Squarsh.

On Tuesday (our first day) we were walking through the mall in Shannon to find some lunch. We decided that rather than buying expensive food court eats, we'd be economical and buy stuff in the grocery store.

See, before I left, my friend Michael told me to go into grocery stores everywhere I go and just check out how subtly different they all are, from each other and especially from the ones at home.

Let me go ahead and say that I still cannot pinpoint the difference. Maybe it was that I couldn't figure out whether “crisps” referred to potato chips or cereal. Maybe it was how a lot of bread is not bagged up and chock full of preservatives, but just sitting out in baskets and nice and fresh. Maybe it was because I had a blonde moment and did not realize for an entire day that “minerals” referred to pop and carbonated water, etc. Blame it on the jetlag. Whatever it was, I just know that I felt like such an idiot in my first Irish grocery store. For some reason it was such a confusing yet stimulating experience for me, even though really they have all the same things we have back home. Just with different brand names and better chocolate.

Oops! I digress. Squash.

So the sign at the top of the aisle with the minerals advertised the presence of Squash as well. Erica and I did not know what Squash was, unless it was the vegetable, so we decided to take a look. We quickly realized that there were lots of bottles with drinks and stuff and we decided we needed to buy a drink anyway. Something that would go well with our chocolate muffins.

“Muffins, you say?” Yes, muffins. I told you, I felt so lost in that store. Muffins were my home base okay?

Anyway, we see this bottle of Squash and determined it must have been something like V8 Splash or some other sort of fruit juice drink. We read the ingredients (mostly water plus apple, cherry, strawberry, and redcurrant juices) and decided it would be a good buy. No added sugar.

Well, see, what had happened was, I opened up the Squash, took a sip, and said, “Meh . . . It's kind of strong, but it's a'ight. Interesting taste,” and that's when it happened. Erica finally decided to look at the serving suggestions.

“Shake well and dilute to taste. Suggested dilution, 1 part with 4 parts water.”

Yep, I pretty much drank a syrup thinking it was a drink. Lovely, right? We felt pretty embarrassed but were happy to be the first in our group to do something stupid.

Squash has proven to be our best friend, though! Once you dilute it, it is a very tasty and refreshing treat. Try Squash today.