Socko is made right here in the Valley, at Bliss Beverages on Scottsdale Road. The company, founded five years ago by 32 year-old Jordan Harwood, has been fairly successful in its short existence, teaming up with World Wrestling Entertainment to produce the Hulk Energy drink, and raking in an estimated $4 million a year in profits. The upstart company took off so quickly that Harwood was profiled in Forbes just a year after founding it.

Alas, the G&D doesn’t have black pudding on its menu anymore. Like haggis, this is one ethnic meat dish that nobody in Phoenix seems to serve. So after perusing the “traditional fare” section of George & Dragon’s menu, we went with the Steak & Kidney Pie.

The first time I ever made coffee in my life, I almost killed somebody. It was my sophomore year in high school, and I was the “singer” in a punk/metal band called Legion of the Dead. The guitarist asked me to make coffee at practice one day, and, never having made coffee and with no frame of reference, I filled the coffee filter to the hilt with coffee grounds. The guitarist took one sip of the black brew and gasped. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

When I heard about Schreiner’s Fine Sausage — a family-owned business that’s provided Phoenix with fine meats since 1955 — I was ecstatic. As I approached the unassuming red-and-white building with retro-looking signs on Seventh Street, I felt like I was on a school field trip. Once inside, I gazed with salivating wonder at all the homemade meats in the deli case and fired off questions with carnivorous enthusiasm: “Is the Cajun Boudin sausage beef and pork?”; “Do you make your own veal loaf?”; “How spicy is the Jalapeno cheese sausage?” (The answers: No, yes, and not very).

I’ve never been a huge fan of Sobe’s juice drinks, but the Sobe Adrenaline Rush energy drink is by far my favorite of all energy drinks (and I’ve tried tons). It’s delicious and loaded with caffeine, and a 16 oz. can of AR contains less sugar than a 12 oz. can of Mountain Dew.

one can only handle turkey served so many ways, and one can only stay awake for so long after ingesting so much tryptophan (the amino acid in turkey that makes ya sleepy). So I decided to mix up the excess poultry with some tasty pork – namely, the “Pratt’s” Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwich from Alice Cooper’stown, the “rock and jock” restaurant on 1st street and Jackson owned by namesake shock rocker Alice Cooper.

My caffeine addiction has lead me to try all manner of caffeinated drinks, and I’ll be reviewing many of them for you here in “Caffiend” every week. And as fate would have it, the first drink I’m reviewing is a real ass-kicker that I’d never tried before: the Starbucks Venti Double Shot on ice (with added energy pack).