered pretzels filled with salami or cheese, sound mighty tasty. The local specialties of Kaiserslauten (match seven) are slightly less mouthwatering. Anyone for saumagen, pig's stomach filled with potatoes, or pferdwurst, horsemeat sausages? Hanover, host to the last match, has something I'd love to try, however. The Pfannkuchenhaus (Calenberger Strasse), serves up pancakes baked over an open fire with solid maple syrup. IHOP menu planners take heed!

[image: Football.co.uk]

Despite the fact that McDonalds has been receiving an extra-large serving of criticism recently, it hasn’t discouraged the company from doing what it does best: making burgers. While some customers turn away, others still look for size and value in their fast food and the new Bigger Big Mac, due to be released soon in the UK, will give them both. The burger is a full 40% larger than the regular Big Mac and, base on that, can be expected to pack at least 700 calories. It is a limited edition burger that is being targeted at football fans, so the release coincides with the 2006 World Cup. Spain and Germany are also likely to see the release of this bigger Mac.

[Image MegaStar]

Budweiser is official beer of World Cup, the most internationally watched sporting event in the world. They bought the rights for the 2002 and 2006 games for about $80 million in 1998 - before they knew where those games were to be hosted. The problem is that this year's World Cup is hosted by Germany and Germans don't like Budweiser.

For Germans, beer and football (soccer, for the Americans) go hand in hand and Germans are some of the biggest beer drinkers in the world - with many outstanding brews coming from their own country. The prospect of having to drink only Budweiser at the games was something of a slap in the face to German brewers. One fan, cited the Wall Street Journal, even said "This is just the worst beer you could imagine." Bad publicity poured from fans and the press. And to make matters worse, the beer had to be sold as "Anheuser Busch Bud" because of a legal battle over the Budweiser name rights with a Czech brewer that makes "Budweis" beer.

With the prospect of millions of potential beer drinkers, both in stadiums and at home, Budweiser knew they had to do something. Fast.