If you really love carbonated soft drinks, wow, what a time to be alive. In 2024, the sodasphere was blessed with Pepsi that tastes like gingerbread, Coca-Cola that tastes like Oreos, and ten (I repeat: TEN) new Mountain Dew flavors—and we tried it all. When we weren’t drinking too much soda or suppressing belches after drinking too much soda, we were deciding which sodas are keepers and which can go the way of Surge and Crystal Pepsi. Here are the two best new sodas we tried this year.
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Why the HELL did it take until 2024 for 7UP to release a premixed Shirley Temple? If the most elite lemon lime soda (our #1 favorite, in fact) mixed with a perfect amount of grenadine sounds like a no-brainer, you’d be correct. This stuff is great! But we know what you’re thinking: Isn’t this just Cherry 7UP in a snazzier can? No! It actually tastes like pomegranate syrup, not just cherry. It’s sweet, but it still has that crisp citrusy bite we love in 7UP. It’s a sip of childhood in a frosty aluminum can.
Dr Pepper is a soda with a lot going on. Twenty-three things, in fact. Still, this cream-and-coconut-tinged version is the best new soda we had all year. It tastes like Dr Pepper spiked with sweet, delicious coconut-flavored snow cone syrup. The coconut flavor is very prominent, but it doesn’t taste like suntan lotion. It tastes rich, like there’s an actual creaminess to it, too. New Dr Pepper flavors don’t always hit, but this is a revelation. Try it before it disappears!
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
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Gwynedd Stuart
Danny Palumbo
Jordan Myrick
Jessica Block
