Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray. It’s hard to get around here, though.
That’s what I was going to mention. But I’ll never forgive them for discontinuing the Diet Cel-Ray.
Dr. Brown’s Diet Cherry Soda. Love it, love it love it
Faygo Rock and Rye. I’m not even sure exactly what this is–it’s part cream soda, part Dr. Pepper knockoff, and even has a whiff of black cherry in its flavoring.
Sundrop. Like Mountain Dew, but with far less teeth chattering sweetness.
Big Red. Probably best described as liquid bubblegum. I also like the “blue” tasting version Big Blue too.
China Cola. It’s a herbal cola sold in glass bottles in health-food stores, and it’s fiendishly-difficult to find. Now that I’ve kicked Pepsi, it’s been recommended to me as being largely sugar-free and healthier, and I haven’t had it in years!
Other than that, I make my own out of fruit juice and President’s Choice seltzer water (99c/L at NoFrills).
GUS - Grown Up Soda - Cola flavor. LESS SUGAR.
And, if I stood a chance in hell of finding it anymore, Canada Dry Collins Mix. I grew up drinking it as a soda like Squirt only ten times better. They stopped selling it in Southern California, I don’t know where else you can get it. I LOVE it, and I really love it as a float with mint chip ice cream. Sounds crazy, tastes great.
Dandelion and Burdock. There’s only a few companies that sell it in any sort of numbers, and they all taste the same.
China Cola is made with cane sugar. With that and its flavors from real spices (peony root, cassia bark, vanilla, oils of lemon, lime and orange, nutmeg, cloves, licorice, cardamom) it certainly tastes better than Pepsi, but it’s not sugar-free.
You may be able to track some down here.
Mainstream-ish in Italy but hard to find elsewhere: Chinotto. Tastes like a mixture between cola and Campari. It’s made of bitter oranges.
In the States I like Dr. Enuff, which seems to be local to some parts of Tenessee.
Izze’s Sparkling Juices (specifically, the sparkling blueberry)
and
Root beer from the Root Beer Stand
There are tons of Latin restaurants and grocery stores around here; they all have a good selection of sodas like Inca Kola, Goya and Jarritos, many of them in interesting flavors.
Mexican Coke. It’s Coke, but it’s better than regular Coke.
Stewart’s Cream Soda.
I also enjoy Jarritos, which has already been mentioned, especially the orange flavor.
Blue Sky is another favorite.
Real sugar makes a big difference.
Canfield’s Diet Cherry Chocolate Fudge Soda! I am totally dying for one right now! So hard to find around here. I also like all of Hansen’s diet sodas; Trader Joe’s usually has them.
Reed’s Extra Ginger Beer and AJ Stephan’s Ginger Beer.
Vess is primarily a St. Louis area thing. The orange is especially awesome.
I was grocery shopping this weekend and reached for some off-brand soda without paying much attention. When I looked in my hand, I saw that I picked up a six pack of Moxie by mistake. I might has well have been staring a rattlesnake in the eye and I put that back where it came from as fast as humanly possible. I made the mistake of tasting Moxie before and don’t want to live through that experience again.
I love Reed’s extra ginger beer and Big Red (do they still make that?).
Yep. The sad part is that the type of place most likely to have this, a kosher deli, is nowhere near here (well, there is one kosher deli near Cincinnati, but they don’t sell knishes so they don’t really count).
This! Sadly, it’s difficult to get south of Massachusetts. I know of one and only one place inside the Beltway you can get it - the Spy Museum Cafe, in Chinatown.
What does it taste like? Well - sort of like carbonated, caffeinated Nyquil, actually. The original, green-death flavor. But it’s good! Honest!
Lemon Soda. First tasted it in Italy. It had a lot more real lemon juice in it than other USA lemon soda drinks. The can said it was made by Coca Cola, but I’ve never seen it for sale in the USA, and it isn’t listed on the Coca Cola site. Maybe it no longer exists.
So instead I buy San Pelligrino’s Limonata.
It’s a Coke product, but not really mainstream … I’ve been rocking the Fresca for decades.