These Forgotten Sodas From The Past Will Refresh Your Memory (2024)

Similar to A&W, Fitz's Root Beer rose to fame as a menu offering at Fitz's drive-in restaurant outside of St. Louis, MO. The soft drink was mass-produced for years but ceased production when the restaurant closed in 1970. They started things back up 15 years later, and it's still on the market today.

This lemon-lime soda pre-dates both Sprite and 7 Up. It launched in 1919, but became popular decades later thanks to the advertising slogan "kiss of lemon, kiss of lime." Ariana Grande even referenced it in a 2012 music video.

Diet-Way was first introduced to the public as the sugar-free alternative to Double-Cola. It was around for less than two years before it became known simply as "Diet Double-Cola."

Cotton Club was based out of Ohio and sold a variety of fruit-flavored soft drinks. Flavors included cherry-strawberry, grape, orange, and a fruit punch-soda called Tropical Delight. They also offered a line of cola, ginger ale, and root beer.

This one is still a popular pop of choice in the south, and it's been around in some form or another since 1937. However, it didn't become known as "Big Red" until 1969. Don't be fooled though: Despite the name and color, it's actually a cream soda.

Maybe you know this soft drink as Dr. Pibb … or Mr. Pibb … or Pibb Xtra. The pepper-y soda was renamed and reformulated more times than we can count, but its original purpose was to compete against Dr. Pepper. The original test markets were even in Waco, which — in addition to being Chip and Joanna Gaines' home — is home to Dr. Pepper.

The campaign behind this citrus-flavored soda was like the original "how do you crack your pistachios?!" shtick. That is to say, its slogan was "Rondo, The Thirst Crusher," and commercials featured people crushing their cans every which way.

Every kid has dropped Life Savers into soda at some point in their life, but only kids of the early '80s were able to try life Life Savers-flavored soda. Get that disgusting mint flavor out of your head: The drinks were meant to taste like the fruity variety.

Before Snapple became your favorite brand of bottled iced tea (and your favorite way to learn useless facts), the company had a line of sodas. This root beer set itself apart from others with a clear look, light carbonation, and less sweetness.

Slice was what you sipped on when you wanted to convince yourself the soda you were drinking was semi-healthy: It was 10 percent fruit juice.

This was the product of Coca-Cola's midlife crisis, when the company announced it was completely scrapping its old formula. It was sweeter, newer, and a giant mistake. Diehard fans missed the old formula, which Coca-Cola soon brought back as co*ke Classic.

You've had soda-flavored gum, but what about gum-flavored soda? Yes, kids in the late '80s had the distinct pleasure of rotting their teeth the lazy way — drinking a pop —if chewing gum was too much work.

We could think of a hundred catchier names for this ginger ale soda, since "gold" didn't even accurately describe the reddish-caramel hue. Those who tried 7-Up Gold loved it, but the general public had trouble accepting the stuff since it went against classic 7-Up's two biggest features: that clear color and the lack of caffeine (Gold included it).

As we've learned, all good sodas are born out of rivalry, and Mountain Dew Sport is no different. It was introduced to compete with Gatorade as a Mountain Dew-flavored sports drink.

This was actually a bunch of flavors (see what they did there?) meant to capture the taste of summer. Packs came with a bottle each of Strawberry Burst, Tropical Chill, and Raging Raspberry. Does it feel like summer yet?

Though the brand was introduced a few years earlier, it really hit its stride at the turn of the decade. Throughout the '90s, the flavored sparkling water scored product placement in literally every big show on TV, including Sex and the City, Seinfeld, Friends, and Dawson's Creek.

The classy word "cooler" (as in "wine cooler") didn't always exist. So when you wanted a Zima — a spiked soda with about 5 percent alcohol — you would just ask for an "alcopop."

This clear pop was nothing more than a slightly sweeter, caffeine-free version of the Pepsi people knew and loved. Poor sales led to an early demise (it was on the market for less than two years), but America's nostalgia-backed plea earned it a rerelease in 2016.

Before Monster and Red Bull became the bane of every frat house's existence, there was Josta. The high-energy soft drink boasted not only caffeine but guarana, too — a plant whose seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee seeds.

You might recognize this better by its current name, Fanta Citrus. But originally, the grapefruit-flavored soft drink was called Citra. You can't get it in the U.S. any more, but rumor has it the soda moved to India shortly after it was discontinued here.