I distinctly remember, in the '60s and '70s, a bunch of rather hideous pops that were sold widely, or in some cases not so widely, in the US. I’m trying to figure out what people think were the worst.
I am not talking about the people who seem to be making intentionally disgusting flavors, like Ranch Dressing Soda or Poutine Soda or Kitty Diddle flavor. I’m thinking more of things like Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda, made with celery, which full disclosure, I kind of liked. Or the chocolate sodas, which I hated, but I knew people who liked them.
Also not talking about things made in Japan (or elsewhere), just the US. Or let’s say North America, because it’s possible some Canadian or Mexican horrors made it across the border.
That kind of thing. Nasty stuff, carbonated, in a can. (Which I think excludes the chocolate ones.)
Tab was awful in the 70’s because it used saccharine as a sweetener. All the sodas that used that including Diet Pepsi and Diet 7-Up had a hideous aftertaste. Given the choice I’d rather drink gasoline than a 1970’s version of Tab!
It appears they may still use saccharine in it today, but mixed with aspartame. So It’s probably nowhere near as bad as it once was.
Canfields diet peanut butter fudge cola.
Chicago area ca. 1986
Horrific. So many 5 packs returned in the back we wouldn’t drink them if they were free.
Green River. They aren’t kidding about the color—that stuff looks like it could be radioactive. It’s supposed to be lime-flavored, but all I remember is that it’s overpoweringly sweet.
When I was a kid, I thought Fresca was the most disgusting soft drink ever. About ten years ago I tried it again and rather liked it.
There was one in the late 89s and early 90s, too. I’m trying to remember what it was called. It was very pink. Maybe Hubba Bubba soda or something like that? Yeah, checking online, it appeared in 1988, so that must be what I’m thinking of.
I used to babysit for a woman who drank not just chocolate soda, but diet chocolate soda. Undrinkably nasty.
The only things she kept in her refrigerator were frozen fried chicken, frozen donuts and diet chocolate soda. She and her daughter were both overweight and she was trying to keep her kid on a diet. Those were some long evenings.
Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray wasn’t invented in the 1960s or 1970s. It goes al the way back to 1869. That makes it significantly older than Coca Cola, which came out in 1886
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/pop_culture_patent_medicines_become_soda_drinks
There have been other celery-based sodas in the late 19th and early 20th century, some combined with cola. And plenty of other weird drinks. Moxie, for instance, dates back to 1876 and is still sold. I bought some a couple of weeks ago, and I still hate it. It’s flavored with gentian toot extract, among other things, and has a weird bitter aftertaste.
My sister (a teen) was on Weight Watchers in the 1970’s and decided that diet chocolate pop would be a nice treat. It was OK if you poured it over ice cream and made a float, but by itself it was like drinking a Tootsie Roll. Actually it tasted like the Ayds diet candy that was all the rage at the time.
