The Blog with No Title

It has been a while since I have blogged. I have been meaning to write about the two above mentioned sodas for a while. I first had Cranberry Splash near Christmas (I think, Christmas Eve, maybe slightly before) when out to get some milk for Lori. It has a really good flavor in my opinion. It has just enough of a bitter bite of cranberry along with the soda flavor that we all love. Lori even liked it! The only thing that was annoying is that it was supposed to be $1 for a 20 ounce and they changed me $1.49 for it which I didn’t notice until after I got out. It was worth trying though. We picked up a 2-liter at Target soon after that. I also picked up a 2-liter of another variation, Ruby Splash. It is supposed to have a hint of grapefruit in the same way that Cranberry Splash has Cranberry. Ruby Splash on the other hand was pretty terrible to be honest. It did have a hint of grapefruit flavor, but it was a kind of phony flavor and it was oddly sweet for grapefruit, not sourness/bitterness that you might expect. I was not a big fan and pretty much had to force myself through the rest of that 2-liter. We picked up a couple more Cranberry Splashes since I am pretty sure the promotion (limited edition of course) is going to wind down pretty soon. I will definitely check it out next year, but Ruby Splash is in the past for me.

In other news, Pepsi Throwback is back!!! I am stoked. I went ahead and bought 3 12-packs when I found it on sale. The first is mostly gone though as I was a good boy and shared with friends who came over. It is supposed to be available until some time in February. I will have to stock up some more before it is gone until who knows when.

It has been a while since I have written about soda. Nothing much has come my way in the soda front lately except for the fact that I found some Livewire in Columbia a couple months ago. Disappointingly though, it was only cold 20 oz. plastic bottles (one of the most overpriced forms of soda available), and I have not seen it again since. This makes me really glad I got some that day.

But anyway, I have some news today. Apparently Pepsi has started producing Pepsi Throwback. It comes with a classic logo (the new logo sucks btw) and real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. I am really interested to try it, but I am not sure that I will LOVE IT like some people do. Since I am relatively young, I have only rarely experienced soda with real cane sugar (in Jamaica). It almost was a bit weird in taste since I am acclimated to the texture of HFCS, but that could have also had something to do with different water supplies and/or bottling practices in Jamaica. Therefore, if you see Pepsi Throwback, get one for me! I definitely want to try it and review it here.

I just realized that I forgot to mention a few soda related odds and ends about my Chicago trip.

First off, in preparation for the trip, you may remember that I headed down to N. Augusta to get Grandaddy’s video camera. Anyway, I had Mountain Dew Game Fuel there. It is a limited edition brand that was supposed to start being available on August 13th. I got it on August 14th, so I must be on top of my game (apparently some people found it as early as the 10th though). I actually thought I was picking up a Code Red at first, but then to my surprise realized it was new. It was pretty good. I wanted to try some Code Red again before I reviewed them, and the difference is pretty big. While Game Fuel has a hint of cherry flavor, it is a much more citrusy drink. Anyway, I think it is worth a try if you like any of the Mountain Dew family or citrusy sodas. I would drink it again if given the opportunity and might impulse buy a cold one on a hot day, but I probably won’t go out of my way to get it.

Secondly, I already mentioned Squirt in my other post, but for completeness I will briefly mention it here again. Squirt is a lemon tasting soda which reminds me a lot of Sun Drop. I am sure a North Carolinan (THEY ALL LOVE IT) could tell the difference, but to a casual Sun Drop drinker the difference was pretty mild. I am sure it would be more noticeable side-by-side though.

Edit: Both drinks are owned by Cadbury-Schweppes currently, but they are not the same. In spite of the fact I found the tastes similar (it has been a while since I had Sun Drop though), there is one important difference. Squirt is caffeine-free while Sun Drop has more caffeine than even Mountain Dew.

Thirdly, this isn’t a new soda for me, but on a whim I checked a convenience store in Wheaton and found Mountain Dew LiveWire!!! I had been checking for it since Pepsi said it was showing up in my area (but it was only showing up at Wal-Mart so the representative correctly guessed that it was an error), but been unable to find it. I brought 6 bottles back with me. They have a pretty short date (Sept. 1 to Sept. 10) so I am going to have to get through them faster than I would like, but I guess that is ok. I am enjoying my second one right now actually. I plan to send one to Howie if I can get in touch with him and get his address since he loves LiveWire so much. I also plan to use the last two as subjects for my LiveWire re-engineering project that I had always said I wanted to try. Currently, I am guessing 80% orange soda, 20% Mountain Dew will do the trick though I bet it will be this nasty color. What do you get when you combine greenish-yellow and orange anyway?

Last but definitely not least, Pepe’s (the Mexican place we went to) actually had RC from the fountain. Very tasty. I even took a picture of the glass in disbelief that a restaurant would carry RC.

Yes! I just got my kit in the mail to conduct the Diet 7-Up Challenge. It included a can of Sprite Zero, a can of Sierra Mist Free, and of course Diet 7-Up. Too bad I can’t think of anyone that will actually want to take the challenge with me…

Update 6/25/07 – Last week I took the challenge ‘non-blindly’. I figured it would be a waste to do it all at one time by myself so I tried each one over the period of three days. I feel that the results from this form of testing are:

1. Sprite Zero
2. Sierra Mist Free
3. Diet 7-Up

I would do more investigation, but none were so good that I want to follow up on it For what it is worth though, Sprite Zero is really close to Sprite. I think the biggest difference is that Sprite Zero actually tastes *sweeter*.

You know, I got to thinking after my post earlier. I should probably chronicle all the sodas I recollect having had in the past. I can then consult and update his list in the future. I am sure this will be incomplete. I will probably not mention offbrands unless they are notable.

Pepsi
Pepsi One
Pepsi Blue
Pepsi Holiday Spice
Pepsi Summer Mix
Pepsi Gold
Diet Pepsi?
Diet Pepsi Jazz Berries & Creme
Crystal Pepsi
Caffeine Free Pepsi
Pepsi Twist
Coke
Coke made with Sugar Cane instead of Corn Syrup
Vanilla Coke?
Diet Coke
Diet Coke Plus (extra vitamins and minerals, same bad taste!)
Caffeine-Free Diet Coke (yuck)
Cherry Coke
Spin (Bi-Lo Off-brand Cola)
Whatever the other Bi-Lo Off-brand Cola is.
RC Cola
Crush Orange Soda
Fanta Orange Soda
Sunkist Orange Soda
Welsh’s Grape Soda
Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew Pitch Black (wonderful by the way)
Mountain Dew Code Red
Mountain Dew Livewire
Mello Yello
Vault
Surge
7-Up
Sprite
Sprite Remix
dnL
Sierra Mist
Splash-It-Up (Maybe the wrong name, but this atrocious Bi-Lo offbrand Sprite clone)
Bi-Lo Cola (The old crappy offbrand)
Sun Drop (EVERYONE is North Carolina drinks this)
Dr Pepper
Mr. Pibb
Kroger Peach Soda (actually not too bad)
Cherry Soda (offbrand, not sure which)
Cheerwine
Ginger Ale (Canada Dry?)
Erick’s Homemade Ginger Ale (hella nasty, sorry dude)
Erick’s Homemade Root Beer (not so bad, except I don’t like Root Beer)
Barqs Root Beer (I think Barqs at least)
Big Red

That is the list as of 5/17/07, at least all that I can think of. I will add more above as I think of them.

As most of you know, I am primarily a Cola drinker with Pepsi being my #1 favorite. I would probably say that my second favorite type of soft drink is orange sodas (not really brand conscious with these) followed by clear lemon/lime sodas followed by greenish lemon/lime sodas. The sodas that I miss most that are not made anymore are Crystal Pepsi, Pepsi Blue, and Mountain Dew Pitch Black. Currently, I am actively trying to find Mountain Dew Livewire which is supposedly bottled in Columbia now… I must also say that I really like Mountain Dew Code Red and Vault. I would probably position these around my affinity for orange sodas.

Update 5/23/07
Coke Zero – Better than Pepsi One.

Update 6/23/07
Sprite Zero (6/20), Diet 7-Up (6/21), Sierra Mist Free (6/22). Out of the three I think I liked Sprite Zero Best.

Update 8/21/07
Mountain Dew Game Fuel (8/14), Squirt (8/19)

Update 1/21/07
Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper (1/20)

So as many of you know, I love Pepsi. In my years I have had many of the Pepsi derivatives. Some I have liked (Crystal Pepsi, Pepsi Blue, Pepsi Gold) and some I have not liked so much (Pepsi Twist, Pepsi Holiday Spice, Diet Pepsi Jazz Berries and Cream). Beyond Pepsi, I like to try all kinds of interesting sodas (dnL, Mountain Dew Livewire, Mountain Dew Pitch Black) just to see what I will think of them. Anyway, so I of course had to try out Pepsi Summer Mix.

I wasn’t impressed. It is supposed to be tropical fruit flavored, and that is an accurate description. Basically, it kind of tastes like someone added some random pineapple-orange juice cocktail to my Pepsi. The worst part is that it is so overpowering that you can’t really taste the cola flavor anymore which is a definite loss.

Basically, if you like really fruity flavored things, it might be worth a try, but otherwise stay away. On the flipside, I think I have a contribution for Steve’s going away party tomorrow…