The Jupi phenomenon

In the kitchen by the sink is a plastic jar decorated with all sorts of dancing berries and whatnot and labeled JUPI (pronounced YOO-pee). I've lived here for over a month and every day I walk in and out of my kitchen at least 6 times and up until a few days ago I STILL had no idea what this mysterious Jupi was. Oh I had my suspicions - tea flavoring, fancy smelling dish soap, liquor. None quite fit the bill though. Czech people have tea with breakfast, lunch, dinner... tea socially, tea while drinking, tea with tea. These people have no desire to flavor their tea. Definitely not soap - I've only seen one brand the entire time I've been here. Shelves and shelves and shelves of one type of one brand of soap. Quite the bizarre sight when millions of variations of the same object can easily be found in America. I ruled out liquor the first week when I saw how the Czech drink. These people have straight absinthe running through their veins. They laugh in the face of liquor less than 80 proof.

Turns out Jupi is actually the Czech equivalent to Kool-aid, except in syrup form and oh so heavenly. One small jar of Jupi yields over 3 gallons of fruity fun when mixed with water!

So how did I finally find out the secret of Jupi? Upon entering our guesthouse the weekend of the PLES, I immediately spotted another bottle of Jupi once again by the sink. I wasn't the only one who noticed it. The gruesome couple (see previous entry) travelling with us squealed in delight when the Jupi was spotted and immediately rushed over.

Over the course of the next few minutes, one can only describe the frenzy that occurred in terms of Shark Week. They were the sharks and Jupi was seal island. Empty plastic bottles somehow materialized out of nowhere (turns out they had been hoarding them) and there was a mad rush to fill as much as their claws could hold.

It was through this that I put 2 and 2 together and figured out what Jupi was.

Jupi - the great uniter of men. Beloved by Czechs, hallowed by gypsies, and the answer to bottomless beveraging for cheapo American tourists.