The Best Discontinued Sodas

Soda: It’s highly addictive, extremely fattening, and unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on who you ask—it's also super delicious. After developing ways to carbonate water in the 18th century, flavoring began to be added for medical purposes. It started with ginger, than birch, and fruit extracts, flavors that the public quickly realized tasted pretty good. From there, it wouldn’t be long until the whole world was craving these beverages called “soft drinks”.

But the technology to unlock sodas true potential just wasn’t there yet. There was a problem in the industry that they just couldn't get around, once the soda was in a bottle, it would quickly lose its bubbliness and with it, its allure. Soft drinks were still very popular, and were being sold en mass via soda fountains, the soda dispensaries that are still used today. The soda industry changed forever when a man by the name of William Painter patented the “crown cork,” the bottle cap that is standard these days, which prevented any bubbles from escaping from the bottle. As the 20th century began, bottle sales began to rise exponentially, and soda quickly became the American institution that it is to this day.

As with anything that gains massive popularity, soda quickly found itself many variations. While competing cola brands Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the biggest names in the industry, and own the majority of all sodas you’ll find on the shelves of a supermarket, there are loads of often short-lived experimental drinks that capture the fascination the people for a brief instant, only to be ripped away and discontinued as quickly as they came. Maybe its because they're designed as brief marketing campaigns, or maybe it's because public interest just doesn’t last for these wacky, and sometimes bizarre sodas.

Whatever the case, we want these best of the best discontinued sodas to 'Surge' back. Now.

Life Span: 1980s

We can't be certain if anyone actually wants this back, let alone liked drinking it, but a bubble gum flavored soda!? This deserves a spot on the list for sheer insanity alone. It also came in a diet version (!). If you love cotton candy, feeling your teeth rot and fall out in real time, and hate all the work involved with bubble gum (chewing!), Hubba Bubba soda is (was) right for you.

Life Span: 2000-2005, 2008

Coke or Pepsi: the perennial freshmen-year-college-RA-floor-meeting-ice-breaker-game-question. Pepsi never had the edge—until Pepsi Twist: regular Pepsi with enough of a lemon flavor to make it more refreshing, but not sour. It popped in and out of stores through the early 2000s, only to surreptitiously vanish. Sure, we could ask for lemon and put it in a glass of Pepsi (or Coke), but why should we have to? This is America, dammit.

Life Span: 1972-2001

We don't really know what Dr. Pepper is made of, so we definitely don't know what Mr. Pibb is made of. But it had a lot going for it. Originally sold as “Peppo,” Mr. Pibb had to change its name after Dr. Pepper sued them for trademark infringement. Awesome. The name (now Pibb Xtra—really stupid name) and formula was changed in 2001. Still, Mr. Pibb and Red Vines = crazy delicious.

Life Span: 1988

Let's be honest: 7UP is pretty unremarkable. However, the brand has had some high points: Orlando Jones as spokesman, cool robot built by the Mythbusters, and perhaps most importantly 7UP Gold.

Gold was darker in color, with a flavor closer to a spicy ginger ale, robust with notes of cinnamon and apple. Sounds great, right? It was! But it was tragically misunderstood. People didn't know what to make of Gold (the name does a piss-poor job at describing the taste), and the soda itself appeared antithetical to regular 7UP. Regardless, we'd take 7UP Gold back any day.

Life Span: 1984-2000

Pepsi's line of fruit-flavored sodas included apple, cherry, orange, and peach, among many others, and was popular in the mid-'80s. Lemon-lime Slice was straightforward, simple, and clean tasting. It was usurped by Sierra Mist (more stupid names!) and discontinued. True fans will remember that it boasted 10 percent juice. By today's certified organic standards, that's hysterical in its naïveté.

Life Span: 1995-1999

Pepsi's Josta goes down in history as the first energy drink created by a major beverage corporation. It was a bit fruity, a bit spicy, and loaded with guarana (proven to increase alertness and sharpen memory!) We, however, still have no idea what Josta actually means.

Life Span: 2005

Mountain Dew's flavors are like annoying, distant relatives. The brand's shameless pandering to the “gamer” market is vaguely condescending, or, at the very least, reinforces silly stereotypes. Still, they do get things right once in a while. Pitch Black 2—not to be confused with an imaginary sequel to a certain Vin Diesel movie—was a Halloween-themed sour grape Mountain Dew. Kind of like a Blow Pop, but in liquid form.

Life Span: 2006-2008

Obnoxious spelling aside, this drink had balls. Euphemisms aren't an option here, so let's say it again: balls. It's not an “energy drink” or a “boost”—no, this is just coke and coffee, more caffeine than is reasonable for any human to have, which is why we so desperately need it back.

Life Span: 2003-2005

Hopping on the emergent “remix” and DJ trends, Coke popped out the short-lived Sprite Remix series. First came the Tropical flavor. Then, as a challenge to those who felt the product names weren't annoying enough, they gave us Berryclear and Aruba Jam (which is basically cherry—basically). We still loved the stuff, awkward names, shameless opportunism, and all. Yes, even Aruba Jam.

Life Span: 1996-2001

We long to “feed the rush.” Originally sold as Urge in international markets, Coca-Cola's Surge appeared in the '90s as an answer to Mountain Dew. The commercials described it as “a fully loaded citrus soda—with carbos!” (What the hell are carbos?) The ad spots aimed pretty low—lots of teenagers doing teenage things (jumping over couches and rolling down hills in barrels, all to get the soda, obviously)—but somehow Surge's otherworldly alien-green color and logo design was just plain cooler (or less douchey) than Mountain Dew.

After discontinuing Surge, Coke introduced Vault in 2005. Supporters say it contains similar ingredients and tastes like Surge (now with more caffeine!), but it just isn't the same. It's still on shelves in Norway, remote corners of the southern and eastern USA, and on Amazon, so if you ever swing through, be sure to grab a can…or 10,000.