You might indulge from time to time in guilty eating pleasures. Those strange, ritualistic feats of ingestion in that split second when the kitchen is empty, except for you.
And in that moment you eat peanut butter by the spoonful, drink right from the milk carton or take a sip of that translucent green juice from the half-empty pickle jar. That's right, read that one again.
For aficionados of the latter option, there is extraordinary news. Goldin Pickle Company of Garland, Texas manufactures a bottled pickle juice: the "Sports Drink with a Bite" that will "Quench the Craving."
Steve Collette, the company's president, said it all began with the Sept. 3, 2000 football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
"It was super hot in Texas, where the game was," Collette said, "and the Cowboys were on the sidelines with IVs in their arms trying to keep hydrated, and the Eagles were drinking pickle juice." The Eagles won 41-14.
Inspired by the well-hydrated and triumphant athletes, a man named Brandon Brooks took his budding idea of selling pickle juice to Goldin Pickle Co., where he met with Collette. Collette liked the idea and thought it worth a go.
"I didn't grow up drinking pickle juice," he said. But now that Collette often enjoys the green juice, he says, "It's really tasty. It's good when it's cold and you are hot. It is really good."
But don't expect a sweet sugary beverage when you open a bottle of Original Goldin Pickle Juice.
"With our pickle juice -- when you open, smell it, taste it, you know you are drinking pickle juice," Collette said with pride.
Collette reports that the product has been available for about a year and already graces the shelves of Albertsons, United Supermarket and Brookshire Grocery.
You might be hard pressed to find it in Charlottesville, however, since local supermarkets don't carry the product. But for those who really want it, the juice is available for purchase online.
"The recipe is a derivative of what we use in our normal jars of pickles," Collette said, "with some added sugar."
The Goldin Pickle Co. used to produced pickle on a smaller scale, as flavoring for dill pickle snowcones.
First-year College student Adam Johnson, who enjoys pickles, said he wouldn't buy pickle juice.
"Pickle juice is in essence like salt water which is just sort of nasty," Johnson said.
But Collette cannot hide his passion for the green fluid. He even has tried mixing his pickle juice with vodka or gin, to create interesting mixed drinks. "There are some interesting combinations that you can come up with," he said. "We had fun trying."
All and all though, Collette returns to the magnificent taste of good old, unadulterated pickle juice.
"You will be surprised about how many people sneak a drink out of the pickle jar -- we are taking the pickle juice drinkers out of the closet."
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