There's been no shortage of iconic sodas in the US and Canada over the years – from Southern classics like RC Soda and Big Red to the amazing variety of beverages dreamed up by PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company. (Mr. Pibb, Mountain Dew, or Surge, anyone?) While some are sadly long gone, others are still favorites today – and here, we've rounded up the best of them all.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the drinks everyone was sipping during the decade you were born.
Founded in 1904, Canada Dry was – and still is – known mainly for its ginger ale. However, over the years the brand has experimented with lots of other sodas. In the 1940s, the company made its first foray into the cola market with Spur. It was discontinued in the late 1950s, but a low-caffeine version was briefly brought back to life in the early 1980s.
By the 1940s, Coca-Cola was well on its way to becoming the manufacturing giant it is today. During the Second World War, bottles were sent to Asia, Europe, and North Africa, so North American servicemen and women could get hold of the drink for a nickel (four pence) wherever they were in the world. More than five billion bottles were drunk by the military during the conflict, and the drink was introduced to lots of new countries, leading to a massive period of global growth for the brand.
It's not such a big national player anymore, but in the 1940s this Georgia-based soda brand poured money into print and TV ads featuring popular celebrities of the time, including Joan Crawford, Betty Grable, and Bing Crosby. It had a big fan base in the Southern United States, and country singer Bill Lister even recorded a song about drinking RC Cola (short for Royal Crown Cola) with a Moon Pie (a chocolate cookie with a marshmallow center). The pairing is still a local favorite – and there's an annual 'RC-MoonPie Festival' in Bell Buckle, Tennessee.
Originally known as Ward's Orange Crush, this fizzy citrus soda was first introduced in 1911 and quickly became popular. But it was after the Second World War that Orange Crush really took off, with its distinctive brown bottles making it easily recognizable. Over the years, Crush introduced many new flavors – and though the glass bottles are long gone, the brand is still a big player in the soft drinks market.
An old-fashioned term for Scotch whisky, Mountain Dew was developed as a mixer by brothers Barney and Ally Hartman in the 1940s. The bright green drink was first bottled in Knoxville and Johnson City, Tennessee, and Marion, Virginia. It wasn't available nationwide until the Pepsi-Cola Company (now PepsiCo) bought the brand in 1964 – and it's still going strong today. Though it was originally citrus-flavored, there's now a multitude of Mountain Dew varieties on offer.
Did you know Fanta was created in Nazi Germany? Or that, due to food shortages, its original ingredients were waste products such as apple fibers, cider mash, and whey (the cheese by-product)? After the Second World War, Coca-Cola’s extremely popular second brand was given a recipe update, and was brought over to North America.
Diet sodas ruled the 1950s. The Kirsch Bottling Company of Brooklyn pioneered the trend with the release of No-Cal ginger ale – but it was Royal Crown Cola that took its product Diet Rite Cola nationwide in 1958. At first, the brand targeted diabetics, and the soda was sold in the medicine section of grocery stores. However, it quickly went mainstream, and by 1960 it was the fourth bestselling soft drink in the USA.
Still a favorite in Southern states, Big Red was one of the first red cream sodas. Flavored with vanilla, lemon, and orange oil, the drink was created by R.H. Roark and Grover C. Thomsen in Waco, Texas, in the 1930s. Originally named Sun Tang Red Cream Soda, the drink wasn't referred to as Big Red, as it's known today, until the late 1960s.
Coca-Cola’s lemon and lime cousin, Sprite started life in Germany as Fanta Klara Zitrone (Fanta Clear Lemon) before it was introduced to America in 1961 as a rival to 7UP. It has always come in a refreshing green bottle or can (similar to 7UP), and is still one of the most popular soft drinks in the world.
Diet Pepsi started life in 1964 as Patio Diet Cola, before a swift rebrand the following year. It was the first diet cola marketed and sold across the USA – and in the 1960s and 1970s its main rival was Coca-Cola's Tab, before Diet Coke came along in 1982. Diet Pepsi faced criticism in 2015, when controversial ingredient aspartame (a sweetener) was replaced with sucralose; many fans said the taste changed.
Canada Dry's grapefruit-flavored soda Wink hit shelves in 1965, and was marketed as 'the sassy one,' with tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns to match. You can still find it if you search hard enough, though not in the wonderful green glass bottles soda fans loved back in the day.
Gatorade was created by scientists in a lab at the University of Florida in 1965, and is named after the university's sports teams, the Florida Gators. Purchased by PepsiCo in 2000, it's often credited as the first-ever sports drink (although British brand Lucozade actually dates back to 1927). It's now available in over 80 countries.
Do you remember Teem? On shelves from the 1960s to the 1980s, it was a lemon and lime–flavored soda created by the Pepsi-Cola Company (now PepsiCo) as a rival to 7UP and Sprite. It had many fans, but after two decades it was axed and replaced by another citrus drink called Slice (which, in turn, was later replaced by Sierra Mist).
Mr. Pibb debuted in Southern US markets in 1972, with fruity, spicy notes similar to Dr Pepper. Interestingly, The Coca-Cola Company originally wanted to call it Peppo, but wasn’t allowed because the name was too similar to its competitor. While the original Mr. Pibb is no longer available to buy, a reformulation of the drink, Pibb Xtra, is on shelves today.
Introduced in 1979 by The Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew, this groovy citrus-flavored soda encapsulated the vibe of the decade. Its name is thought to have been inspired by the 1966 Donovan song Mellow Yellow. Limited-edition cherry, peach, and melon versions were later launched, but it's the original that's still on sale today.
Inspired by the smell of different fruit syrups mixing in the air at a soda fountain, pharmacist Charles Alderton created Dr Pepper in the late 19th century. Fast-forward to the 1970s and its marketing slogan claimed it was still 'the most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world.' This was the decade of its much-loved jingle, 'Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?'
In a rush to keep up with the diet soda industry, The Coca-Cola Company launched Tab. However, it quickly suffered two obstacles: its first sweetener, cyclamate, was banned, and its replacement, saccharin, was getting bad press. Nonetheless, it managed to gain fans – and by 1980 it was the best-selling diet soda in the United States. At one point, six different flavors were available, including root beer and black cherry. Sales steadily fell after the introduction of Diet Coke in 1982, and Tab was eventually discontinued in 2020.
One of the most famous brands to be born in the 1980s, Diet Coke positioned itself as a great drink that just so happened to be diet-friendly, with its famous tagline, 'Just for the taste of it.' It launched with a commercial featuring The Rockettes, filmed at New York's Radio City Music Hall – and by the end of 1983, it was the best-selling diet soda in the USA.
First launched in France in 1935, Orangina's famous pear-shaped bottles reached North America in the mid-1980s. The sparkling soft drink, made with orange juice and pulp, is known for its bold advertising campaigns, as well as its catchphrase, 'Shake the bottle, wake the drink.'
Particularly popular with children and teens, this fruity twist on Coke was launched in the US in the 1980s, and quickly built a fan base. By the end of its first year, it was among the country's 10 best-selling soft drinks. Unlike many other sodas on this list, Cherry Coke sales are still going strong, though experiments with hybrid flavors, like Black Cherry Vanilla, were more short-lived.
Invented just after Coca-Cola in 1893, Pepsi had always lagged slightly behind its competitor. But something unexpected happened in the mid-1980s. When Coca-Cola changed its classic formula and launched 'New Coke' (the unofficial name for Coca-Cola's reformulation) in 1985, it upset customers so much that Pepsi was able to temporarily take the top spot. Coca-Cola quickly returned to its old recipe to win its fans back.
Extreme sports, cool athletes, and ski events are what Red Bull came to be associated with in the 1990s. The sweet soft drink, featuring taurine and caffeine, was based on the Thai energy drink Krating Daeng, which is still on sale today. When Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz met its creator, Chaleo Yoovidhya, they decided to launch it globally as Red Bull. Today, it's sold in over 170 countries.
Still trying to find a way to top Pepsi’s Mountain Dew, The Coca-Cola Company launched a citrus drink called Surge in 1996. It had a bright green can, and was marketed as having a 'hardcore' edge. After being phased out in 2003, it made a comeback in 2018. Today it can be found at Burger King chains with Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
This strange soda brand was brought out by Coca-Cola in the 1990s to try and capture the cynical Generation X market. Commercials for the drink focused on how it made you feel instead of its flavor, and the name was picked because research showed 'OK' was the second most recognizable word in the world (after 'Coke'). Gen X were suitably unimpressed though, and the soda was discontinued in 1995.
Launched in 1996 by flavored water company Clearly Canadian, Orbitz was a fruity, non-fizzy beverage dotted with colored gelatin balls. It looked just like a lava lamp in a glass bottle, and came in six exotic flavors – including vanilla orange, pineapple banana cherry coconut, and raspberry citrus. However, despite its striking looks, it failed to ever really take off, and was discontinued in 1999. These days, unopened bottles sell at inflated prices on eBay.
If you thought the cola wars were put to bed in the Nineties, you were wrong. In the early 2000s, Pepsi brought out Pepsi Twist – a take on its classic drink with a hint of lemon – to try and extend the brand's reach. It was tested in Minnesota and Texas before being rolled out nationally and internationally, though it was discontinued in the US in 2006.
If this logo looks familiar, that's because it's 7UP – but flipped around. A stronger-tasting, caffeinated version, dnL was released by Cadbury Schweppes in 2002, with the slogan 'Turn your thirst upside-down,' only to be discontinued three years later. Poor marketing was blamed for its failure to take off.
When Coke Zero arrived in 2005, people wanted to know how it differed from Coca-Cola’s existing diet soda. The answer is that it tastes just like regular Coke (though hardcore Coca-Cola drinkers may disagree), whereas Diet Coke has a lighter flavor. It was replaced by Coca-Cola Zero Sugar in 2016, with subtle ingredient tweaks that made it taste even closer to original Coke.
Now read about the foods we fell in love with when we grew up