Best soda flavors? Especially not famous ones.

Cafe Society
#1

I’m basically excluding Coca-cola, Pepsi, and whatever you feel are major brands. You don’t have to exclude them, but I have a fondness for flavors outside the big brands.

I highly recommend:

Faygo Candy Apple - really my top recommendation. I am a Michigander, but hasn’t Faygo gone nation-wide now? If so, pick this up. 99 cents for a 2-liter and it is great.

Faygo Cotton Candy - the most recent addition from Faygo to have gone permanent. I thought it would be sickeningly sweet, but they did a great job with this one. Highly recommended.

What do you all recommend?

#2

Blenhiem Ginger Ale has a kick that I haven’t found in any other ginger ale or ginger beer.

#3

Early 1970s Baltimore (possibly a larger region) had Drink Me Pop; two dozen (or so) different flavors. They had a pineapple soda that would knock you on yer ass. Plus, Birch Beer, Cream Soda, Root Beer, something blue I don’t remember the flavor of, all kinds of pop. You’d have the happiest rotten teeth in the whole Mid-Atlantic region. Sadly, long gone.

#4

Green River. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it in bottles or cans, but there are a couple of traditional soda fountains that carry the syrup.

Makes a pretty damn good float, too.

#5

Adirondack Orange Dry. A less-sweet orange soda. No longer made, but Polar makes something similar.

#6

Mountain Dew is available with real sugar again, but I don’t think they use the red pepper* anymore.
*I can’t find a cite for red pepper use, but I swear on my mother’s eyes – in the late '60s, MD had red pepper in it. You don’t forget something like that when you’re eight.

#7

Cheerwine

#8

My favourite thirst quenchers on a hot day are from Bundaberg. I know you can get at least one flavour from them in America, their Ginger Beer, but maybe the rest are around too. The flavours themselves aren’t all that exotic, but they really hit the spot. My favourite is Apple Cider, though I do swap it with some of the others for variety’s sake.

#9

Birch beer

#10

I used to love Sioux City Sarsaparilla but haven’t seen it since the late '70s. Just found it at Cracker Barrel, but at $1.95/bottle, I’m stalling on purchase.

#11

Orange Crush

I order it occasionally from Papa John’s with my pizza

2nd favorite was the original Grapette, bottled in Camden AR. Wonderful grape soda.

It’s back and I’ve tried it. The original was better. The new is ok.

#12

In the Chicago area, you can definitely find bottles of it. It’s not ubiquitous, but not unusual. ETA: Well, this article does call it ubiquitous in Chicago, so maybe it’s even more popular than I thought.

#13

Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola. It’s kind of hard to find, a bit pricey, they sell it here in the natural foods aisle, for some reason. Fentiman’s has a couple other wonderful flavors, like Rose Lemonade . Curiosity Cola tastes just like I think Coca-Cola must have tasted in the early days, very Coke-ish, not too sweet, with a medicinal tang. Love it!..Also, bottled by the Coca-Cola plant in India, is Thumz Up, also a cola type. Sold in the India imports store in beat up thick glass bottles.

#14

barqs red cream soda …this is when barq’s was on its own …and ive never seen it anywhere but a few machines in bus stations in the mid 90s …

Big red used to be minor league too…

#15

A second for this.

It never fails to annoy me when someone makes a big deal out of insisting on ginger beer instead of ginger ale, because the beer is stronger. I’ve never found a ginger drink more intense than red-cap Blenheim.

I used to like Brainwash, but it got really hard to find.

#16

Next to impossible to find, but the best ginger beer out there is AJ Stephans.

#17

I like Pepsi’s “1893” line, especially the Ginger Cola.

#18

I like the Sparkling Ice flavored waters. They have very good flavors, my favorite is lemonade, but orange mango is really good, too.

#19

I…have not seen these, but am very intrigued. Are these actual formulas from 1893???

#20

I don’t know about soda … don’t really drink it often but I will say that Pellegrino Blood Orange (sparkling water w/juice) is pretty tasty … especially with a shot of Captain Morgan spiced rum.