Last year was obvious. The holidays were not going to be normal. We weren’t traveling or spending time with nearby friends. Instead, we toasted loved ones via Zoom, and later felt a deep absence when it came time to sit down at the dinner table. In 2020, my wife and I made Thanksgiving for two, which, as many of you know, is a practice in absurdity. If memory serves, I think we made five pies. We still have pieces of them in our freezer. I suppose it’s time to compost them to make room for the overwhelming amount of dessert we’ll undoubtedly generate later this month. The question is, will anyone be here to help us consume the daunting number of pies we can’t prevent ourselves from making?

At the moment, we are planning to have eight people at our Thanksgiving table. And even though November 25 is only weeks away, nothing feels certain. And that’s okay. Over the past year and a half, many of us have learned to adapt. We’ve managed to make things work under less than ideal circumstances, which is an incredibly useful skill. Resilience.

This year, Thanksgiving probably won’t be precisely as it has been. I think it's time to cultivate something fresh in our festivities. Traditions allow us to recall and celebrate times past, but they can also obscure our future vision. We don’t want to lose touch with who we are, but we would like the opportunity to evolve into who we may become.

That said, I’m happy to report that Jones Soda Co. has reached into its portfolio to market Turkey & Gravy Soda for the first time in more than a decade. The unusual flavor helped solidify the brand’s innovative, boundary-pushing reputation when it debuted in 2003.

“Our Turkey & Gravy Soda instantly differentiated the company when we introduced it nearly two decades ago, establishing the iconoclastic brand personality that remains our calling card today,” Mark Murray, president and CEO of Jones Soda, said in a press release. “It’s an ideal Special Release SKU because it’s a novelty seasonal flavor that raises brand visibility among longtime Jones fans and new customers alike.”

This product provides the perfect example of a company taking a huge risk with an unconventional beverage flavor that ultimately defines the brand. Prior to launching Turkey & Gravy Soda, Jones had a reputation as an experimental company in terms of flavor and packaging—consumer-sourced photographs ended up on bottles of Jones Soda. And now, the company has the pleasure of celebrating its risk-taking approach by re-introducing one of the most memorable food and beverage products in recent history.

I am not, and would never suggest that a global pandemic is a good thing. But since it is the truth that we live, I feel as though we have an opportunity to plan and design fundamental changes in the way we approach our personal lives, our communities and our businesses. In the next year, you will witness exponential growth in our coverage of sustainable corporate efforts. The largest food and beverage processors and suppliers have already made commitments to major shifts in the way they source, manufacture and distribute products and services. This moment that we are living in, this time of uncertain return, reveals a passageway. I don’t know where it goes. None of us do. But there’s a chance that if we move toward it, the outline of a future worth celebrating might become clear. And maybe, just maybe, I could feel confident that some hungry group of people will visit, and help me eat what is shaping up to be an intimidating number of pies. PF