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.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
All Hail Unca Cecil, or the next best thing available!
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.
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.
“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.
“There is such a fine line between stupid and clever.” – David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
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.
“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.
>>while contemplating the navel of the universe, I wondered, is it an innie or outie?<<
—The dragon observes