‘Diet soda sommelier’? NC governor’s take on a Southern favorite

Roy Cooper is the governor of North Carolina and chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

He’s also, as he quipped to me this week, a “diet soda sommelier.”

WRAL reporter Travis Fain’s video of the exchange went viral Tuesday evening, and now has more than 45,000 views.

By Wednesday, Cooper had put it in his @NC_Governor Twitter bio, too: “Official account of the 75th Governor of North Carolina. Diet soda sommelier. Tweets from Roy are signed - RC.”

Here’s the exchange on the video.

Me: “So is it basically Mountain Dew, kind of?”

Cooper: “No. It’s hard to explain. So Mountain Dew – I’m like a diet soda sommelier. So the Mountain Dew, is sweeter than diet Sun Drop. Diet Sun Drop has a little bit more of a tart taste.”

Cooper’s sense of humor, like that of many people in North Carolina politics, is pretty deadpan. So he talks about soda with the same tone of voice that he does public policy.

Here’s the back story on why we were talking about the citrus soda:

Prominent lawmakers often take a few reporter questions after events. The press-speak is a “gaggle” or “brief availability,” which means that reporters gather like a bunch of geese around a politician, who is available for a few minutes to talk with them.

Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore do this regularly at the Legislative Building. It starts with getting all the technical stuff in place, which usually means a television reporter setting up their camera on a tripod. We usually exchange pleasantries and make small talk and jokes while we’re waiting for everyone to get ready. It’s a bipartisan, cordial time-passer: We have the same kinds of conversations with politicians of both parties.

On Tuesday, Cooper walked into the room after the Council of State meeting to talk to Fain and me, turned to me and asked, “Did you try it?”

“Try what?” I asked.

Cooper: “Sun Drop. I saw you were going to try it.”

North Carolina politicians love them some Sun Drop and diet Sun Drop. I think I started noticing it on the desks of House members on the chamber’s floor or in committee, and sometimes they’ll mention it.

Southern Living magazine wrote recently about Sun Drop’s Southern roots.

This summer, Cooper tweeted about the beverage, including multiple times in one week. Ford Porter, his communications director, quipped in an August quote-tweet of Cooper that “The Governor’s passion for Sun Drop is a real thing folks. Borders on problematic.”

A few days ago I tweeted: “Just added diet Sun Drop to my shopping list. I blame #ncpol for this.”

So when Cooper asked if I’d tried it yet, I told him — again, this is just in the minute or so that he was putting on Fain’s microphone — that I hadn’t gone to the store yet. He asked a staffer to grab one.

Fain asked the governor how deep he rolled with diet Sun Drops, so that is the point when Fain’s video picks up, with Cooper answering by saying he probably shouldn’t drink so many.

Some Twitter responders wanted to know the rest of the conversation. I had chimed in that diet 7Up was better than diet Sprite, but Cooper said those don’t have caffeine.

He is governor of North Carolina, after all, so he circled back to talk about Mountain Dew.

“Mountain Dew is PepsiCo, which is still incorporated in North Carolina, in New Bern, North Carolina, so we have to give due deference to PepsiCo as well,” Cooper said.

Sun Drop is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which also owns 7Up, Schwepps, RC Cola and Hawaiian Punch.

Cooper finished putting on his mic, and the conversation turned to a more serious political topic: Medicaid expansion.

Diet Sun Drop FTW

Diet Sun Drop acquired, Cooper asked what I thought of it.

Ever the skeptical reporter, I didn’t give it enthusiastic praise immediately.

“Pretty good,” I said.

As I walked back to my car, I drank the entire can. At 10 a.m.

My husband brought home a 12-pack from the store that night. And I’m drinking a diet Sun Drop as I write this story. Diet Sun Drop gets a W.

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.