Best cola

[Dirt Roads]

I've never had Cheerwine despite spending three years in North Carolina for law school. Wegmans carries it. To what other soda would you folks analogize the taste? I'd consider trying the diet version, but I'd like to know what to expect before I buy it because if your description makes me conclude I wouldn't care for it, I'd rather not waste the money.

Faygo Redpop is the only thing that comes to mind.  By far, Faygo's most popular flavor.  But Redpop is strawberry flavored, whereas Cheerwine is cherry flavored.

[1995hoo]

I've never had Cheerwine despite spending three years in North Carolina for law school. Wegmans carries it. To what other soda would you folks analogize the taste? I'd consider trying the diet version, but I'd like to know what to expect before I buy it because if your description makes me conclude I wouldn't care for it, I'd rather not waste the money.

Faygo Redpop is the only thing that comes to mind.  By far, Faygo's most popular flavor.  But Redpop is strawberry flavored, whereas Cheerwine is cherry flavored.

I've never heard of Faygo. But as to cherry-flavored, would you compare it to Cherry Coke or to something else?

[Dirt Roads]

I've never had Cheerwine despite spending three years in North Carolina for law school. Wegmans carries it. To what other soda would you folks analogize the taste? I'd consider trying the diet version, but I'd like to know what to expect before I buy it because if your description makes me conclude I wouldn't care for it, I'd rather not waste the money.

Faygo Redpop is the only thing that comes to mind.  By far, Faygo's most popular flavor.  But Redpop is strawberry flavored, whereas Cheerwine is cherry flavored.

I've never heard of Faygo. But as to cherry-flavored, would you compare it to Cherry Coke or to something else?

Cheerwine is not all that sweet and it doesn't have a cola flavor (the darkness is from cherries).  The cherry flavor in Cherry Coke or Black Cherry Pepsi seems awfully sweet to me.  Dr. Pepper isn't classified as a cola either, but its' fruity mix reminds me of a prune-flavored cola (just like the persistent urban myth).  Compared to Cherry Coke, I don't think that Dr. Pepper is all that sweet either.  But Cheerwine has a distinctive "fizz" that pops with the cherry taste and might catch someone off guard.  If you are looking for a sweet drink, you might be disappointed.  But definitely worth a try.  It's been high on my list for more than 40 years.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Faygo is based out of Michigan and has a distribution deal with Kwik Trip for some other Midwestern states. I've become a bigger fan of theirs over the years due to Faygo being a bigger bottle for about half the cost of a regular Coke/Pepsi bottle, plus an interesting variety of different flavors.

[GaryV]

Faygo

Everyone sing!

"Remember when you were a kid?
Well part of you still is.
And that's why we ... make Faygo.
Faygo, remember ..."

[Big John]

Faygo is based out of Michigan and has a distribution deal with Kwik Trip for some other Midwestern states. I've become a bigger fan of theirs over the years due to Faygo being a bigger bottle for about half the cost of a regular Coke/Pepsi bottle, plus an interesting variety of different flavors.

My Kwik Trip carries Faygo, but not the Red Pop flavor.

[Rothman]

Got a Faygo bottle on my shelf.

[wanderer2575]

Faygo

Everyone sing!

"Remember when you were a kid?
Well part of you still is.
And that's why we ... make Faygo.
Faygo, remember ..."

[wriddle082]

I kinda like the Faygo Rock 'N Rye more than the Redpop, mainly because there's less of an aftertaste and it's a very interesting flavor.  I've mostly been buying the 8-pack cans whenever I'm near a Meijer on my work trips to Ohio.

[SP Cook]

IMHO,

Cola (actual colas).  I find Coca Cola to be among the most pleasant things in my life.  I love it.  I have switched to Zero Sugar, and really cannot tell the difference.  When I am in Nicaragua, which I am about every six weeks, I drink regular at our house just to keep from being "that guy" that has to have special stuff (which, like Mexico is real sugar) and I cannot tell the difference between USA Coke and 100% sugar Coke.  I don't think anyone can.  I just don't like Pepsi, and since I switched to "diet" avoid going to Pepsi restaurants as diet Pepsi is often the only diet they have.  I just don't like it.  RC is OK.  I think the company that makes most store brand sodas also makes RC, because it tastes the same to me.  I go to a couple of hockey games in Cincinnati and the arena has RC products, which is odd.  Buc-ees soda is RC. 

Zero (warning rant).   I get why there needs to be a Coke Zero Sugar.  Diet Coke was never meant to taste like Coke.  It was the diet version of the vileness that was New Coke.  So when they wanted to update Tab, which was designed to taste like Coke, with modern sweeteners and dump the female oriented angle, they needed another word for diet and came up with zero.  OK.  But why is there a diet Pepsi and a Pepsi Zero, a Diet Doctor Pepper and a Dr Pepper Zero, etc.?  The original diet was trying to taste like the sugar version (almost typed "real thing", opps) so what is the zero version supposed to be?  Its just The Imitator, imitating. 

Dr Pepper.  I like it.  I like Mr Pibb now that it is back.  I cannot tell the difference. 

Mountain Dew.  Not for me, nor are any of those type drinks.  Seem to be for people who really are addicted to caffeine and sugar.

Root Beer.  Its mostly all the same, but I can tell a generic from Barq's, which the superior brand.

Ginger Ale.  See above.  Canada Dry, Schweppes and Seagram's are the superior brands.

Lemon Lime.  I prefer Sprite to 7UP.  Pepsi's offering in this category seems to change names every 10 years, with relaunch after relaunch.  Patio, Teem, Siera Mist, Slice, now Stary.  Says a lot about the massive advantage KO has over them.  Sprite's ad focus seems to be aimed way away from me as far as possible, but I buy it anyway.

Flavors in cola.  I can do a Cherry Coke once a month, other than that, pass. 

Flavors.  I used to do a flavored soda, like Grape or whatever, every now and then, but the only diet soda in that like I can get around here is orange Fanta (which, BTW, was not invented by the N**is, no matter what any click bait YouTubers say, Coca Cola Germany trademarked the name for a totally different soda and recycled it after the war, orange soda was invented in Virginia) which I am not an orange soda guy.

Regional stuff.  I can now get Ale-8-One thanks to a new deal.  I like it.  Its just different enough from ginger ale to be its own thing.  I don't like Vernor's.  There used to be a brand down in NE South Carolina called Blenheim's which was a ginger ale that was so hot it would peel paint, it was on Charles Kuralt one time, but I don't think its still in business.  I have never had Ski, isn't it a Mountain Dew thing?  Sun Drop is a Mountain Dew rip off.  Cheerwine is an over cherry-ied version of Dr Pepper, too cherry for me. 

Nicaragua.  Just some observations from traveling.  As I said, all of the sugar drinks are 100% sugar.  I cannot tell.  Coke is available everywhere and is universal.  Pepsi is very rare and priced below Coke.  Coke Zero is widely available, but Diet Coke, or any other diet anything, is not.  They have three generic cola brands, all of which taste like RC.  All undercut even Pepsi in price.  After Coke, the most popular drinks are ginger ale and flavors, which the main brand of these is Canada Dry and Fanta.  They don't have Dr Pepper, Sprite is rare.  Then there is Fresca.  In the USA, KO us "Fresca" as a brand for its grapefruit based diet drink.  In Latin America its a totally different sugar based drink, similar to the brand Squirt, and very popular.  Very popular.  A lot of Latin people in the USA profess a love for "Latin Fresca".  Coke tried to sell it as "Citra" in the USA< but failed to communicate that USA Citra was Latin Fresca and it died out.

[Dirt Roads]

I don't like Vernor's.  There used to be a brand down in NE South Carolina called Blenheim's which was a ginger ale that was so hot it would peel paint, it was on Charles Kuralt one time, but I don't think its still in business. 

They still make Blenheim Ginger Ale, and it comes in Hot, Not So Hot and Diet.  I haven't seen it years, but I'll stop by a couple of old-fashioned convenience stores the next time I go down to the Sandhills.  I hope the diet version is just like the "peel the paint off" sugary stuff (might have to break over and drink the real McCoy again).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I tried Vernor's on my most recent Michigan visit since I hadn't had it before. I'm not really a ginger ale guy but figured it was local culture and worth the try. I really enjoyed it and would have it again if I could know where to find it in MN (where I can easily find Faygo, though some Kwik Trips as mentioned don't have 1-for-1 the same flavors in stock - for me, that's cotton candy that I have to mentally note which stores do and don't have it).

[kphoger]

Coca Cola ... like Mexico is real sugar

Almost all soda sold in Mexico nowadays is a blend of artificial sweeteners.  It's gross now.

[formulanone]

I don't like Vernor's.  There used to be a brand down in NE South Carolina called Blenheim's which was a ginger ale that was so hot it would peel paint, it was on Charles Kuralt one time, but I don't think its still in business. 

They still make Blenheim Ginger Ale, and it comes in Hot, Not So Hot and Diet.  I haven't seen it years, but I'll stop by a couple of old-fashioned convenience stores the next time I go down to the Sandhills.  I hope the diet version is just like the "peel the paint off" sugary stuff (might have to break over and drink the real McCoy again).

Blenheim's is still available but typically in specialty locations in South Carolina. Typically Publix locations throughout the state will have it (check the "local foods" section) but otherwise I tend to have to search online for wherever the nearest retailer might have it...

Some folks have suggested they recently switched to HFCS but I honestly have a hard time telling the difference since the Red Cap has an overpowering flavor.

Had the Diet and Not-so-Hot and wasn't impressed; the latter is just a slightly stronger Canada Dry, in my opinion. The other was like all other* Diet sodas made in the last fifty years...not my cup of aftertaste.

* Diet 7-up somehow foiled this. 

[Henry]

I hardly ever drink pop anymore, but I always found Pepsi to be overrated, especially since the "rock & roller cola wars" that Billy Joel sang about in We Didn't Start the Fire. Thus, Coke and its corporate cousins (Sprite) were my main go-tos throughout childhood and college all the way up to my mid-late 20s or so.

[kphoger]

I just learned the history of Royal Crown Cola Company.

A headstrong pharmacist and grocery wholesaler in Ohio insisted, shortly after he and his father had bought out their business partners, that he get a discount on the large volume of Coca-Cola that he had purchased.  But, when the Coca-Cola salesman refused to give a discount or any other such type of compensation, he determined to not buy any more product from Coca-Cola, and to develop his own soft drink formulas instead.  So, in the grocery store basement, while his father worked upstairs, that's what he did.  Their first product was a ginger ale, and it proved successful.  They reorganized the grocery store into a bottling works, then moved into a larger facility two years later.  Along with a couple of other flavors, they finally landed on a cherry cola formula to compete with Coca-Cola.  A year later, they renamed their bottling works to Chero-Cola.  When the trademark for that name was filed, Coca-Cola fought back by claiming advertising rights to the word 'cola'—a legal dispute that would go on for thirty years.

During World War I, when sugar was rationed for the war effort, they established their own sugar refinery, using sugar imported from Cuba.  When the war ended, all that sugar ended up being a liability rather than an asset, and, to make matters worse, a court ruled in Coca-Cola's favor and ordered that the word 'cola' be removed from all advertising.  Sales of Chero (no longer called Chero-Cola for legal reasons) plummeted, and the company was doomed to failure.  At least, if would have been, if only they hadn't released a new product that same year:  Melo.  Upon overhearing a salesman talk about some other company's bottles being 'knee-high', they changed Melo's name to Nehi.  This new product was so successful, that they changed the company's name to Nehi.

Then there was the Great Depression, and the sudden death of the pharmacist-grocer who started it all, but Nehi did well regardless.  The VP of sales axed the company's poor-selling products, and Nehi stood debt-free in the middle of the Depression.  Knowing that real success was still to be found in selling cola, he had ordered the development of a second cola product, and it was soon ready to hit store shelves.  They named it Royal Crown.

Ten years later, the courts finally allowed Nehi to use the word 'cola' in their advertising.  Eventually, with the popularity of RC cola, the company changed its name to Royal Crown Cola Company.

[triplemultiplex]

Back in the 90's, RC was the cola served at Lambeau Field.  Can you imagine that?  An NFL stadium that didn't have Coke or Pepsi?  Wild.

[hbelkins]

Back in the 90's, RC was the cola served at Lambeau Field.  Can you imagine that?  An NFL stadium that didn't have Coke or Pepsi?  Wild.

I can't remember the fast-food chain that served RC instead of Coke or Pepsi several years ago, but I want to think it was Arby's.

[SP Cook]

I can't remember the fast-food chain that served RC instead of Coke or Pepsi several years ago, but I want to think it was Arby's.

Indeed.  RC owned Arby's from 1976-2008. 

Shoney's in the northern half of its territory (the history so Shoney's is very convoluted) used to uses RC, while those in the deep South used Coke. 

For reasons having to do mostly with price, RC was quite popular around Charleston, WV back when I was a kid.  Unlike other brands, who used bottles with the brand names impressed on them, RC and all its flavors had a paper label, so they only had one bottle for the whole product line.  Anyway, lots of private drive ins had RC.  The local bottler gave out a sign, plain black letters on white, no logos, that read "This establishment is proud to serve RC Cola as its only cola beverage".  There was a time when Corridor G ended at Madison and there was an old drive in right in the coming right of way that still had such a sign until the day the DOH tore it down.

[Rothman]

Loved Nehi Grape when I was a kid.  The renaissance stuff being sold under the Nehi label isn't the same.

[hbelkins]

For reasons having to do mostly with price, RC was quite popular around Charleston, WV back when I was a kid.  Unlike other brands, who used bottles with the brand names impressed on them, RC and all its flavors had a paper label, so they only had one bottle for the whole product line.  Anyway, lots of private drive ins had RC.  The local bottler gave out a sign, plain black letters on white, no logos, that read "This establishment is proud to serve RC Cola as its only cola beverage".  There was a time when Corridor G ended at Madison and there was an old drive in right in the coming right of way that still had such a sign until the day the DOH tore it down.

Yep, I remember those signs.

RC was quite popular around here, as both Jackson and Whitesburg had bottlers/distributors.

[Rothman]

For reasons having to do mostly with price, RC was quite popular around Charleston, WV back when I was a kid.  Unlike other brands, who used bottles with the brand names impressed on them, RC and all its flavors had a paper label, so they only had one bottle for the whole product line.  Anyway, lots of private drive ins had RC.  The local bottler gave out a sign, plain black letters on white, no logos, that read "This establishment is proud to serve RC Cola as its only cola beverage".  There was a time when Corridor G ended at Madison and there was an old drive in right in the coming right of way that still had such a sign until the day the DOH tore it down.

Yep, I remember those signs.

RC was quite popular around here, as both Jackson and Whitesburg had bottlers/distributors.

Seeing RC logos everywhere was something I associated with Kentucky when I was a kid.

[Dirt Roads]

Today, the hot find was Cheerwine Zero Sugar in 20 oz. six-packs on sale at Ingles Market in Avery County (which is not actually in the two northern tiers, but near the far northwest corner of the state).  (Didn't know that Cheerwine had changed its artificial sweetner, but I'm not so picky).  Lowes Food that is still in Avery but much closer to Boone also had them.  Neither store had two-liter bottles.  Indeed, these are in the distribution area northeast of Asheville.

It figures.  As soon as we got home, the Food Lion stores in both in Orange and Alamance were also stocked with Cheerwine Zero Sugar.  In Avery and Watauga, they are in longneck 20-ounce plastic bottles bound with strappers; here they are in stubby 20-ounce plastic bottles that are decoratively shrinkwrapped.

By the way, I found some older 20-ounce stubby Diet Mountain Dew bottles that have black caps (purchased back in early Summer).  The black caps had been reserved for Mountain Dew Zero, whereas Diet Mtn gets a bright green cap.  Not sure if this was a mixup, or if the Dew Zero had been discontinued for a short time.  Pretty sure that we are back to white/green/black caps for Mountain Dew and its artificially-sweetened "first cousins" (YKIYK).