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!
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
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