Liquid Sky

The biggest problem we foresee for the new beverage from Clearly Canadian called Orbitz is this: Who wants to drink something that looks so cool? It’s a better tchotchke than thirst-quencher, yet another lava lamp for the ‘90s.

Drinking the “texturally enhanced beverage,” as the company calls it, is a bit odd. Not quite cola, not quite juice, the liquid is slightly denser than most may be used to, and the gel orbs go down easy--they remind us of the squiggles in many Indonesian and Vietnamese beverages that, frankly, taste better.

Still, the orbs--vegetable based, by the way, meaning they’re safe for vegetarians--may catch on. Clearly Canadian thinks enough of its chances that a patent is pending on the fluid gel technology required to make the floating spheres. And the stuff should make great TV commercials--its slogan: Defy gravity.

Orbitz is still being test-marketed, so it isn’t available in Southern California yet. But of course there’s a Web site: www.orbitz.com