Junk Food Nation, MARCH MADNESS IS HERE (almost). I mean, it’s BASICALLY here. Selection Sunday is in two days, and everyone is getting ready to fill out office brackets, friend brackets, brackets online…IT’S HAPPENING, PEOPLE. It’s here.

I know you fill out these brackets every year, Junk Food Nation. Don’t pretend you don’t. You know who you are: the guy who picks only the schools he’s heard of to win each matchup. The girl who picks games based on which mascots would beat other mascots (“Bears totally beat Eagles, right?”). The dude who always picks the higher seed in every single game. I’M STILL BITTER THAT WORKED IN 2008, TOMMY!

One of THESE DINGBATS always wins the office pool each year, don’t they! It drives me bonkers. I mean, if my office did a pool. Which it doesn’t…I just go around collecting $10 from everyone for a separate reason. Right…but still, WTH. I have watched a TON of conference plays games now, and I’m STILL not going to win any pools this year. I can feel it. Grumble.

Anyways, I’ve had random readers ask to play fantasy sports against me; some bloggers have suggested a food blogger fantasy football league. So now, with the Big Dance finally approaching, I figured: Why not have a Junk Food Nation Pool? I’ll open it up to the public, you all can join, and try to beat ME (and each other) for bragging rights. Which one of you junk food crazies is the most knowledgeable college basketball JunkFoodGuy.com reader out there?

AND, to make it more interesting – I’ll throw in a prize. Whoever wins the entire bracket, gets the most points in the pool, takes home the whole enchilada, etc. will get a prize mailed from me to you. I don’t know what the prize is yet. But I promise it’ll be good.

Sound good? Good.

Here are the details:

1. To join The Junk Food Nation Pool, click here. The pool ID# is 47687.

2. Create your bracket entry.

3. Once Selection Sunday is over, DON’T FORGET TO MAKE YOUR PICKS before the tournament gets rolling. Per the Yahoo rules, “You have until sometime prior to the published tip-off time of the first 2015 Tournament game on Thursday, March 19, 2015 (the “Entry Deadline”) to create your Entry Bracket(s), complete your Picks…” So there you go.

4. JFG RULE: Whoever wins, you HAVE to email me at Junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com. Everyone uses fake email addresses on Yahoo or they just hide their email address entirely, so I’m not gonna go hunting you down. You were the genius who picked Gonzaga to go all the way and they did? You are therefore smart enough to email me.

5. JFG RULE: If you’re a frequent Tweet-er, commenter, etc., try to make your entry name something I would recognize –  your Twitter handle, or the nickname you use for commenting. Or make your bracket name your favorite junk food and city you’re in. “Kansas City Doritos!” Heh. I’d love to see that.

6. JFG RULE: US ONLY. Yeah, I know – I’m pulling this move again. Sorry Canada peeps, UK-ers, etc. But (1) you probably couldn’t care less about March madness and (2) if I’m mailing you a swag bag bundle of amazing, I’m not paying international rates.

7. ONE LAST RULE: I may amend something here or there in case I forgot anything. I reserve the right to do whatever the heck I want!

So we good? GO NOW AND SIGN UP. I’m already there, chumps.

Today’s junk food: Limited Time Offer Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale!!

I posted about this Limited Time Offer Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale on Instagram a couple days ago, and swung back by the store to pick it up. Now, I LOVE Ginger Ale, but you’ll notice I don’t blog a lot about drinks on this blog. A couple reason – first, there are a bunch of blogs out there DEDICATED to soda, and second, I really don’t drink soda all that often. For as much junk food as I eat, I actually drink more things like smoothies or sparkling water. SHOCKING I KNOW. Try to calm yourselves.

Limited Time Offer Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale actually has “Limited Time Offer” emblazoned on the wrapping. What the heck does this mean? This isn’t a cell phone plan. Why is this not Limited Edition? Limited Time Offer? Then what….the Blackberry disappears, and the drink turns into REGULAR Ginger Ale because I was too late?

Limited Time Offer Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale contains natural flavors and apparently a horrible misuse of the justify-paragraph function. When I cracked open the bottle and smelled – I didn’t catch anything overwhelmingly blackberry. And I LOVE blackberries, so I am quite tuned in to how they taste – tart, sweet, sour, the whole shebang. This just smelled…slightly grape-y? Hm.

I took a large gulp of this Limited Time Offer Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale, and I’ll say this – it WAS very refreshing! But blackberry…..I mean, I guess? Here’s the thing…the soda definitely still tasted like ginger ale; the finishing taste and aftertaste were distinctly ginger-y. Standard Canada Dry stuff.

But the first taste, the fruity taste was….well, it was just that. Fruity. Definitely a berry taste (despite the smell, it didn’t TASTE like grape at all). Instead, it was a nice light berry flavor that tasted VERY good, was sweet, and paired nicely with the ginger ale. But that was it. There was no real burst of tartness and no real club-me-over-the-head reminder that screamed YES THIS IS BLACKBERRY.

While that fell short, this still was a VERY tasty, VERY refreshing, VERY drinkable berry-flavored ginger ale that I enjoyed immensely. If you can find it, drink it.Why not?

PURCHASED AT: Giant Grocery, Van Ness, DC

COST: $1! ONE DOLLAR!

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy