Drink470 (see what I did there...) is a website displaying a collection of energy drinks that I've consumed over the years and collected the cans for.
So you may be wondering, "um, why did you post such a random arrangement of energy drinks on this here website for everyone to see?". To that, I say........ya that's a good question.
Here's the deal. A few years ago when I was living with one of my best friends in a basement suite, I decided to try some energy drinks. Not because I needed the boost, but because I was more curious at what the whole energy drink scene was about. I had only ever had Bawls, the classic geek energy drink, and I realized there were so many more energy drinks to choose from. I wanted to try some popular names like Monster, Rockstar, and AMP, to name a few.
I thought the cans were kind of cool, so I washed them out carefully with soap and water (making sure they wouldn't attract bugs with the leftover sugar scent) and set them to dry. After the cans dried, I put them up on display in my kitchen and dining area. It was perfect. It matched the basement suite scene perfectly. A network administrator (myself) and a mechanic (my best friend and roommate) who love video games, and frequently have friends over with similar interests for food and gaming...it just fit. The energy drinks were a nice touch in the kitchen above the cupboards.
But that's not all. The collection grew. I only bought an energy drink if the can was unique, meaning I didn't already have it up on display. I washed every can that came in and then added it to the collection. The display got to be popular amongst some of my friends and even got to the point where friends would buy energy drinks for me to have as a donation to the collection (a full energy drink, not just the can. This was part of the deal. I only put up energy drinks that I had consumed. I wouldn't simply accept someones empty can).
Then I bought a house.
When I first started the collection, it was the sort of thing that looked great up in a basement suite. But the best friend moved out, and it was just me living there. A while later when I bought my new house, I tried to visualize around the new kitchen where I could possibly place these energy drinks but still have them look good. The problem... was I couldn't. The house was a different style, more mature, and I wanted it to look nice. I've always liked keeping things clean and organized, and I had the energy drinks up in a way that I thought looked good in the basement suite. But the problem was this was my new house. I had a different style in mind for it. I like things to look clean, and the energy drinks unfortunately just didn't fit.
So, what was one in this situation supposed to do? As I was packing up the contents of the basement suite to move to the new house, I carefully placed the energy drink cans into boxes. I had gone to all the work to collect these and I didn't want to just recycle them and be done with it. I wanted to save them until I had a good use for them, if one ever came up.
Fast forward 4 years. I've been living in this house for 4 years, and I finally decided that the energy drinks weren't going to be put on display anywhere any time soon. I came to the difficult decision to recycle them. I did some research online as a last check to see if it was worth keeping the actual physical cans. I searched for others with energy drink can collections and found that others had far larger collections than I did. My collection wasn't even close to the largest collection online (which was 2000+ cans, or at least that's the largest I found). I had 129.
With no need to keep the physical cans, I wanted to still remember my collection and share it. I brought my energy drink cans inside and built a small light box out of a cardboard box and desk lamps and snapped the pictures you'll find on this site. In talking to my good buddy Devin online, I told him what I was doing, the story behind it, and that I was just in the middle of taking the photos. He was as into the idea as I was and immediately came over when he was off work and joined me as I was still in the process of shooting my photos. We started working on the concept design for the website, edited all the pictures, and coded and assembled the final product you see here now.
I hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I enjoyed creating this archive.
Scott is a network engineer, specializing in information security and infrastructure design. During his "spare time", Scott's a drummer who's frequently found tapping on any surface that can be tapped on, and plays in a few bands. He also enjoys photography and bringing his cameras to random places outdoors and shooting pictures, day or night, usually with a hot beverage from Starbucks or Tim Hortons close by.