Whoops! The Celsius Recall and the Very Real Risks of Finding Alcohol in Non-Alcoholic Beverages | Episode 132
DEP E132
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Matt Regusci: [00:00:00] I couldn't have done this podcast when we first started. I couldn't have done this podcast within the first year talking about this. I, it, maybe not even the first 18 months. Now that it's been two and a half years and I've rebuilt everything, it, I'm a better father because of it, a better husband, a better manager, all that stuff.
Like I can look back and go, that was a period of my life where I made a big mistake. And like what you said, telling that story may be helpful for other people.
intro: Nobody's gotta eat. Nobody likes getting sick. That's why heroes toil in the shadows, keeping your food safe at all points, from the supply chain to the point of sale. Join industry veterans Francine L. Shaw and Matt Ragucci for a deep dive into food safety. It all boils down to one golden rule. Don't. [00:01:00] Eat.
Poop. Don't eat poop.
Matt Regusci: Hello, hello, Francine.
Francine L Shaw: Hi Matt. I always want to say good morning, but I never know what time of day people are going to be listening, so good morning seems out of place.
Matt Regusci: If it was me, I'd be recording these at 5 o'clock in the morning, but that's too early for you.
Francine L Shaw: Yeah, that wouldn't be happening.
That won't be happening.
Matt Regusci: Even though that's 7 o'clock your time.
Francine L Shaw: I might be able to do 7, maybe.
Matt Regusci: Not with your reduced caffeine.
Francine L Shaw: No.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, Francine and I are both a reduction of caffeine. And that's, I hope that's okay for this show, actually.
Francine L Shaw: Sudden reduction in listeners. Hard.
Matt Regusci: They just seem so tired and boring.
Francine L Shaw: Energy level has gone down drastically.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, and the [00:02:00] ADHD has gone up. The energy level has gone down. The ADHD has gone up. This is not good.
Yeah, I have kids with ADHD. My wife and I both have ADHD, like real ADHD. Like the pediatrician was like, yeah, you and your wife both have severe ADHD, which is why we probably could do all these different things because we're able to like, just manage a ton of stuff.
The pediatrician asked me one time, are you, do you have, do you take meds for ADHD? And I said, yes. And he was like, oh yeah, what do you take? And I said, caffeine. Since I was like, well, it's a great ADHD med.
Francine L Shaw: I say that all the time. In fact, my doctor said you wouldn't be able to do near what you do.
Matt Regusci: No, it is a huge difference in focus between for me, for when I drink caffeine and when I don't drink caffeine, it is like a huge difference in focus.
Francine L Shaw: Oh, a hundred percent. [00:03:00]
Matt Regusci: And I used to go from caffeine to alcohol. And I...
Francine L Shaw: I've never done that, but.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, it was interesting, because I went from caffeine to alcohol. And then I was able to manage that because alcohol was always the, I thought I had quote unquote under control, right? I didn't think I was addicted to alcohol.
So I started drinking when I was 12 years old, which probably wasn't good either. Lived with, no, lived with druggies and alcoholics. And so, living in my house, like, it was meth and alcohol, meth, pot, alcohol, and then whatever other drug you can get a hold of, right? That was what my, what my mom was on, was pain meds and all this sort of type of stuff.
So we lived like in a meth house, and then I went into foster care, and then my grandma was a raging alcoholic, but she thought that if she drank alone, then she was an alcoholic, but if she did not drink alone, then she wasn't an alcoholic. So at [00:04:00] the age of 12, I started drinking wine with my grandma at night.
Yeah, crazy. Then I moved in with my aunt and uncle and my aunt and uncle were like, listen, we know you drink. We don't drink like that at our house. So on, it was when you're trying to manage teenagers. that have gone through a lot of stuff, like your rules have to fluctuate to make sense, right? Because you can't go, teenagers live like this his whole entire life or her whole entire life.
And then all of a sudden it's going to be a dogmatic Christian household that doesn't work very well. So it was like rules were bent, but still there were rules, which was awesome for me because I didn't never had rules up until I was like 16 years old. And then the rules from her, I could not drink.
Except for Friday night with my uncle, I could have a beer. And that was the only time my uncle had a beer was Friday nights after he was done. He had one beer. And so I had a beer [00:05:00] with him.
We're actually going to roll into this. I've never explained to anybody my alcoholism in our show. And then it, and then how important this mistake really is for people who, what we're going to talk about for food safety coming up soon.
My aunt and uncle had another thing. Listen, you're popular. You're going to go to parties. You cannot drink at parties. You cannot do drugs or anything at parties, but we will pick you up from the party at whatever time it is and bring alcohol home from the party. And then we will have one shot with you.
So for me, it was like, wow, this is really interesting. I went from drinking every night from the time I was 12 to 16 to, okay, now there's rules that make sense, right? They didn't want me to do this.
Then, like when I was 18 and I was out of the house, I started drinking every night and I would drink every single night till COVID.
And then I sold my company. So I was a consultant.
Francine L Shaw: Every night till COVID? Is that [00:06:00] what you said?
Matt Regusci: Yeah, every single night. And then it would be...
Francine L Shaw: Till COVID.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, and then it started being every day, so it started creeping down, my time started creeping down. Then I started drinking in the mornings because I started getting the shakes.
I had literally a physical addiction to alcohol, to the point where I had to start drinking in the morning or I could not function. It was ridiculous, it was crazy. And for those that don't have alcoholism, It is absolutely fascinating what it does to your body. Like I would wake up in the morning and I would be, I would physically crave alcohol to the point where I could not function without alcohol.
I had to have at least a shot of alcohol just to start up. So I would start adding alcohol to my coffee and I would add it to my sodas. I would add it to everything. Like I was drinking a handle, which is like, 1. 75 liters of [00:07:00] alcohol and it was vodka. So I moved to like vodka, just drinking vodka all the time.
And then I would also drink at night with my in laws or whatever, wine, beer, mixed drinks, whatever. But I would start and I would start drinking vodka and I was going through a handle of vodka every two days, two to three days.
Francine L Shaw: So I'm bringing you your Starbucks and you're adding vodka to it.
Matt Regusci: Yes. Yes. And you wouldn't even know that I was drinking.
In order for me to function, I had to have just a certain amount of alcohol in order for me to function. It was absolutely crazy.
Francine L Shaw: You built a tolerance.
Matt Regusci: I built a total tolerance. I built a total tolerance. My whole body was physically tolerant and not just physically tolerant. It was physically dependent on alcohol.
It was absolutely.
Francine L Shaw: Now, building a tolerance doesn't necessarily mean that you're never inebriated.
Matt Regusci: That's right. I was inebriated the whole entire time. I was inebriated.
Francine L Shaw: So people that are [00:08:00] listening understand that because there are alcoholics that'll be like I don't get drunk. You most certainly do.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, I was drunk all day long, every day for two years. Yeah. So when I was talking to you on the phone, just like normal, whatever it was, I was inebriated. I was drinking alcohol all day long, every single day for like two years.
And a few things happened all at once. A major crisis happened with, where we ended up with four new kids. Which drove me to drinking even more because just the crisis was so crazy. And then four new teenagers and helping to deal with all of their. My wife and I have done foster care, but we've always did foster care and adoption of little kids. So I didn't have to relive my trauma through my kids. Does that make sense?
Then I had four kids come in with extreme trauma, and now I was reliving my trauma through them, so I was drinking even more. And that [00:09:00] song that we talked about with, with Darin Detweiler and his wife, we were talking about the song Paralyzed from NF. That was, and also that song Mansion, was literally therapy.
I was, I had that song Paralyzed running through my head the whole entire time as I was, you dealing with that and then drinking all day long.
Francine L Shaw: You sent it to me during that time.
Matt Regusci: I sent it to you during that time. Yes.
Francine L Shaw: You did.
Matt Regusci: And then I didn't, my work that I was doing, the consulting that I was doing was consulting people with things I had been doing for 20 years.
So I didn't have to think that hard. It was like the things that I had known were like brand new to a lot of these companies that were working with me and it wasn't hard work for me. It was super easy work.
Then, I had three things happen all at the same time. My wife and I, who've been married for a very long time, I met her when I was 15, 16, when I moved in with my aunts and uncle.
She's seen me deal and grow a lot [00:10:00] over that period of time. And we just celebrated our anniversary 23 years. We had known each other four years before that. And never once through all the stuff that we've dealt with, multiple companies failing, multiple kids coming in and out of our house, all the trauma that I had to deal with, all this different type of stuff.
We never ever talked about divorce the whole entire time. And my wife sits me down, and this is right before we start our podcast, Francine, and right before I start consulting with Andy Kennedy for FISMA 204. So I knew my work was going to change instantly. I had to deal with the alcoholism. I had to. I couldn't do my family.
I couldn't do the new business that we were starting. I couldn't do this podcast without quitting. My wife was like, listen, I've seen you build all of this up through zero. Nobody had expectations except for my family and you. Nobody believed that [00:11:00] you could do this. And she said, and I can't take a front row seat to see you burn everything down.
And that she didn't even say divorce, but obviously that was the message. So I called a friend of mine that had gone through AA and he knew I was an alcoholic. Never said anything. He was just in the background waiting. He was a friend of mine from church and I called him up and I was like, Hey, I need to go to AA.
And he was like, Okay. I tried quitting multiple times by myself, but it's so difficult. It's so hard to quit by yourself. When you're that physically addicted, you can find any excuse or reason to drink again. And so I picked up the phone. My wife was right there. I called Manny. And he saved my life. He was like, okay, let's meet at this address.
This is the place for AA tomorrow morning at six o'clock in the morning. And so I met him there and it just like that, right? There was no, Oh, I'm busy. He wasn't planning on going to AA. He had quit drinking [00:12:00] for like nine years. He goes to AA like I do now, which is just to remind myself of why I don't drink.
Because the stories there are the same stories told different ways. And you hear the same things over and over again. You just need a refresher, right? And he was like, I'll see you there tomorrow morning, six o'clock. Let's go. So I wake up and I'm shaking. Literally, my body is physically shaking. This is February 6th, two and a half years ago.
And I arrived shaking to this meeting and there was 70 plus people in this room. 70 plus people and it was my first day of AA. And I come home from that and they were like, you should go to the hospital. You need to detox. And I'm like, I can't, I don't have time. I can't go detox. I have to, I mean, I have to detox, but I can't quit my life and go detox.
By the way, anybody who can do that is the [00:13:00] best way to do it. That's the way to go. That's the way to go. But I was like, listen, I have too many kids, I'm starting this business, I have a podcast to do with Francine. I didn't say podcast to do with Francine, but in my mind, I'm like, I'm just too busy.
Francine L Shaw: I have lived my entire life with addiction, not myself.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. And so I come home and I'm still shaking and they were telling me, okay, well, what you need to do is take throat lozenges and candies, hard candies, because your body is addicted to that sugar. That alcohol is. So alcohol breaks down into sugar. And so your body needs that. So just have candy, like hard candy, and just keep that in your mouth 24 7.
Second, go to the store and get whatever soda you want. Whatever soda you want that will make you feel like or think like you're drinking. And just act like that. So I did. I went and got a whole bunch of like tonic water and limes and I just drank tonic water and limes and soda and like nonstop like a fish I was drinking this stuff.[00:14:00]
And then my wife asked me that day at AA, she was like. She's like, how was it? And I was like, I was explaining it to her and her eyes glaze over cause she has no clue. She doesn't drink at all. She's never had that issue at all. And she's, do you want to drink right now? I said, yes, I totally want to drink right now.
And then she said to me, I just don't understand it. And I said to her, instead of getting mad, which I think a lot of alcoholics do, they want their spouse to understand. And it's just something people can't understand unless they're in that. And it's just, it's part of an alcoholic's journey to realize through the 12 steps that what I'm going through, other people aren't going to understand.
And that's fine because there's a lot of people who do, and those people are in that room with me. And I said to my wife, I said, it's fine that you don't understand. I now have a place to go every single day where 70 plus people do. And every single day for six months, I went to AA at six o'clock in the morning.
Then I started going like three days [00:15:00] a week. Then I started going every Saturday morning and now I go every month or so just to hear those stories and remind myself why not to pick up any alcohol.
And for instance, Francine, you've seen me because I have only tasted alcohol twice since I started. And both times were at conferences and both were on accident.
So I was walking around.
Francine L Shaw: One day. It was like, yeah. I thought you were going to spit it on me.
Matt Regusci: So, when I'm at conferences or whatever, you'll see that I'll have a soda water with lime, or I'll drink like a Heineken Zero, which doesn't have, it may have 0. 1 or 0. 2 percent alcohol, but you don't taste alcohol at all.
It allows me to go around and with the beer, quote unquote, where nobody thinks I'm not drinking at the conference. So it's a way of tricking people to keep for, so that they're not pushing me to drink.
Francine L Shaw: Which is, I'm not a huge drinker. Every now and then I'll drink, but I could care less whether people think I'm drinking or not.
You [00:16:00] know what I mean? You know?
Matt Regusci: But you're also, you're a partier. You and I have gone to these parties, but they're not. There's a lot of people who want you to be involved in what it is that they're doing. And so, I'll play the part, whatever, fine. When I was with Francine, the waitress, instead of giving me a Heineken Zero, gave me a real Heineken.
And there is a huge difference. The flavor, no, but the burn, 100%. And so, I go and I take a swig of this right in front of Francine. I, like what Francine said, the look on my face, Francine's like, are you okay? And I'm, I have it in my mouth and I like put it back in the bottle. I just put it back in the bottle.
And I was like, this is a real Heineken. And she was like, Oh my God, are you going to be okay? Are you going to be okay? She's like, I thought you were going to spit that on me.
Francine L Shaw: I literally thought it was going to. It was coming out.
Matt Regusci: And it's a visceral reaction for me. Not because. Like, obviously I want the alcohol.
My brain wants the alcohol. Not so much anymore. Like I don't crave it. But my fear [00:17:00] is if I were to drink another drink, it would trigger my brain. That's what I want all the time again, and it's so painful to detox and go through that process. I never want to do that again. So I stay away from alcohol 100%.
Not like I'm at a party or people at my house can drink, my in laws will drink wine occasionally. Now they drink a lot less. But my in laws will drink wine and they'll drink cocktails or whatever. No problem. My mother in law put my.
So in AA, you get these little coins and the coins were like every progress you made. So you get one for the first day. You get one for the first month, you get one for the third month, you get one for the sixth month, the nine month, the year, and then every year after that you get a coin.
And so my mother in law got me like this amazing AA coin holder thing. Oh nice. And she put the coins in our wine room because we have this room that [00:18:00] is just chock full of wine?
And she put it in there and I thought that was the smartest thing, most genius thing ever, because it reminds me every single time I walk past this wine room, why I'm not drinking that and it's great.
But that's the, an alcoholic's biggest fear and a druggy's biggest fear too, because the, it's the same thing, whether you're on drugs or alcohol, it's a physical reaction that your body actually physically needs.
And for people who haven't been through that, it's very hard for them to understand.
So that is going to lead us.
Francine L Shaw: Well, I, I just want to say I have never struggled with addiction. Like I can, like I drink soda, but if I can go, when I was in the hospital, I get high. I can go without soda. It's I want coffee, but I'd like the coffee.
You know what I mean? When I don't have it, it's not like I'm dying because I don't have it. I just want the coffee. So I've always struggled with Understanding the addiction. [00:19:00] My brother died from a heroin overdose and I addiction issues in my family So I understand the not understanding but I also understand the addiction.
Matt Regusci: It's crazy. And I've been around it my whole entire life. I never did drugs, like hard drugs, because I knew I probably would like it. And that's always my friends who never, and my wife, who isn't interested in any of it. Like she, she drinks maybe three times a year. It's usually at social events and probably could do drugs, like, and be perfectly fine because it just, it's, her brain is different.
Francine L Shaw: I believe that's true. I think our brains are very... the concept terrifies me.
Matt Regusci: Yes.
Francine L Shaw: Yeah.
Matt Regusci: And that's why I tell people like when I went in college and stuff like that, when drugs were going around and they're like, well, aren't you going to do this? And I was like, no. And they're like, why? And I said, cause I probably like it too much.
Like I would be that guy that would do it one time. And then the next day I [00:20:00] have an addictive personality. It just is what it is. And I have to realize I'm an addicted personality. I was addicted to smoking for 20 years. By the way, quitting smoking, they say quitting smoking is the hardest thing in the world.
It is very hard. Quitting nicotine is extremely hard. Quitting alcohol or drugs when your body is physically needing it. I'm not being overdramatic when I say my body physically needed alcohol. My body physically needed alcohol. That was a very different experience. Like I needed nicotine, quote unquote.
But I didn't get the shakes from not smoking. Like I didn't get the shakes. Like literally my body was shaking. I was barely able to function, like, which is probably why our podcast kept getting better.
Francine L Shaw: I remember you telling me that like you quit drinking. I vividly remember it.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, but I don't think I've gone into this story as much as I have, I have in this video.
Francine L Shaw: I know, but when you said I quit drinking, [00:21:00] I read between the lines.
Matt Regusci: Nice! You're getting old. You should stop drinking so much. That's a good point.
Francine L Shaw: No, I got read between the lines.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Francine and I wanted to talk about this Celsius and alcohol recall. And it's been over a month since this happened. I wanted to preference this story with my story so that people who don't understand how bad it is for an alcoholic to mess up, not mess up, when a company messes up and puts alcohol in a drink that is not supposed to be alcohol.
And by the way, I drink Celsius. I like Celsius. I still drink Celsius. In the food industry, whether you're serving tables or creating the drinks that are not supposed to have alcohol in them, I think alcohol and an alcoholic. Who is in recovery, getting a [00:22:00] drink that has alcohol in it and they don't know, that could be very bad.
Will it kill them? No, that one alcohol drink is not going to kill them. Will it kill them because they start drinking again and then everything goes down? Potentially. And so, yeah, Francine and I were looking at the story like a month ago and we're like, Oh, maybe we should talk about this. But I realized that if I talked about this, I would want to tell that story.
But yeah, so it was,
Francine L Shaw: and not just for this, but thank you for sharing that because I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that listen to our podcast that can,
Matt Regusci: and there's a lot of people too, like when, once I let people know, cause it took a long time, it's embarrassing. It should not be embarrassing.
Yeah. You say that now. And I say that now, but when you're coming off of drinking and you're changing everything in your life, so much of your life is wrapped around alcohol. It is embarrassing. You feel like you're weak. You feel like 12 steps is probably one of the great, I think everybody [00:23:00] should go through this 12, 12 step programs, whether you're addicted or not.
It's one of the greatest self help in self realization program I've ever been through. And I've been through a lot of counseling. It was way better than any other, any counseling I've ever went through was 12 step program, because it's so focused on you and the relationships that you, what you have done, what got you to that point.
And then what relationships are burned from it, and then what are you going to do differently moving forward? It's so focused on that. It's great. But uh, you're embarrassed because, well, particularly me, people looked up to me. And I felt like my life choices were a lie. I was portraying a lie. And I was really worried that people would see me as fake, and that I would lose respect.
Because I was an alcoholic and a lot of people on drugs and alcohol do that because they, we make a lot of mistakes because we're not our true self when we're [00:24:00] drinking and you, and through that process, you have to reconcile with all those mistakes. And it's really hard. That's where a lot of people quit is coming in, really putting a mirror in front of yourself and I mean, to grips with who you really are and who I really thought I was an alcoholic and that I was a lie.
And I wasn't real. Now it doesn't bother me at all. I couldn't have done this podcast when we first started. I couldn't have done this podcast within the first year talking about this. I, it may be, you know, not even the first 18 months now that it's been two and a half years and I've rebuilt everything and I'm a better father because of it, the better husband, a better manager, all that stuff.
Like I can look back and go, that was a period of my life where I made a big mistake. And like what you said, telling that story may be helpful for other people. Right. [00:25:00] Then, I see that one of my favorite beverages, Celsius.
Francine L Shaw: With alcohol in it.
Matt Regusci: As a recall, in July 30th, 2025, And the reason why was because they had mixed in their machines.
And you can see how this would happen. Somebody turns on the wrong spigot and sends the wrong cans through the spigot. Or maybe it was the right machine. They just sent the wrong cans in. But the same factory, I'm guessing, that makes High Noon, also made this Celsius beverage, Astro Vibe, which I've drank before.
I like the Astro Vibe. And whoops, that's a bad problem. And they sent it out. So
Francine L Shaw: imagine, I'm not sure, I don't remember where, it's so long ago since I read this. I don't remember where it was, where all it [00:26:00] was shipped. But can you imagine kids purchasing this?
Matt Regusci: Absolutely.
Francine L Shaw: Drink this stuff, grabbing a couple of these and going to school.
Matt Regusci: I totally could.
Francine L Shaw: That could just be.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, and when I was a kid, and if I had bought a Celsius. Because I know I was drinking when I was a teenager. So if I had, if I had bought this Astro Vibe and it was actually an alcohol, I would have known that it was an alcohol and I would have been stoked. This is awesome.
I didn't have to go through all the rigmarole of trying to get somebody to buy me alcohol. I just, I'd go back and buy them all.
Francine L Shaw: That's nuts. You'd be in the backyard getting more.
Matt Regusci: I'd be going back to that store and getting more. I'd be like, yay! I'd be handing it out to my friends. Be like, hey, look guys, let's go.
Let's go party. Yeah. So it was, [00:27:00] so I'll read a little bit of the article, but it was canned cocktail maker high noon is warning customers that some of their vodka seltzers were accidentally labeled as Celsius energy drinks. in a recall notice posted to the Food and Drug Administration. Jeez, can you imagine that letter?
Whoops, FDA, we accidentally put alcohol in our Astrovive Celsius. That's not the conversation you want to have.
Francine L Shaw: My bad, this went down the wrong line.
Matt Regusci: Whoops, yeah, and that's what it is. It's a monumentally Terrible. Whoops. Yeah. So High Noon said that the uns an unspecified number, so they don't even know how many went through this thing, unspecified number of its beach variety packs contain cans that are filled with High Noon vodka, seltzer, alcohol.
But have been mislabeled as Celsius Astro Vibe Energy Drink [00:28:00] Sparkling Blue Razz Edition. But that is a fantastic flavor of seltzer by the way. I love that flavor. I don't
Francine L Shaw: know what high noon is. Is that mixing like Red Bull and vodka? Is it the same type of drink? Is it like an energy drink and vodka? Is that what high noon is or is it?
Matt Regusci: Yeah, so it doesn't even look the same. So, high noon seltzer, it's, um
Francine L Shaw: Oh, it's a seltzer and
Matt Regusci: alcohol? Yeah, it's a seltzer water. It's a seltzer of vodka water.
Francine L Shaw: Okay.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. It's like a beer, basically. So it's
Francine L Shaw: not an energy drink and vodka.
Matt Regusci: No. It's
Francine L Shaw: like seltzer. Got it.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Yeah. And when I was drinking, I would literally go and buy like those type of drinks, like the high noons and the, that type of time.
And I would mix it with vodka. Cause it wasn't strong enough. And I would just add vodka to it because it's good flavor. It's just. Anybody who's not an alcoholic, who's like listening to this right now, but likes to [00:29:00] drink is probably like, Oh, I'm learning some new stuff for math. But yeah, I would mix that with, and yeah, but anyways, no, it's like a, it's like a seltzer water, an alcohol seltzer water drink.
It's like 4. 5 percent alcohol. And you were asking like where the products were shipped to. The products were shipped to retailers in Florida, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin from July 21st to July 23rd.
Francine L Shaw: I meant retailers, like.
Matt Regusci: Oh, what retailers? I don't know, but they're like in every retailer is this Celsius high.
Well, don't forget where
Francine L Shaw: I live. I live in Pennsylvania. We only recently started selling alcohol in anywhere but the liquor store and the beer distributors. That's pretty new to us. We couldn't just walk into the grocery store and get beer.
Matt Regusci: I love this article too because this is, we usually do Food Safety News.
Food Safety News ran an article on this, but I'm just looking at the [00:30:00] one from NBC News because this hit every news place. So, yeah. The recall was initiated after High Noon discovered that a shared packaging supplier mistakenly shipped empty Celsius cans to High Noon, it said. No illness has been reported to date.
No illness has been reported to date, but who knows? Like my thought when I read this was. Yeah, no illness is reported today because you're not going to get an illness unless someone's actually really, truly allergic to alcohol, which alcoholics say that they have an allergy to alcohol, which in some ways is true, but it's not like, it's not the same as celiac or something like that.
Like, it's like the conversation about allergy before. Yeah, gonna get sick, but. Or like a peanut allergy or something like that. This is, but if an alcoholic could drink that, Like, it could have spiraled them into another downhill thing, or like what you said, kids drinking it. But, yeah, so my thought, [00:31:00] where was the quality, like, okay, so we're sending cans down, our packaging supplier sends us the wrong can.
We just don't check it and we just send it down the line. The high noon line with Celsius on there, like, where was the quality inspection office?
Francine L Shaw: Sometimes I wonder if some of these places even have quality control. I don't know. They have to, at some level, but you have to wonder.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, because this was, so for two days, two days, probably non stop, because these factories are pumping out a ton of these things.
So for two days, July 21st to July 23rd, these cans were just flying through. Getting filled up with alcohol.
Francine L Shaw: And
Matt Regusci: no one was like We didn't
Francine L Shaw: get any. Yeah,
Matt Regusci: this is interesting. This is
Francine L Shaw: what we usually do by noon. They found out when somebody opened one [00:32:00] and was like Yeah. Brought one and opened it and was like And then they have to go through lot numbers and batch numbers and Yeah.
This doesn't taste right.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, and how pissed off are you, like, when you go, Okay, I am going, like, I need an energy drink. I need something to move me forward. And you open something up that's the exact opposite of an energy drink.
What the heck? I don't need alcohol right now, I need to wake up.
Francine L Shaw: What is this?
Not exactly what I was looking for, but okay.
Matt Regusci: If I drink a Celsius, it's usually in the morning, And that's it. Like I'm not drinking Celsius all day long because I want to go to sleep. So they're cracking this open or a pick me up in the morning to get themselves ready for the day. And then they're like, Whoa, wait, this flavor's different.
Well, you know, maybe go back to bed
Francine L Shaw: when I would [00:33:00] drink monster. I would drink it in the morning and sometimes I wouldn't even drink a whole can of it. You know what I mean? It would, I'm not drinking any of that stuff after two o'clock or I'm going to be up all night long.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that was a monumental. Whoops. I still drink Celsius though. I don't think they're going to make that mistake again.
Francine L Shaw: Are they really any of them that different as far as the amount of caffeine?
Matt Regusci: It depends on the, no, I don't think so. I think this, it's just the size. You mean like Monster or Celsius or something like that?
Francine L Shaw: The energy drinks, Red Bull.
Matt Regusci: Yeah, I think it's the flavor.
Francine L Shaw: Yeah, I don't like any of the sweet ones. I prefer the sugar free ones.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Sweet ones are gross. If I drink a monster, I drink the exact monster you drink. That white can. The white one. Yeah. Zero. I'm guessing it's a monster [00:34:00] zero. I don't even know.
White can. Yeah.
Francine L Shaw: I think so. It definitely no sugar in it. It's sugar free.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter. In the United States, if there, if it has sugar in it, quote unquote, it's corn syrup anyway. So it's
Francine L Shaw: I can tell you if there was alcohol in it, I would know.
Matt Regusci: I haven't
Francine L Shaw: had one in a month.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. Yeah. So, whoops. Celsius, let's not make that mistake again. And anybody else who's out there packaging canned goods that could be an alcohol drink, maybe, I don't know, check the can before you set it on the factory line, check the can afterwards,
make sure it's the right case that you're sending out to the retailers.
Yeah.
Francine L Shaw: So
Matt Regusci: this
Francine L Shaw: just happened recently too with, was it coke? Regular coke instead of diet [00:35:00] coke?
Matt Regusci: Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Which is really bad for people with diabetes. A
Francine L Shaw: lot of recalls. For those types of things lately.
Matt Regusci: Yeah.
Francine L Shaw: Somebody's got to check.
Matt Regusci: Yeah. I was in Mexico. I drink regular Coke in Mexico because regular Coke in Mexico tastes so much better.
So good. Oh, that cane sugar Coke is so good.
Francine L Shaw: Like crack. I assume I've never had crack.
Matt Regusci: Me neither. I've seen a lot of people smoking crack. That's an experience, but never smoked it myself.
Francine L Shaw: That conversation, I feel it felt like I should clarify.
Matt Regusci: Oh man, it was crazy growing up with that. Like from the time I was eight to the time I was 12, it's progressively, our household got worse. And [00:36:00] like, let me say 10, 12, from 10 to 12 is, you know, And I would see people like that had no teeth doing crack and like at a 10 year old, I was like, yeah, I like my teeth.
I've
Francine L Shaw: been pretty partial to mine.
Matt Regusci: I'm good. That's not the route I want to go. And I don't like needles. So I was like, yeah, that doesn't happen neither. No.
Francine L Shaw: We've talked about our childhoods a lot and the things that we were exposed to and the things that we lived through. And it was like. But when you talk about the other side of the tracks, I lived right by the train tracks
Literally, it went right by my house.
Matt Regusci: Golly, get away
Francine L Shaw: with the conductor.
Matt Regusci: That was a very long conversation for 10 minutes of the actual food [00:37:00] of the equality implicate conditions of, I knew noon in Celsius. Oh man. Okay, well on that note, don't eat poop.
