Faaaaaaaaaygo! Me say Faaaaaaygo!

Top two heavyweight soft drink brands in America are PepSi and Coca Cola. They pretty much monopolize the soft-drink industry globally.

Then, under each of these powerhouse brands, they also have a line of other popular brands of soft drinks.

PepSi also owns

Mountain Dew
7-Up
Sobe
Amp Energy Drink
Sierra Mist
Brisk Ice Tea
Lipton Ice Tea

Their whole list at http://www.pepsico.com/brands/Pepsi_Cola-Brands.html

Then Coke has their own counterparts

A & W Root Beer
Barq’s Root Beer
Canada Dry
Crush
Dr. Pepper
Sun Drop
Schweppes
Mello Yello
Minute Maid
Hi-C
Mr. Pibb
Nestea
Powerade
Sprite
Squirt
Fanta

Coke’s entire brand list at www.thecoca-colacompany.com/brands/index.html

Phew.

So the major flavor here is that artificial “soda” flavor. PepSi is actually unique in that it is supposedly based on a plant, namely the Kola plant. Coke on the other hand, well, suppose to taste like sweet, sweet crack. Maybe. But that’s the origin, in that this “cola” flavor was supposedly medicinal. So now every dang sugar drink has that “unique” cola taste, rather than just being a cup of sugar and water.

And to get to my main point: what are the main flavors of the soft drink industry.

Cola

PepSi
Coke, Coca-Cola
RC

Caramel

Dr. Pepper
Mr. Pibb

“Orange” Citrus

Mountain Dew
Mello Yello
Moon Mist

Lemon/Lime

7-Up
Sierra Mist

Ginger Ale

Canada Dry
Schweppes

Root Beer

Barq’s
A&W

Orange

Fanta
SunKist

“Grapefruit” Citrus

Squirt

Grape

Crush

Best generic soda alternatives:

Cola

RC – although, not necessarily “generic”, but it does have a very good flavor and bite

“Orange” citrus

Faygo Moon Mist

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_citrus_sodas

Grape

Roundy’s grape

Caramel

Dr. Shasta

Others
For some reason I love Roundy’s Creme Soda, so it’s worthy mentioning.

Ice teas

Arizona, can’t beat it.

That’s it. Let me know your favorites!