I live the northeastern US (NY State) and I can buy all the weird flavors of them (Cherry, Vanilla, Lime etc.) but not lemon. This used to be the only flavored version of Pepsi, and IMO its the least ‘weird’ flavor and I would think would be the most popular.
So what happened to it? Is it just my region? Because I haven’t been able to buy it for several years now!
In CA I’ve only seen lemon flavored Diet Pepsi, never regular. I’m wondering what happened to the Cherry Vanilla Pepsi that was in my grocery store for about a week before it disappeared.
How long has it been since you’ve seen it? I haven’t seen soda with lemon since the 70’s.
Since the only soda I’ve seen with lemon was diet soda, I always assumed the lemon was to make it more palatable - it’s not that great now IMO, but diet soda used to be REALLY nasty. Once they figured out how to make it taste a little better (the Nutrasweet era), they dropped the lemon. It never came back because people still associate lemon soda with that nasty diet soda back in the day. That’s my WAG anyway.
Lemon flavored and lime flavored Coke/Pepsi were ubiquitous for stretch of several years from 2004 to about 2007.
They do seem to have vanished. I guess sales/revenue/margin wasn’t there.
I haven’t seen lemon in years (never liked it personally). Now, the diet cherry pepsi on the other hand. That stuff was like Slurm. I’m half-glad I can’t find it anymore. I couldn’t stop drinking it.
My favorite soft drink is Diet Coke with a twist of lime, so I was fairly interested in Diet Coke with Lemon.
Sadly, the lemon flavoring they chose to use was, in fact, Lemon Pledge. It was awful. I bet my friend a dollar that he couldn’t drink an entire can of the stuff- it was the easiest buck I ever made.
Growing up, there was a hamburger joint that would put shots of syrup in your Coke. The best was butterscotch.
Slight hijack: I’m also still looking for caffeine free, non-diet Coke. It was (iirc) in a gold can and sold back in 1990.
They don’t make just regular caffeine-free? That’s weird. Pepsi does.
Very common here in Utah, where some Mormons prefer it due to their take on religious doctrine.
Finally, I think that Cherry Coke was on the market for decades before Lemon, Lime or Vanilla Coke ever hit the shelves…
That stuff is still plentiful. I bought a couple of 12-packs just the other week, just before the Super Bowl. Safeway in Tucson.
I had trouble finding Soylent Cola, though. 
I believe the last bottle was found in the 80’s by Pee Wee Herman on SNL.
(clip appears to be gone. :()
It’s always been pretty common. It’s the traditional red can, with gold lettering. What I want is flavored caffeine-free coke.
My friends and I did taste tests, and we couldn’t tell the difference, which was what made it unusual.
A lot of these “smaller” flavors are going to be regional in their availability.
Remember that Coke and Pepsi are bottled by a network of local / regional bottling companies, which buy the syrup from the parent companies. Even if the local bottler can buy the syrup for Diet Pepsi with Lemon from Pepsico, if the bottler had experienced that it didn’t sell well in their area (or that sales had dropped off), they may choose to not produce it. So, you might find that a particular flavor is impossible to find in one region, but is practically ubiquitous in another region, due to differences in regional tastes.
Similarly, if a particular retailer finds that a particular flavor doesn’t sell well for them, they’ll likely stop carrying it.
Finally, food and beverage manufacturers introduce thousands of new items every year. Grocery stores don’t get bigger every year, so for every new item that a store decides to begin stocking, some older, weak-selling item is going to be removed to make room for it.
they still sell diet coke with lime out here in the phoenix area. i sure wish they had the lemon, i loved it!
Why are most of the flavored Cokes and Pepsis diet? I see Diet Pepsi with lime, vanilla, caffeine free and Pepsi Max and the almost the same with Coke. The only flavored non-diets are cherry-flavored. Does diet soda taste that bad? A cough syrup analogy pops in my head.
Yeah, most diet sodas taste pretty bad. As a diabetic, I really appreciate the vanilla and cherry flavored diet colas. I also like diet Mountain Dew and cherry Dr Pepper. Just about all of those types of sodas typically have 0 calories per serving.
And many grocery stores seem to be settling on having a certain portion of their soda pop shelves set aside for ‘seasonal’ flavors. So the local bottler will make these weaker-selling flavors for a few months, and they will be stocked & promoted at local grocery stores, then will disappear for months or years. The better they sell, the sooner they will come back. Some might catch on well enough to become a regular item, at least in that local region.
I don’t mind diet pop, which is good because that’s the ONLY way I can get caffeine-free Dr. Pepper. And I adore Dr. Pepper.