The Best Discontinued Sodas

The great sodas that once were, and should be resurrected- these are the best discontinued sodas.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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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.

Hubba Bubba

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Pepsi Twist

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Mr. Pibb

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7UP Gold

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Lemon-Lime Slice

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Josta

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Mountain Dew Pitch Black 2

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Coca-Cola BlāK

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Sprite Remix

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Surge

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