# The worst US pop ever, your thoughts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 11, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984 "2017-07-11T04:38:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/1 "2017-07-11T04:38:23Z")
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.)
Give 'em up, what have you got?
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/2 "2017-07-11T04:42:41Z")
Tab. Believe it or not, it’s still sold.
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### Author:  [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/3 "2017-07-11T05:16:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Tab. Believe it or not, it’s still sold.
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.
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### Author:  [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/4 "2017-07-11T05:18:35Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/5 "2017-07-11T05:30:42Z")
[del]Lava Lamp[/del][Orbitz.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbitz_(soft_drink))
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/6 "2017-07-11T05:38:51Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> Or the chocolate sodas, which I hated, but I knew people who liked them.
Oh, man—chocolate soda. I had totally forgotten that that was a thing, but now that you mention it, I can still sort of remember how it tasted.
It should have been great, right? Chocolate = good; soda = good; but chocolate=flavored soda = disappointing.
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### Author:  [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/7 "2017-07-11T06:06:06Z")
Seriously, nobody’s posted Moxie? That weird New England soda that tastes like a prune juice/battery acid mix?
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/8 "2017-07-11T06:20:45Z")
Wasn’t there a bubble-gum flavored soda pop in the late '60s–early '70s?
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### Author:  [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/9 "2017-07-11T08:17:17Z")
[Green River](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_River_(soft_drink)). 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresca) was the most disgusting soft drink ever. About ten years ago I tried it again and rather liked it.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/10 "2017-07-11T08:28:47Z")
Green River, mmmmmmmmmmmm! :o
I always liked the noncarbonated version from vending machines in movie theaters.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/11 "2017-07-11T11:56:35Z")
The Captain and Tennile?
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/12 "2017-07-11T12:12:08Z")
> [@installLSC](#):
>
> Seriously, nobody’s posted Moxie? That weird New England soda that tastes like a prune juice/battery acid mix?
Any of this style flavor gets my vote. Mr Pibb, Dr Pepper, even Jolt, I can’t see why anyone would drink.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/13 "2017-07-11T14:42:18Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> The Captain and Tennile?
Paper Lace
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/14 "2017-07-11T14:43:32Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> Any of this style flavor gets my vote. Mr Pibb, Dr Pepper, even Jolt, I can’t see why anyone would drink.
Moxie sticks out because it contains gentian root, which give it a bitter edge. It’s kind of it’s own category of soda.
I have very vague memories of that diet peanut butter fudge soda, and remember it being horrific.
Green River is fine, though that may be my local bias. It’s sweet as shit, though.
And Fresca is awesome. No idea why it became the butt of jokes a generation back, but I just love grapefruit sodas.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/15 "2017-07-11T14:44:50Z")
> [@terentii](#):
>
> Wasn’t there a bubble-gum flavored soda pop in the late '60s–early '70s?
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.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/16 "2017-07-11T14:47:34Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/17 "2017-07-11T14:49:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> 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.
[Yes, it was Hubba Bubba and my brother and I loved it.](http://sia1.subirimagenes.net/img/2014/01/11/140111061843369924.jpg)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/18 "2017-07-11T14:56:09Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> 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.
> Give 'em up, what have you got?
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](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.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/19 "2017-07-11T14:58:51Z")
> [@cher3](#):
>
> 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-us-pop-ever-your-thoughts/790984/20 "2017-07-11T14:59:03Z")
> [@cher3](#):
>
> 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.
Was it Canfield’s? I believe they also came out with a diet chocolate cherry soda.
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