A bad name for a donut

[Fresser]

I stopped at Dunkie Donuts the other morning for my morning coffee and saw an advertisement for their latest concoction: the Berry Berry donut. Not being fully caffeinated yet (but typically sardonic), I thought to myself: Wonderful. A donut that causes thiamine deficiency.

A quick search on Google revealed that the thiamine-related disease is actually spelled beriberi--hardly settling for nutritionists who spy this sign on their morning coffee jaunts. Sininster semantics aside, I have to wonder how this blooper made its way past the Dunkie marketing department. There must be others out there...

[Milagai]

Wonder how many people are even aware of beriberi,

in this age of fortified foods....

We had to learn about it in middle school somewhere:

vitamins, and deficiency diseases (rickets, night blindness, etc.)

A different blooper I saw years ago in a neighborhood

coffee shop in Berkeley; (just before the era of

Starbucks etc. sort of universalized the names of

different versions of coffee). This shop had several

Italian sounding coffee names

and thought this sounded cool I guess:

Cafe Borgia

Did it come with a shot of poison?

The disaffected youth behind the counter had

no idea what the name meant......

Milagai

[jumanggy]

Hee! Actually it's beriberi I have a problem with! (a quick trip to the dictionary tells me that beri is Sinhalese for weakness. Ah.) It doesn't sound like a disease if you pause appropriately between the 2 Berry's, so I'll give Dunkin a pass. At least they didn't name it Scurvy Donut or Pellagra Donut.

[Marky Marc]

At least they didn't name it Scurvy Donut.

←

Why don't they and joint advertise with the producers of the new Pirates Of The Carribean flick?

If I were 13 I would be all about the scurvy donut............ or a brand of cigarettes called Tumors, for that matter.

[Carrot Top]

Actually, Fresser, it always used to give me pause when going to eat at Chock Full O' Nuts.

The chain has closed but I do believe the coffee is still available.

[madrigal]

Actually, Fresser, it always used to give me pause when going to eat at Chock Full O' Nuts.

The chain has closed but I do believe the coffee is still available.

←

Right you are. I haven't seen the CFON coffee beans in a while, but the yellow and black cans are still available.

madrigal

first post

[Fresser]

A different blooper I saw years ago in a neighborhood

coffee shop in Berkeley...This shop had several

Italian-sounding coffee names and thought this sounded cool I guess:

Cafe Borgia

Did it come with a shot of poison? 

The disaffected youth behind the counter had

no idea what the name meant......

←

Color me clueless, Milagai--I too have no idea what this means.

There is a Cafe Borgia in the south Chicago suburbs that serves wonderful Italian food.

[jgm]

For a brief moment, there was a restaurant here called "Coli." Supposedly it was pronounced SO-lee, but that's not what people saw. And that's not where people went.

[MaxH]

...shop had several Italian sounding coffee names and thought this sounded cool I guess:

Cafe Borgia

Did it come with a shot of poison?

You joke, but there was a related thread many years ago on an early Internet food forum. Maybe I can dig it up, but I remember what I posted: At the time (late 1980s?) there was a fashion for naming food-related institutions "Cinnabar." The color of the mineral, or just the word, was fashionable. But Cinnabar is an ore of Mercury (important in mining), poisonous and associated with nervous system damage, convulsions, etc. Appetizing associations for a restaurant or café ... I think that's an example of pure "concept."

[Catriona]

There's an apartment devevelopment in London (in Wapping) called Cinnabar Wharf, I used to laugh at it every time I passed it... Wasn't planning on buying one of those!

[insomniac]

just noticed the thread on Pichet Ong's new resto in NY called P*ong...that name wouldn't get off the starting blocks in Oz ....

[Milagai]

A different blooper I saw years ago in a neighborhood

coffee shop in Berkeley...This shop had several

Italian-sounding coffee names and thought this sounded cool I guess:

Cafe Borgia

Did it come with a shot of poison?  

The disaffected youth behind the counter had

no idea what the name meant......

←

Color me clueless, Milagai--I too have no idea what this means.

There is a Cafe Borgia in the south Chicago suburbs that serves wonderful Italian food.

←

The Borgia Popes (Renaissance period) were the most notorious,

making their name a byword for debasement and debauchery.

The first one, Alexander, set the standard, he and his four

illegetimate children (including Lucrezia and Cesare) committed almost

the entire gamut of crimes to enrich

themselves: murder, looting, incest etc etc and almost plunged

Italy into war.

Poisoning really seems to have been their thing

(arsenic , "cantarella", etc.)

They were in/famous for bumping off their

opponents by offering them glasses of wine in a special golden cup

that when you pressed a jewel, released a little opening

that emptied poison into the drink;

or handshakes with a ring that cut the other person's hand

and poisoned them that way, etc.

Alexander himself died supposedly poisoned by his

son by accident by wine intended for someone else;

but Alexander and son both drank it. Father died,

son survived.

Even if some details fake, their historical record

is incredibly lurid:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI

So yes, I would not be inclined to accept a drink labeled

"Cafe Borgia" or dine in a restaurant of that name...

Milagai

Edited April 20, 2007 by Milagai (log)