Brand Loyalty

Em is addicted to Rich Chocolate Ovaltine.

Really, no. She's addicted to their idiotic advertising scheme. She insists she can tell the difference between the taste of Ovaltine and Nesquik, and if I reach for any other kind of chocolate milk junk when she's with me at the store, it's a conspiracy to deprive her of vitamins and minerals.

She doesn't even call it chocolate milk, she always says, 'I'm going to make some Ovaltine.' Or, 'I think I'll make some Ovaltine hot.'

So I buy the stuff when I'm alone. Because I can do this.

I know with some things, the brand is better. Clausen spears are the best damn pickles, and nothing even comes close, not even Vlasic. Always Save hydrox cookies are not Oreos. Old Milwaukee is not Boulevard Pale Ale.

However, Sam's Choice diet cola is indistinguishable from Diet Coke, and it's 58¢ for a 2-liter. And apparently, Great Value chocolate milk is indistinguishable from Ovaltine, because it's what Em's been enthusiastically consuming for months without knowing it.