Unavailable sodas you have known and loved

legitimate grape

can you still get it at wal-mart? i've been to that place once in my life, but i'd go again for a nice grape soda.

It's listed on the Walmart website as "in store only".

This might still be around, but I haven't been to New Orleans lately: Big Shot. Of of my favorite things when I was walking to Jazzfest was always to stop at a gas station and buy a very cheap (I think they were 25 cents) pineapple soda. Probably no better than Shasta's or Faygo's or any other fake pineapple taste, but it was the ritual, and they were local.

I'd go to Walmart to try a Sam's Choice Grapette, but… boy am i skeptical.

Sam's Cola tastes like 87 octane, with a hint of citrus.

I haven't gone back to read the history, but I'm inferring from Rice explained that although he couldn't provide the use of the brand names in the United States, he could offer the flavors that someone sold out the domestic U.S. market.

Which is pretty interesting to see on the image search where we go from this:

http://i.imgur.com/ljIysSN.png

http://i.imgur.com/DQNEOjK.jpg

to this:

http://i.imgur.com/LwYYV7t.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8MOerFV.jpg

Ooo La la

dan, big shot is still around. pineapple, strawberry, all the essential flavors. my favorite big shot experience (besides a clerk at rite aid encouraging me to mix pineapple big shot and malibu) was at the early-00s (katrina-destroyed) local chain chicken box. their motto was "tastes like ya mama's!" and they sold chicken (5pc for $1.98, legs and thighs only), limp french fries with salt AND pepper, and big shot, 24 hours a day, through bulletproof glass. eaten hot, it was the best fried chicken in the city. eaten cold and you prayed for death. but yeah, 3am chicken and pineapple big shot eaten in a parking lot is peak regional soda experience.

i would also fuck with a grape soda right now.

Thanks, Adam! I just did a google earth check, and the station I always used to stop at is still there on the corner of Esplanade and Claiborne. It had a Big Shot vending machine outside with all the flavors.

this thread was already making me thirsty, now adam's talk of 3 AM fried chicken is making me hungry too. damn you.

dan if you are stopping at esplanade and claiborne i hope you are going in to manchu (the purple cinderblock building) to get some chicken wings.

did we ever determine what the best currently-and-widely available grape soda is? i need to make a stop on the way home

tempted to just mix some seltzer and this cough syrup i have in my medicine cabinet

sorry, syzzurp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Kola#mediaviewer/File:Inca_Kola_Slogan_El_Sabor_del_Peru.jpg

woops

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Inca_Kola_Slogan_El_Sabor_del_Peru.jpg/1280px-Inca_Kola_Slogan_El_Sabor_del_Peru.jpg

not sure how "unavailable" it is though, i do seem to see it in latin markets here and there in the states

Manchu's duly noted. I already really want to get to Li'l Dizzy's; I'll never leave that intersection.

inca kola is pretty easily available, esp. in mexican/central american groceries

in the USA i mean

yea it's true, i just felt like turning everybody on to inca kola. tbh i'm not even a soda person anymore but i grew up drinking a lot of inca kola

oh yeah, i've tried to eliminate the "empty calories" of soda since i started eating better, and now it's very much a treat rather than a daily thing.

when i went to disney world in i think 2001, there was this pepsi-branded tent thing, called like "the chill zone" or smth like that, where you go through some misty blue tunnels that get increasingly colder which was really nice in the summer florida weather, and at the end you reach this big room filled with soda fountains and sample cups. the sodas were imported from all over the world and there was a watermelon soda from brazil and it was incredible. i haven't been able to find it since. i've had other watermelon sodas but they all do the jones soda thing where there isn't enough flavor syrup and the sharpness of the carbonation is the first thing you taste. i've been missing that soda for half my life.

I found some elderflower Fanta from Hungary or Romania last year when I was in Atlanta -- really good stuff. Unfortunately I didn't see any the next time I was at the same store (Buford Hwy Farmers Mkt).

when i went to disney world in i think 2001, there was this pepsi-branded tent thing, called like "the chill zone" or smth like that, where you go through some misty blue tunnels that get increasingly colder which was really nice in the summer florida weather, and at the end you reach this big room filled with soda fountains and sample cups. the sodas were imported from all over the world and there was a watermelon soda from brazil and it was incredible. i haven't been able to find it since. i've had other watermelon sodas but they all do the jones soda thing where there isn't enough flavor syrup and the sharpness of the carbonation is the first thing you taste. i've been missing that soda for half my life.

― linda cardellini (zachlyon), Tuesday, October 28, 2014 9:52 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was this a beautiful dream or reality?

no, that's a real thing, it's at Epcot and it's Coke

Minute Maid Valencia Orange soda was the best orange soda to have ever existed; there has never been an orange soda that has come close to tasting as good as it did.

Does good orange soda even exist anymore??

omg thank you i could've sworn it was pepsi and apparently never tried searching for coke and apparently it's still a thing

i guess the soda was actually from china, or i was actually drinking guarana soda probably not

http://www.guide-to-disney.com/epcot/future-world/photos/club-cool4-big.jpg

"Can we go back to the –"

"NO. I mean, not yet."

I've never been to the Coke experience thing here in ATL, but from what I hear there's an opportunity to sample a bunch of Coke products from around the world until your belly is sloshing as you walk out the door. I may do it one day.

Went here and sat on the polar bear's lap, thankyouverymuch.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3458/3708695307_9a27cba89d.jpg
OG Corr's Ginseng Rush. This stuff had (has?) life-affirming qualities.

But don't take my word for it. Let's hear what the fine folks at Beverages Direct have to say.

"In 1978 it single-handedly created the natural beverage category – it was America’s first functional beverage. Twenty-three ingredients singing a song, at once enchanting and refreshing, still unmatched by any other drink."

Haven't seen it around here since, oh, late 90s.

that ginseng root's got as much subtlety as Joe Camel.

Bought some Grapette at Walmart the other day, btw. Much more subtle "grape" flavoring than I remember. Would drink again.

My glass bottle Nehi quest has been successful! I just happened to be in the BP station down the street from my house after filling up my car and noticed they sell it there. I'm currently indulging in a bottle of peach, but I'm saving the bottle of grape for later.

I wanna track down and drink a Delaware Punch in honor of Hank Gupton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Punch

Vernors got nixed from all the American groceries I was fond of and I really havent seen it since. Maybe a decade ago. Does it exist? Wiki page says yeah, sure.

Here in Asia there is a Coca-Cola/coffee hybrid that is a much better cooperation between the two flavors than you'd ever expect. Sponsored Post.

Was it Barista Bros?

https://i.imgur.com/la4h7qD.jpg

As a tourist, I unashamedly drank the shit out of this in Australia a few years ago.

Not read the thread through so may have said a few years ago a Schizandra based thing from I think Schweppes. Was around back in the mid 90s when I was in Dublin.

new york seltzer relaunched in 2015. you can see if it's avail near you!

https://www.newyorkseltzer.com/store-locator/

we've got some vanilla on the shelf at home...for special occasions.