Crystal Pepsi?

Does anyone remember Crystal Pepsi? You know, that drink that looked like Sprite but tasted like Pepsi. I was wondering how come it got discontinued? Or do they still sell it in some places?

While I'm on the subject of drinks that don't exist anymore, does anyone remember 7-UP cola? I think it was released in 1987 or 88. That stuff was so sweet, my teeth would ache after every drink.

I think they discontinues the clear pepsi because it was god-awwfull! Yuk, I had to force myself to drink the second gulp, after discovering its horrid taste through the first. Only my dire thirst from playing basketball earlier got me to gulp two. But I'll have you know tht no thirst would be so great as to make me approach the third sip. Eww I cringe at it now.
Sorry to all who fell in love with it, for I know I've liked some crazy things most people hate, but I really disliked it.

I remember an SNL commercial spoof for "Crystal Gravy"! Kinda summed up what most people think about changing the traditional colors of food and drink.

I remember another Pepsi product from years back; it was a diet cola with a twist of lemon. Tasted really nasty. I think it was called Pepsi-Light or something like that.

Does anybody remember C&C cola? It tasted just like Pepsi and was half the price! My guess is that Pepsi had those guys' legs broke and made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

I've got a great idea-caffeine free diet Jolt!

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter Thompson

- - - Apparently Pepsi and Coke had the same marketing consultants at one time. Newspaper stories said that that both were going to have clear versions of their drinks but I never saw the Coke. Did they ever sell the stuff? - MC

I don't remember 7up cola, but I remember 7up Gold, which I loved, but disappeared rather quickly.

BTW, Crystal Pepsi was great mixed with Wild Turkey. We called it a "Tweakin' Turkey", get it?

Doesn't Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola as it's most known as, taste exactly like Pepsi as well?

I think you're right, Louie. I fall on the Pepsi side of the old Coke/Pepsi fence, but I'd be just as happy with an RC. On the other hand their diet drink, DietRite, is probably one of the nastiest colas I've ever tasted.

Crystal pepsi was discontinued a few years ago b/c after everyone tried their first can, there were no repeat customers. If i remember right, there was a Citrus Crystal Pepsi (towards the end) which lasted for about a week. Very gross.

I prefer Coke to pepsi (as most normal people do), but RC is by far the best - any restaurant that has RC (or better yet, RC on tap w/ free refills) automatically has me as a return customer, even if their food blows. RC is the perfect combination of coke and pepsi (in fact, i once guessed that the secret recipe of RC is one part coke, one part pepsi, and they sell it for a few cents more to make their profit). But i dont think i am right about this one :P

What? 7up is history? No way. I could have sworn they still sold the stuff. To me it's always been on the same level of popularity of sprite. I've got to check the next time I'm at the supermarket.


I'm back to Mountain Dew again. I usually stay on it until it hits critical mass and for some reason it just stops appealing to me.

I remember Crystal Pepsi. That stuff was wierd. I don't know about anyone else, but I was used to clear drinks being lemon-lime and dark drinks being Coke/Pepsi. Maybe that's why it was yanked?

I prefer Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi to just about anything else. Coke has too much vanilla for my taste, and Dr. Pepper has too much prune juice.


--Sylence

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"A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, 'Wish you were here'." - Steven Wright

The Pepsi product that was diet soda with a taste of lemon was called Pepsi Light.

My father owned a convenience store in the 1970s and 1980s. Once my brother got called by a marketing group and asked to name some brands of soda he was familiar with. He read off something like 20 brands. He had everything on the list except for Vernor's, which we didn't sell.

At the same time as Pepsi Light, there was also Pepsi's Aspen, an apple flavored soda.

quote::What? 7up is history? No way. I could have sworn they still sold the stuff. To me it's always been on the same level of popularity of sprite. I've got to check the next time I'm at the supermarket::

Regular 7up is still around. It's 7up Cola and 7up Gold that are gone. Remember, regular 7up is The Uncola.

I was pretty young at the time, but I remember really liking 7up Gold, too. The funny thing is, though, even though it didn't last, it ruined one of their ad slogans. 7up Gold had caffine, so ever since, they haven't been able to advertise "No Caffine! Never had it, never will!" on every can.

Did Crystal Pepsi really taste that bad?

I had some years ago, and thought it tasted the same as regular Pepsi, but was too wierd to drink since colas are supposed to be colored. Lets face it, if someone served you a slice of ham with pink and purple polka dots and covered in a plaid sauce you'd probably have trouble eating it even if the coloring had no flavor at all.

Doesn't Royal Crown Cola, or RC Cola as it's most known as, taste exactly like Pepsi as well?

No way. I despise Pepsi, but I really like RC. In fact, I drink that second only to my favorite, Cherry Coke.

I think Crystal Pepsi tasted like reg. Pepsi, but it was hard getting my brain to cope with what it was seeing versus what it was tasting, and it may have shorted out a few neurons in the process. Ghost has a point; it was odd drinking something that, when you looked at it, put your taste buds on "lemon-lime alert". This might be why fizzy water tastes rank to me- based on what it looks like, my poor brain is wondering why it didn't taste what it was expecting.

What about Pepsi's Storm? Yuk- The kind you get at store has caffeine but if you order it a restaurant out of a fountain- no caffeine-Hmm?

I remember reading about test marketing for a product called "Pepsi A.M." . . . it was for people who drink Pepsi in the morning in lieu of a cup of coffee. Was supposed to have extra caffeine.

Several years ago Consumer Reports rated the colas. They pointed out that Coca-Cola's main flavor (besides, of course, cola) was vanilla while Pepsi's was lime. Thought that was interesting.

I like Pepsi better.



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Do they still make Green River? That was a favorite waybackwhen. Also Canfields Diet Fudge, which made most people gag just from hearing about but I thought it was pretty darned tasty.



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"Anything is peaceful from one thousand, three hundred and fifty-three feet."

In California, we have a "natural" soda brand by the name of Hansen's. Their root beer tastes okay, but, like all their flavors, it's clear, and very off-putting. Because of this I can only bring myself to drink it straight out of the can. They say the most important sex organ is the brain; I think the most important taste organ can also be found north of the tongue.

The funny thing is, though, even though it didn't last, it ruined one of their ad slogans. 7up Gold had caffine, so ever since, they haven't been able to advertise "No Caffine! Never had it, never will!" on every can.

Hey! What about truth in advertising! Clearly, the fact that they said they it would never contain caffine constitutes a verbal contract with the customer! Or was this before the age of frivilous lawsuits?

I remember Crystal Pepsi (and the hilarious SNL commercial), and to me it tasted the same as regular if I closed my eyes. Even with eyes open, it tasted ok. To me the real thing that killed Crystal Pepsi was the price. It was marketed as a 'flavor' rather than as a 'cola', so it was never as inexpensive as regular Pepsi. So I figured, why bother? I noticed that after about three months, the pricing did change, and Crystal Pepsi was on sale for the same price as the regular-diet-decaf varieties. But again, why bother? So I never bought it again.

Pespi Light, on the other hand, was the best cola I've ever had. You can approximate it by adding lemon to diet coke or diet pepsi, but I wish I could get Pepsi Light again.

Several years ago, a company named Barq's (possibly regional?) had a full line of flavored soft drinks, many of which were quite good. The only one that remains is the root beer, which BTW is the only root beer I know of with caffiene.

Do the other flavors of Barq's still exist out there?

Did anyone else like Coca-Cola's OK? I admit, I really liked the stuff and was disappointed when it was discontinued. I keep hoping they'll bring it back as a seasonal product or something.

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"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it," Jack Handy

Wait, doesn't RC taste like Coke? A bar I used to go to in my hometown only carried RC products so when you ordered a rum and Coke, you actually got a rum and RC, but I couldn't tell the difference.

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"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it," Jack Handy

No, no, not caffeine. Barq's has bite! Bite, damn it! Don't bring a successful ad campaign to its knees by introducing frivolous facts.

IIRC the 7-up cola was called Like Cola. (I love that acronym now that I've figured out what it means.) IIRC Tim Conway was on the commercial for it. IIRC it didn't have caffeine either. 7-up suffers a distribution problem because they don't have a full line of products. Coke can go into a small store and give them a refrigerated cooler that they can use to stock Coke products, including Sprite, their 7-up clone. If the store wants to carry 7-up also, they have to get a separate cooler. 7-up decided not to make the devil's bargain (as Barq's did I think) to be distributed by Coke. It's still pretty popular at bigger distibutors like supermarkets though, so I guess they're doing OK.

As far as I've noticed, Barq's makes root beer, diet root beer, cream soda, and diet cream soda. Their cream soda is among the best.

When I came to NY, I was introduced to a line of products I'd never imagined before. Adirondack soft drinks. Those were horrible!

Adirondack Cola was the worst. There was Yellow Lightning (an Adirondack soft drink); supposed to be like Mountain Dew but it tasted like melted popsicles. Their ginger ale was tolerable, and their root beer was actually pretty good. They also make a blue soda, which I've wanted to try just out of curiosity but I never actually got around to it.

I don't know why I'm talking about them in the past tense. They're all still around.

Anyone remember Snapple's limited-time-only apple pie cider soft drink? I liked that one. Kept the bottle. Didn't keep the bottle very long, though, since I forgot to clean it and it started to grow things.

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"I'm just too much for human existence -- I should be animated."
--Wayne Knight

Since no one else has mentioned it by now, I guess I'll have to: Didn't the hypodermic needle scare/hoax kind of kill Crystal Pepsi? Even though it was obviously bogus, something like that could turn off comsumers to a product they were iffy about in the first place.

PS- OK, I give up. What is LIKE an acronym for?

There has been a thousand plus marketing schemes in the cola wars. See if any remember these?

-Pepsi-Free (Pepsi's answer to Diet Coke) Think Back to the Future
-New Coke (absolute SWILL! biting sweet crap)
-Tab (still sold though hard to find..my local grocery store carries it and seems to have a following- get this they made a Tab clear!)
-Dr Slice (Slice answer to Dr Pepper. Not bad..not as cloying as DP. Still sold too)
-Mello Yello (I can only remember getting this in the South-anyone else remember it? Taste sorta like Moutain Dew and Sprite mixed together)
-JOLT! (Yeehaa! Twice the sugar and caffine. Kinda hard to find around my neighborhood but still sold I think. My teeth still hurt thinking about slamming these back)
-Big Red (Tasty Tasty Tasty...I only found it in bottles Hard to miss looks like a Big Red bottle)
-Fanta (ewww)
-Moxie (actually invented before Coke and real popular in the 20-40's Tried it once found it in bottles at a Alabama gas station-not bad)

Anyone else got any they can remember?

Mello Yello was in the North, too. I grew up in upper Michigan, and I remember it was a favorite at my elementary school.

Mello Yello's still pretty freely available up North - I used to get it on occasion while still a kid in NH.

Moxie!! I love that stuff! Haven't had it in a while. Most of the time I stick to Coke or RC. I remember getting Green River up in Juneau; I was the only one in the coffehouse who'd drink it.

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All Hail Unca Cecil, or the next best thing available!

Several years ago Consumer Reports rated the colas. They pointed out that Coca-Cola's main flavor (besides, of course, cola) was vanilla while Pepsi's was lime. Thought that was interesting.

I knew it! I knew Pepsi has some sort of citrus juice in it. I thought I was the only one that found out about this.

By the way, whatever happened to the Shasta sodas that were out throughout the 80's? Was this drink just released in Southern California? Or did the company go under?

Ok, one more question. Who here, like me, loves Kiwi-Strawberry soda?

The last time I had a Shasta Cola was when they came in uncrushable tin cans and had old style pull tabs. This was long after the majors switched to aluminum. Shasta came in a zillion flavors and occupied about 50% of the soft drink shelf space in the supermarket. Real cheap too! I don't know what ever happened to the company. Pepsi probably had their legs broke too.

I'm surprised I haven't seen Faygo mentioned. I grew up on Faygo rootbeer, cream soda, red pop and rock 'n rye. Although they do offer many other flavors, most are pretty lame and taste like cheap imitations of the national brands.

By the way, whatever happened to the Shasta sodas that were out throughout the 80's? Was this drink just released in Southern California? Or did the company go under?

Ok, one more question. Who here, like me, loves Kiwi-Strawberry soda?

Shasta seems to be alive and well in Oregon. My husband and I buy it quite frequently at the local Waremart, and he loves kiwi-strawberry Shasta.

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"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it," Jack Handy

Can you still get Neehi? Their Strawberry and Orange flavors were a million times better than Crush.

Heath, I remember Mello Yello too. We had that and Mr. Pibb at our college cafeteria instead of Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper. (One of the reasons why I went to Taco Bell so much.)

I remember Faygo and Shasta as well - used to be the only sodas we had in our house when I grew up. Now I'm going to have to go check the local Giant - I miss that stuff!

And I forgot who said it, but I liked Canfield's diet fudge too. Was great mixed with the diet shakes I had to drink.


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"There is such a fine line between stupid and clever." -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap

Does anyone else remember when Mistic used to make flavored sparkling water drinks? They were basically like fizzy Snapple, and man, were they good. Their strawberry kicked some serious ass. I miss it.

Heath, Michigan definately had Mello Yello! Yum, 'member it as a kid!

Anybody out there like Squirt? Kind of like Fresca BUT TOTALLY BETTER!!! Little sweeter and more grapefruity than Fresca.

My fav growing up was FAygo Cream Soda but it was so sweet I could only get down about 1/2 can.

Stewart's brand (the kind they sell at Cracker BArrell) has a great Orange-Cream. They also have a Key Lime but I've never tried it.

My husbands favorite, that he missed desperately when we were down South, was Vernor's Ginger Ale (aka Detroit River Water). Very good.

Narile, check out your local health food store: I've seen sarsparilla and birch beer at our local one, plus a lot of other crazy flavors. My husband loves this Ginger Brew some company makes. Tastes like a piece of ginger root: too much for me!

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Carpe Diem!

If you want a real taste treat, go to Las Vegas, to the Coke museum. There you can sample 20 varities of Coke products from around the world, including an interesting flavor from Israel, and a very nasty grapfruit-rind drink. Yuck.

I believe the Coca-Cola drink from Israel is called "Beverly". If by "interesting" you mean "rank" then I'll agree with you.

Was anyone else in a test market for Miller's Clear Beer? I know it was available for a limited time in Richmond in '96. Boy, was that nasty. It went over about as well as a Keith Richards workout tape.

Three years ago, Mr. Rilch and I were in Brandywine, PA, and we tried a coffee flavored Pepsi that was being testmarketed. Decent taste, kind of the way I remember Moxie tasting, and a great mixer for whiskey. We foolishly assumed that, with the whole country going mad for Starbucks, that it would become a staple. Hmph. Should have been testmarketed in Seattle.
If you're ever in Allentown, PA, definintely check out A-Treat soft drinks. Any flavor, but especially orange, root beer, and cherry. It is the soft drink of Valhalla. When old-timers start reminiscing about nickel soft drinks and drug stores that had fountains, they're probably talking about stuff that tasted like this.

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Remember, I'm pulling for you; we're all in this together.
---Red Green

If you're ever here in Eau Claire, WI go to Grizzly's (a local restaurant) and have their cream soda. I don't drink pop AT ALL but I love this stuff. The serve it to you in a brown bottle and darned if I can think of the name of it. It's ambrosia!

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MaryAnn
Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck!

My $0.02 on the soft drinks:

Crystal Pepsi: Yuck. Tasted like a combination of creme soda and 7-UP.

Faygo: Still around, and pretty cheap. The flavors are accordingly somewhat half-assed, though. I could never stomache their creme soda. Quite nasty. Their cola is decent, but it tastes like the generic store brands.

Barqs: Love their rootbeer Best I've tasted.

Vernor's Ginger Ale: An interesting drink; very bold and sharp kick. It seems like everyone who's tried it either loves it and thinks it's the best stuff on earth, or they fear and despise it. There is no middle ground!

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"I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms." -The Secret of Monkey Island

Squirt... mmm... the greatest thing in the world is to give it to someone who never had it before and watch there reaction when the grapefruit kicks in. True Squirt fiends know other secrets dealing with the stuff, but some of these are best left unsaid.

Speaking of drinks with kick, whats the verdict on mint gingerale? Yea or nay?

Same guy who convinced me to eat an anchovy-and-jalapeno-pepper pizza (see the Nasty Foods thread) once approached me with something called a Ginger Beer.

It's a very strong soft drink made by Snapple (though they may not make it anymore). Only tried it that once. Good thing he warned me about it because it really is quite strong; could catch you off guard if you're not expecting it.

But man it was good.

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"I'm just too much for human existence -- I should be animated."
--Wayne Knight

Daniel, if Snapple doesn't make it anymore (And I didn't know they ever did.) Several other companies do, though they are usually small limited distribution cos. Personally, I miss Sarsparilla (The True root beer.) and Birch Beer.

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>>while contemplating the navel of the universe, I wondered, is it an innie or outie?<<

---The dragon observes

I don't know about Vernor's. I think there is too much vanilla flavor to it. Which is weird since I would normally take vanilla over chocolate any day. I still think Schwepp's is the best mass market ginger ale around.

As for colas, is it just my untrained taste buds, or do most generic colas try to imitate Coke? I don't think I have found a single generic that came close to Pepsi, but have found a few that could compete with Coke.

Last time I looked at the stats, Pepsi was still outselling Coke at the store in the US. Coke was king overall due to overseas sales and fountain distribution.

It is odd that I love Ginger Beer, but dislike Vernors, even though it is closer to Ginger Beer then Schwepps, which I love.
Another Semi-Local (I think, I've only seen it around here in San Jose) company is Jones Sodas, They have a great Vanilla Coke, A decent root beer, and a Wild Apple Soda that is delish. My biggest problem with Jones' is that they only seem to sell individual bottles.

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>>while contemplating the navel of the universe, I wondered, is it an innie or outie?<<

---The dragon observes