Friday Focaccia – By-gone beverages edition
With summer in full swing and being that being out by the barbeque usually means cold beverages, I got to thinking about things some of the things that I used to drink that are no longer around, and/or beverages that were just plain bad ideas in the first place, and I wish I had never tried.
7-up Gold - it was considered a “spice soda.” 7-Up without the “clear” as it was lightly colored. I actually liked this as it wasn’t as boring as Lemon-Lime Soda, and far more refreshing a taste than a cola. But in a world dominated by Coke and Pepsi, it never stood a chance. Plus, of the people I know that tried it, I was apparently the only one that liked it.
dnL – “upside down” 7 up. 7 up with Caffeine and coloring. Since most people drink seven up to get away from those factors, it doesn’t surprise me that it did not sell well.
Mello Yellow – this is supposedly still in production, but I haven’t seen it in years. The original commercials for it was a “quick draw” contest showing two gunslingers trying to guzzle soda a quickly as they could. Since Mello Yellow was only “lightly” carbonated, it was easy to chug down. Of course the downside is that many people thought they just got flat soda.
Pepsi-Lite – Pepsi was the first to introduce a soda with a lemon taste to it. I actually thought (at least at the time) that it was pretty good, as opposed to today’s Pepsi-Twist, which tastes more like a soda that has been sprayed with Lemon Pledge.
Crystal Pepsi – Does anybody else remember the “clear craze” that went on for a while in the 80′s where everybody was rushing out clear products? This wasn’t the worst idea in the world in that, there is nothing wrong with taking the caramel coloring away, but Pepsi also tinkered with the flavor formula to differentiate Crystal Pepsi, and much like “New Coke” it was soundly rejected by consumers.
Pepsi-Free – immortalized in the movie Back to the Future, Pepsi-Free was Pepsi’s first attempt at caffeine free soda. It’s popularity though lasted only about as long as the movies run though, as this was the mid-80′s and the world wasn’t ready for caffeine free yet.
Pepsi Blue – about 5 years ago, the soda companies try to “extend” themselves with new flavors and concepts in soda flavorings. They were in a word. Hideous. Of course I wasn’t then (and even less now) their demographic, which was supposed to be “young and hip” that should go for these electric colored flavored beverages. Other products that came (and went) of this awful age of variety included, Dr. Pepper’s Red Fusion, Mountain Dew Live Wire, Mountain Dew Code Red.
New Coke (a.k.a. Coke II) - known as one of the biggest marketing blunders in the world (and possiby of all time), when Coke got tired of getting beaten by Pepsi in the “Blind Taste Tests,” despite being Number 1 in the market, they decided to reformulate and taste closer to Number 2 Pepsi. The backlash was monumental. And “Classic” Coke was reintroducted, as Coke II was slowly phased out and disappeared.
An interesting piece of trivia I found out during the release of Coke Zero, is that the formula for for Diet Coke is actually the sugar free version of New Coke formula, whereas Coke Zero is the sugar free version of the Classic Coke formula.
Pepsi Edge / Coke C2 – It may seem odd to lump them together, but if you remember (or were unfortunate enough to try) either of these products you were probably on the Atkins Diet at the time. Half Sugar, Half Sucralose, Half the Calories… and the most god awful taste ever produced. The products were thankfully put on the scrap pile when the Carb Craze died. They were the same bad idea, that both companies tried and failed with.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t throw in a few alcoholic beverages as well -
Zima – yes it is still around… sort of. It was acquired by Coors (or at least the name was). This was the product that started the Malt Beverage craze that is still quite popular, though Zima itself was tagged a Yuppie drink, and like many things that become too popular too quickly, a backlash against the product sent it into obscurity.
Miller Clear Beer – brought out around the same time as Crystal Pepsi, this was a product aimed squarely at the Clear = Pure craze of the late 80′s/early 90′s. Turns out nobody wants to drink a beer with no color. Plus the fact that they had to filter it so extensively to get it to be clear, they pretty much filtered out the taste as well.
Doc Otis – I miss this product. Produced by the Anheuser Buch people, it was a “lemonade” malt beverage that to me was the best one on the market. It unfortunately suffered from poor marketing, and when AB licensed “Barcardi” for a new line of Malt Beverages, Doc Otis got tossed.
Bud Dry – This is another product that is supposedly not actually discontinued, but I haven’t seen it (at least not in the NY/NJ metro area) in many years. It is the only version of “Bud” I actually liked. Meant to take the dry beer category once owned by Rheingold (before my drinking time). I am not much of a mass produced beer drinker to begin with, but this had a clean crisp taste I could enjoy. Was a big hit initially, but seemed to die off.
So, what did I miss? Any long lost favorites of yours? Anything that was simply so awful that you can’t figure out what they were thinking when they started marketing it? What do you miss? Or what are you only too glad has been relegated to the chronicles of history?
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You may have this where you are but here in the south it just can’t be found. My dad used to bring cases of it with him when he came from Kentucky to visit us. Big Red cola. Now I liked the Big Red okay but the diet Big Red was GREAT, the one and only diet drink that I ever liked the taste of. Too bad we don’t have them down here. How about there?
I know it’s still available, even in most grocery stores, but I hardly ever buy pop except in convenience stores and concessions so I don’t see grapefruit pop as often as I’d like to.
Recently I’ve seen Fanta and Tab. I had thought both of those were long gone. I remember the clear and blue Pepsis too.
And that’s an interesting fact about the Diet Coke and Coke Zero. I like Coke a lot more Pepsi, but think that Diet Pepsi is better than Diet Coke. Using the new Coke formula might explain that.