Blast from the Past: Diet Sodas of the 70s, 80s & 90s

Do you ever listen to a gasbag like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, and ask yourself, "Just who IS this guy, and why is he qualified to have this opinion?" Yeah me too. Which is why I haven't sounded off too much about the big stories of the past few weeks. Wisconsin and the protests against GOP overreach, sure, I don't think I'm stepping out of my zone so much for that. But Egypt? Libya? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Nuclear freaking meltdown? I can comment on all of them, but I'm having trouble sounding off, you know?

So, it's good that it's time for Blast from the Past, a weekly feature that is pure frivolity, with a dash of nostalgia. And I was inspired by my previous post on diet sodas. You can't get more frivolous--or onto a topic I know more about--than that! Oh, I've done a Blast from the Past on the subject of sodas before. But I promise to find some I haven't used before.





#1 Diet Mountain Dew - My favorite diet soda was introduced in the 80s, and just in time for my metabolism to implode. For some reason, Mountain Dew (original AND diet) were considered EXTREME!!! Whatever, it just tastes good.

#2 Diet Shasta - Somewhere between a store brand and the generic white can with black letters that says "soda," was this low-rent brand. When you bought it, you hid it in a cozy or poured it and threw away the can.

#3 Diet Sprite - This 80s commercial, starring a pre-famous Sharon Stone shows the leading diet soda that WASN'T a cola. Before Diet Dew, there wasn't much else, except the rarely found Fresca. Speaking of which. . .

#4 Fresca - There aren't many Fresca commercials to find, and there wasn't much Fresca to find either, for a lot of years. It was as rare as TaB. And that brings us to. . .

#5 TaB - TaB's got sass! And Lyle from Blazing Saddles! This isn't my favorite TaB commercial, but I've used the other one before, so. . .

#6 Diet Slice - Yeah, "We Got the Juice!" might not be the best slogan when using a bunch of baseball players. But what did they know, it was the 80s!

#7 TaB again - What the hell, I love this jingle.



Happy Monday!

Diet Soda Taste Test: Citrus Blast, Mountain Dew Supernova & Voltage

I've been a big soda pop (back in Ohio, just "pop") drinker since I have been old enough to buy it. Somewhere in the late 80s, I had to switch to diet soda (damn that metabolism!). This was a little distressing, because I mostly hated artificial sweetener, and particularly diet colas. Luckily for me, the soda companies began branching out from colas and lemon/limes with their diet versions about the time my metabolism crashed. It didn't hurt that NutraSweet and other artificial sweeteners began their debut around about the same time.

I started my love affair with Diet Mountain Dew, and tried many and varied diet sodas along the way. Eventually, I could even tolerate Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Tab and the many other cola varieties. Of them all, the only ones I outright avoid are the diet sodas with faux vanilla flavoring. Invariably, I find them nearly undrinkable. Most of the rest make their way into my regular rotation of diet drinks. I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't care if it is Coke, Pepsi or 7-Up/Dr. Pepper brands that are on sale. 

But I do get restless. When Pepsi's Mountain Dew came out with Diet Code Red, I was very pleased. Not only was it something new, I also really liked it. But then I watched as they released flavor after tantalizing flavor of the sugary (corn syrupy?) Dews, with no diet version. I was very jealous of the full-calorie soda drinkers, cavities and pot bellies or not. But I find full-calorie Mountain Dew varieties insufferably sweet anyway.  In the mean time, Coke's Fresca came out with some varieties like peach and cherry. Pepsi started making Diet Orange Crush again. Coke made Diet Squirt. Somebody or other came out with Diet Sun Drop. All worthy additions.

But today at Von's, I spied three new diet sodas, all from Pepsi (and all on sale). I bought them all, and decided to do a taste test. Each of the sodas was poured over ice, and allowed to sit in the glass for only a few minutes. I ate a piece of cheddar cheese before each, so that I'd start at the same relative state. Below are my findings.

Diet Citrus Blast: This soda is apparently Pepsi's attempt to rival Fresca or Squirt in the citrus/grapefruit soda realm. It's a worthy entry, certainly better than store brands of grapefruit soda. It has slightly more bite than Fresca, but less overt fizziness than Squirt. There is no discernible "diet" aftertaste, and it is quite quenching. It doesn't set itself apart, and won't be a "top 5" favorite, but it's good.

Diet Mountain Dew Supernova: Supernova is reddish purple, and is billed as a "strawberry/melon" flavored soda. It's very sweet, if a bit less so than the Code Red version of Mountain Dew. I could taste the strawberry. . .ish. Any "melon" flavor would be of the Jolly Rancher faux watermelon variety. It actually reminded me of the flavors you might find in a melted freezer pop. . .which brings me to. . .

Diet Mountain Dew Voltage: Voltage--which might get them into trouble because of Coca-Cola's sub-par Volt beverage (nope, I was confused, that's Vault soda)--is light blue in color. It is billed as a raspberry/citrus flavor (blue raspberries?). While the drink is quenching, it has an indistinct, vague flavor problem. Again, it reminds me of the freeze pop example, with a hard to pinpoint "fruit" flavor. It's a fruit, but what's the fruit?

Supernova Voltage Blast "Suicide": Since I had three cans of soda opened, I finished them off as a "suicide" mixture of all three. You know what? It only suffers in comparison to Citrus Blast. As a combination, it is still a mixture of indistinct flavors.

None of the sodas is bad. In fact, should they stick around, I'll probably continue to buy them if they're on sale, if for no other reason than to give me options when I want a soda. Of the three, only Diet Citrus Blast will make it into regular rotation. But even it suffers from the Pepsi Syndrome: sodas named so generically, they could be store brands (see: Sierra Mist, Slice, Storm, Teem). 

Anyway, log story short, enjoy them while they last, I doubt that the Dew varieties will last long, and I wouldn't get attached to the generically named Citrus Blast either. But any or all of them would mix just fine with vodka. But then again, what doesn't?

The best diet drinks for me are in this order:

- Diet Mountain Dew (and if in a pinch, most store brand version like Kroger's Diet Citrus Drop)
- Diet Mountain Dew Code Red
- Diet Orange Crush (and Diet Orange Sunkist, though it has caffeine)
- Coke Zero (tastes very much like Coca-Cola Classic)
- Fresca (original and peach)
- These new Mountain Dews will slot right here in the middle, for novelty value alone
- Tab
- Diet Coke with Lime (or slightly less so, Diet Pepsi Lime)
- Lemon/Limes, like 7-Up, Sprite Zero (pretty good), Diet Sierra Mist (several varieties)
- Assorted oddballs like Diet Rite White Grape, Tangerine, Raspberry, etc.
- Assorted flavors like diet root beers, diet ginger ales, diet cream sodas, many brands
- The rest of the diet colas, regular or with cherry round up the lower end of my scale
- Just say "no" to any variety with vanilla

Blast from the Past: Soda Pop Commercials!

I've been blogging for over 3 years, and I know a lot of readers I have today never read the blog when I started. So, I decided to rerun a few of my favorites (with updates, of course).  I ran this post a long time ago, and since then, several of the videos disappeared from the YouTubes. So, I've made a replacement here and there.  See how many of these you remember.

Old soda pop brands have been reappearing in the grocery store, lately. Fresca never really went away, and  comes in different flavors now, but it's still sort of a niche product. And Tab has come back, at least to Las Vegas. I'm a big soda drinker, so it is fortunate that I only drink the diet versions. Unless the rumors are true about the various artificial sweeteners. Then I'm screwed. But I'm not sure there is anything worse than high-fructose corn syrup.

I did some searching for classic soda commercials when the old Tab jingle started to ring in my head (probably a side effect of those sweeteners). I found a lot of them, though was unsuccessful finding "RC 100" (RC 100 percent! You'll wonder where caffeine went! RC 100 regular and sugar free!). Here are some of the better ones.






1. Tab - Before there was Diet Coke, there was Tab. What a beautiful drink!  If you want a trippy experience, look at a can of Tab with a pair of red and blue 3D glasses on!

2. Fresca - I thought this soda was gross when I was little. Love it now, particularly the peach flavor.  Mixes great with vodka (vitamin V) too!

3. RC Cola - The undisputed loser of the 80s cola wars is RC Cola, which has forever more been an also-ran. But back in the 70s, it looked like they still might have a shot. "Me and my RC" was almost as big as "Be a Pepper!"  This commercial predates that slogan, but the RC in a circle logo was brand new then, and it's BACK now!

4. Shasta - I want a pop! Shasta is these days regarded as half a step above store-brand. But back in the 80s, they had a big push with this ad, which I didn't remember as quite so loaded with beefcake. But there it is. This has to be one of the earliest examples of mainstream homoeroticsm. . .but that's just my opinion.

5. Diet Pepsi - This song, "Now You See It, Now You Don't" is probably the Pepsico's best jingle ever for the brand. Very catchy. They should really bring it back, don'tcha think?

6. Slice - "We've Got the Juice!" Yes, they were toying with 10% fruit juice formulations back in the 80s, and Pepsi was still searching for a lemon-lime brand that would stick. It didn't (we have Sierra Mist now). My favorite slice flavor was apple, which I wish they'd bring back.

7. Dr. Pepper - You can't do a piece on retro soda ads without David (An American Werewolf in London) Naughton's  "I'm a Pepper!" It really was a craze.

8. 7Up - One of the better ads of the bunch, with musical styles through the decades. They ought to redo this one, with 80s, 90s, and 00s music styles.

Flash Mob at NYSE: David Naughton, Still A Pepper!

As far as flash mobs go, this one is a little underwhelming. But I do have a soft spot for David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), the original "Dr. Pepper Guy." And I'm something of a Diet Pepper myself. So what the hey. . .

Addition to My Diet Soda Addiction: TAB!

Photo from source, Wikipedia

If artificial sweetener is truly a harmful substance, I'm in big, big trouble. They're using quite a variety of them lately, and producing a lot of very tasty diet sodas. And I'm addicted to diet soda.

I used to be a confirmed Pepsi drinker, full-sugar variety. But that was many years ago, when my metabolism allowed me to eat or drink most anything. Lucky for me, right about the time I had to start watching my weight, soda makers started making some more interesting diet versions. I used to really hate diet colas. I was so used to Pepsi, Coke and RC, and the diet versions didn't taste anything like them. Diet Sprite and Diet 7UP were ok, but kinda boring. Then came my favorite, Diet Mountain Dew.

I didn't know it at the time, but Mountain Dew has a horrible reputation in the Midwest as a hillbilly drink. And it isn't unfounded, if 20/20 is to be believed. But out here in Las Vegas, fortunately, what soda you drink doesn't define your personality. And if it did, mine would be all over the place. I have my favorites, but tend to buy what is on sale. Soda prices have gone way up for some reason, so it's good to be flexible. I'll even buy store brands, if they're tasty.

Today, I found that Coke products were on sale. So as I was digging through the stack to find Fresca Peach Citrus, I also found Tab! Tab and Fresca were both pioneers of diet sodas, dating back to the 60s. Fresca has been back on our shelves for years, with new flavors, but I haven't seen Tab in years.

I eventually warmed (cooled?) to diet colas, but they usually aren't my first choice. Even here, there are lots of options these days. My favorites are the ones with lime, or the "alternate" diet versions of Coke and Pepsi, with different sweeteners. Oh, and Tab is a pretty great diet cola too.

Anyway, for no other reason than it's a lazy weekend, here are my rankings of diet soda varieties. And remember, however "dangerous" artificial sweeteners are, I'll take the risk over high-fructose corn syrup any day.

Best: Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew Code Red, Fresca Peach Citrus, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Pepsi Lime, Diet Coke Lime, Diet Cherry 7UP, Diet Sierra Mist Ruby Splash, Tab.

Good: Diet Sierra Mist, Diet Vernors, Diet Orange Crush, Diet Sunkist, Diet 7UP, Diet Sprite, Fresca Sparkling Citrus, Fresca Black Cherry, Diet Citrus Drop (Kroger), Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Pepsi One, Pepsi Max, Diet Rite (multiple flavors).

So-so: Any caffeine-free variety of diet cola, any Kroger (Big K) or Safeway (Vons) flavor. Cherry versions of Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke.

Yuck: Vanilla anything. Cherry/vanilla anything. Energy drinks, particularly RockStar (for its owner, Michael Weiner Savage). Store versions of Dr. Pepper.

Pepsi Gets a New Look. But is it Improved?

Image from source, Under Consideration

You might not always be able to tell from this blog, but I'm a graphic artist. In my real job, I'm often required to create logos for companies. Sometimes they are brand new logos, and other times, they are refreshings or complete overhauls of existing company logos. It's one of my favorite things to do at work.

So, I tend to notice when a major brand name changes its logo. Sometimes they are bad (Dairy Queen's swooshes), sometimes they are good (Xerox's new logo), and sometimes they don't make much difference either way. I suspect to most people, Pepsi's new logo is no big whoop. To me? I find it irritating, especially the fact that a logo designer probably got paid a hefty amount to come up with it.

Pepsi's new logo features a twist on their old "Pepsi ball" with a typeface from the 70s. I won't argue with the font, other than to point out that it looks like the old "Pepsi Light" logo. It's the ball that bugs me. The old ball was an evolution of the original script Pepsi logo of the 1800s. The script had a wave to it, which was used many years later to make the "yin and yang"-type shapes that eventually became the ball. The new ball on the other hand, seems to be made of random shapes. It looks like what you might mock up if you wanted to show a soda on TV, but didn't want to feature the brand.

And, it looks like a guy in a red shirt and jeans bending over. This idea is reinforced when you see that the "muffin top" grows on the the full-sugar Pepsi, versus a smaller one on the Diet Pepsi!

It reminds me of the old Superman movie, where all of the Kryptonians had symbols on their chest, made up of random shapes. Only Marlon Brando's Kal-El had a symbol that reads (to most people) as an "S." I'm told that some people don't see the red "S"on Superman's costume, they see the yellow shapes inside. That is probably why the rest of the logos in the movie had random shapes, and that might also relate to the new Pepsi logo. Maybe the designer didn't know what the swooshes were for? Maybe he just saw random shapes?

Found at: Under Consideration

UPDATE: Since I posted this, I've found several other referrences to the new Pepsi "butt crack." And here, I thought I was original. Here is one of many: AdLand

What Exactly is "Honey Sauce"?

Being a heavy soda pop drinker, I learned long ago (about the time I started putting on weight), that soda is loaded with calories due to sugar, so I switched to diet only. Well, I should say, I thought it was sugar. These days, sodas are far more likely to be sweetened by high-fructose corn syrup.

High-fructose corn syrup isn't just in soda, though, it is seemingly in almost everything. Anything that is mass-produced, and tastes sweet (and even some things that don't) seem to now be sweetened with it.

But there are some things you'd never dream contain the stuff. Honey, for instance. Today, I thought it might be nice to add something different to my breakfast bagel at work. So, I went through the condiment bag and dug out some honey from KFC. Or so I thought.

I noticed that the packet (adorned with the Kentucky Fried Chicken patriarch's picture) read, "Colonel's Honey Sauce." Hmm. Honey sauce. What the hell is honey sauce? So I flipped the packet over, and read the ingredients:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Sugar
• Honey
• Corn Syrup
• Natural Flavor
• Caramel Color

Two kinds of corn syrup and sugar? Natural flavor from what? Color from what? Oh, and honey. Nice that they put that in somewhere. Flipping the packet over, I found the kicker:

• 11% Real Honey.

Well thank goodness for that.

I wasn't the only one to ponder this topic, of course. From the internets:

[Excerpt]

Sweetened Honey

My roommate and I just went to KFC for lunch, and I noticed something strange. The honey packets that came with the biscuits said "Honey Sauce" rather than just "Honey. . ."

Read more at: Just Throwing it Out There