Soda or Pop or Neither

 Three weeks into my New Year's Resolution. No soda. I also haven't had any pop. Nor coke (for you Georgians). And I love pop. I was literally raised in a grocery store. My first job was sorting cans for $1 a day at the family biz. We'd get new kinds in. Remember when Minute Maid Orange was the Coke brand orange pop? I do. It wasn't too sweet. Lined up perfectly with Coke. Remember when they were sold in glass bottles? I do. There is something about drinking a Pepsi out of an ice cold bottle. I even loved New Coke, one of the worst blunders in American history. But boy did I hate Crystal Pepsi. What was that?

Did you know that the first version of Cherry Pepsi had a lipstick aftertaste? No lie. Terrible. Do you know what the Mid Continent brand of Mountain Dew was called? Give up? Sun Drop. Not great. Do you know what Mid Continent means? There were three main pop distributors: Coca Cola, Pepsi and Mid Continent. I know because like I said, I used to sort cans. We'd have to send the cans back to the company I guess? I am not sure why they had to be sorted. I used to sort the beer cans too. Man there is nothing worse than old beer can smell. Now think of that smell from your whole town's supply of beer. Yuck.

But back to the brands.

Coke:
Mello Yellow
Minute Maid Orange (now Fanta)
Sprite
Diet Coke
Barq's (now A&W)
Mr. Pibb

Pepsi:
Mountain Dew (now about a zillion different kinds)
Orange Slice (now Tropicana Twister Orange)
Slice (now Sierra Mist)
Diet Pepsi
Mug Root beer
***No Dr. Pepper / Pibb equivalent that I can recall

Mid Continent:
Squirt
RC
Dr Pepper
Sunkist
7 Up
Sun Drop
Canada Dry Ginger Ale
A&W back in the day*

Mid Continent was the hodge podge outcasts of sodas. Delicious, but no strong cola to lead them to victory. If you say you like RC best then you best just leave this world now.

Now if only I had used my extensive soda pop knowledge to good use, I could be a CEO of one of those companies by now. Or run a grocery store with Matt and Holly. Ah another world in another time.


*In some web research it looks like Coke owns almost all the Mid Continent brands now.