I wasn't sure how many clues you were supposed to give for a meta, but hopefully even non-meta solvers (like me) can figure this out without it being too obvious for others.

SOLUTION: SODA. The multiple soft drink references and/or the title of the puzzle should have pointed you to 1-Down. If interpreted like a crossword clue location (i.e. 13-Across, 22-Down, 7UP, etc.) you find SODA from reading ADOS backwards, starting at the 7 (S) on the grid.

Nice one! I didn’t pick up on the title hint - just the soft drink refs pointed me to 7UP

Now that I see it I'm smacking my forehead for missing it 🥴

I had to step away from the puzzle but knew that the title was a clue. Didn't know what 7up had to do with anything but then realized that since there was no 8 down, maybe I could go up like 7 up. Then I saw it.  Nice job with this meta.

I think I got thrown off the meta by "eight to go"... is that number a reference to anything, or just chosen at random?

It's a bit of a stretch. The reference was supposed to be that there were in fact nine "answers" in the grid because of the addition of 7-Up, so you still had eight answers to go after solving 1-Down, not seven as one might initially expect, but it didn't land as well as I wanted

Mini Meta: One down, eight to go

I loved this! And I had almost as much fun working out the cover image 😂

Wow... I need you to teach me, sensei.
I knew I had to rebus (so I tried ESC for escape key) but to actually rebus? Wow...🥲

Escape Mechanism

Fun one! I'm feeling dense but can you explain the gimmick for SMOLDER/GOOBYE to me? I'm sure it's something clever 😊

My bad! I put the reference numbers wrong. It's fixed now!

It's fixed now! My apologies for the people that solved before just now!

Ah that explains it! Very cool trick, as expected 😁

I think the reference numbers are off by one by accident... "SEE RED" (get mad) is smolder... and "SEE YOU" (later) is goodbye

Yes this is it. I changed the grid slightly right before publishing so they got off one! I'll change it real quick!

That makes sense... but then they'd also have to be crossed, no?

Nice! Love it! 'See' caught me off guard.

I lucked into the answers for "see?". Fortunately I read the comments to appreciate the brilliance.

See Things Literally

The idea for this puzzle was stolen from a mini crossword I saw do this with "L," and I think I've heard of someone doing it with "T's" too, so nothing new under the sun. And remember to do some of my older mid-sized puzzles if you like (semi-plagarized) gimmicks like this!

I haven't seen it before so it's new to me! Very cool - thanks for sharing it!

I completely forgot about the title, which I should have rechecked. But it all fell into place quickly. Nicely done. 👏

Thanks! Yeah I usually try to always put a hint in the title if I can, but it's also nice to have something that completely stumps the solver at first until it clicks! :)

Your nose might have been tickling once I realized what was going on and I started (friendly) cursing. My initial pass only had MEANS correctly. I felt I should have known the Starbucks answer but once I got a lucky guess at REALMS, I knew that TIME had to be the Crosshare answer

What's the tea, sis?

First real puzzle in a while! If you liked this one, be sure to play some of my old mid-sized crosswords. Most of them are similarly gimmicky if that's your thing, as are some of my old minis. [Sadly, the title didn't fit as a themer!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4hCSQpEFx4)

Loved it! I don't think I would've noticed that the title fit with the theme too if it weren't for your comment 😂. Glad to see you posting again!

Fun puzzle! After I got the first two, I went around looking for “-“ to enter the others but messed up on the bottom right where I put DIME for the eyebrow clue instead of the mayochup clue - so I couldn’t figure out what was wrong and just thought I didn’t know eyebrow trends

"And I'm Eric!"

This is just a novelty puzzle I made to see if it was possible. It nicely works out to where there are six combinations possible for a given set of three letters and also six words in a 3x3 crossword!

Very clever! I was excited to see a new puzzle from you 🎊

Fun puzzle, but somehow I didn't recognize the three-letter theme and couldn't think of the correct entry for bottom center. Then the light bulb popped on and "P" was placed.

Incredible! Could never have thought of this

Sudoku

This is the second time I've duplicated a theme answer. Anyone remember the last time I used CHICK PEA?

Heh of course! [Eat Too Much and You'll Falafel](https://crosshare.org/crosswords/L3NXqu03DyJ2yu0jSpfN)!

It took me a long time to figure out ACIDS as I had LIEON instead of LIEIN

Spread-Eagle

I got confused because ENS implied nineS, as in "Half of Nines"

Missed Direction

Really fun one Joah! I like the clue for RIOTS

Really cool how you could incorporate such a tight theme into such a small puzzle!

On Top of Things

I made this puzzle a little while back and found out afterwards that somebody has already done a crossword like this but with the ENTIRE grid having this type of rotational symmetry. This crossword's not quite that amazing, but I hope you enjoy this sort of "diet" version of it!

Absolutely incredible puzzle Joah! I can't believe you managed to make this work so well. My favorite clue was for POOLTABLE

I was really impressed when I figured out that it worked, but it kinda made it easy since I could just transfer them to the other corner. :P

Glad to finally finish solving yours, after you pointed me to it from my similarly named mini!

Joah The Protozoa

@Joah