The beverage world is the Wild West — perhaps even doubly so for soda. Countless sodas have been introduced to us over time, but not all of them stick around.
Curious about some of the wackiest, strangest sodas that have been discontinued over the years? Here are 16 of them, featuring flavors from sour grape to bubblegum, and everything in between.
Whistle Soda
Whistle first dropped in 1919, but the citrusy orange-ish soda only lived for about another 50 years. The slogan was “Thirsty? Just whistle,” which couldn’t have helped its marketing much. If you’re thirsty, and your mouth is dry, wouldn’t it be hard to whistle?
Surge
You had better believe I was all over this stuff when I was a kid. The whole thing with Surge was that it had an insane amount of caffeine. A Coke has under 40 mgs of caffeine, but Surge was packing in 51 of those bad boys.
I can’t believe they sold this to children.
Tab
Tab actually had quite a run. Born in the ’60s, it only ceased production during the lockdown of 2020. This was one of the first diet sodas on the market, but you probably remember it from when Marty McFly mentioned it to a 1950s bartender that had never heard of it in “Back to the Future.”
Josta
PepsiCo gave us Josta in 1995, an attempt at an energy drink-soda combo. With almost 60 mgs of caffeine, this feels a lot like giving Four Loko to a bunch of children. Luckily, Josta didn’t live to see Y2K.
Vault
Vault was another energy drink-soda combo. Noticing a trend? This was a Coke innovation and had a similar citrusy flavor to Surge. It was discontinued in 2011.
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LifeSavers Soda
My mouth is shriveling imagining how sweet this probably was. LifeSavers took their classic flavors, like Fruit Punch and (gulp) Grape Punch, and made soda out of them. I’m assuming they did this by melting them down and carbonating the liquid remains, but I’ll try to give them more credit than that.
Slice
Slice had about a 20 year run, though it popped back up in 2018 for a minute. While it was unique at the time that each can contained 10% fruit juice, Slice is 6 feet under once again.
Koca Nola
In the early 1900s, Koca Nola was a popular cola. It was a clear knockoff of Coca-Cola, and by 1918, it was fully extinct.
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Aspen Soda
Pepsi took a swing at an apple-flavored soda in the late ’70s, calling it Aspen soda. Despite developing a cult following, Pepsi pulled the plug only four years later.
Hubba Bubba Soda
I’m not sure who bubble gum-flavored soda is for. It turns out that neither did the Wrigley Co., because the soda was discontinued almost immediately.
Jolt
You think Surge had a lot of caffeine? Jolt took your average caffeine count for a soda and doubled it, hooking us up with a nightmarish 72 mgs per 12-ounce can. This thing is like the original Panera lemonade. College students, as you can imagine, were all over this one. It died in 2009, came back briefly in 2017, and then died again.
New Coke
One of the biggest oopsies of Coca-Cola’s career was the release of New Coke, which was a brand new version of Coke aimed to compete with Pepsi after the introduction of the Pepsi Challenge.
Guess what? Everybody hated that stuff. Coke hung its head, sprinted back to the lab, and gave us back the original version in only two months.
Crystal Pepsi
Pepsi had the bright idea to sell clear cola in 1992, but in a surprise to nobody, it floundered in a huge way. They took it off the shelves in two quick years.
Mtn Dew Pitch Black
Despite the name, this was actually a purple soda. The flavor was similar to grape, though it boasted a “sour bite.” People worship everything Mtn Dew does, so though it was only a limited edition flavor in 2004, it’s been brought back for a few re-releases. We may see it yet again.
Orbitz
I don’t make a habit out of drinking things that look like a lava lamp, and since Orbitz only lasted a year, it seems that I am not alone. This weird drink was uncaffeinated and had tons of little gelatin balls floating around inside. Not all ideas are good ones.
OK Soda
In 1993, Coca-Cola took an experimental marketing approach with the launch of OK Soda. Focused very specifically on the counterculture ethos that was popular with Gen X at the time, OK hit us with a slew of some of the strangest advertisements we’d ever seen. It resonated with nobody and was put to rest two years later.
