What is the best soda? It’s a question many brave, belchy souls have set out to answer—but few have returned from their quest with a definitive answer. Here at Sporked, we’ve done the hard work. We cracked open can after can. Twisted off cap after cap. And after 20-plus taste tests of everything from the best club soda to the best cola, we’re ready to round up all the best sodas we’ve ever sipped.
They’re fizzy, they’re sweet, and they’re ready to make you say, “Ahhh.” Here are the best sodas—including the best tasting diet soda for all you calorie counters out there—no matter what you’re in the mood for.
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- Coca-Cola
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No surprise here, Coca-Cola is the king of colas and it’s the best soda we tried in our extensive cola taste test. Not RC Cola. Not Pepsi. Coca-Cola defines the cola flavor and it simply couldn’t be more refreshing. As taste-tester Jordan Myrick put it, “There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more delicious than an ice-cold Coca-Cola.” It’s crisp. It’s sweet. It’s unparalleled in the cola world. Sorry to start this list on a “duh” note, but we promise there are more exciting soda revelations if you read on. (Oh and this was the best Coca-Cola flavor, too. Sorry, Coca-Cola creations!)
Read the full ranking of the best cola
Credit: Merc / Target
- 7UP
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We figured the Sprite stans would come for us for this one, but we had to speak our truth: When it comes to lemon lime soda, 7UP is the best soda out there. The big, imposing letters. The bright red orb at the center of its logo. The bold look of 7UP foreshadows the punch of flavor in every sip. It is crisp and refreshing, with a bright and powerful citrus flavor that encompasses both lemon and lime. As a mixer or straight up, 7UP is the lemon lime soda you have to stop snoozing on.
Read the full ranking of the best lemon lime soda
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- Dr. Brown’s Root Beer
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Dr. Brown makes a lot of top notch soda—their black cherry just can’t be beat—but we didn’t previously realize that the doc has flat-out perfected root beer. Much like the Power Puff Girls, Dr. Brown’s Root Beer is a harmonious blend of sugar, spice, and everything nice. It’s the rootiest tootiest root beer around, because it isn’t just sweet—it has a distinct celery seed earthiness that kept us coming back for sip after sip. Be careful, Dr Pepper—Dr. Brown just might steal all of your patients.
Read the full ranking of the best root beer
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Boylan Creme Soda
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We recently updated our ranking of the best cream soda, but Boylan kept its spot at the top of the cream soda heap. Yes. You could call it the “cream” of the crop. This glass-bottled beauty has a rich vanilla flavor and a robust amount of carbonation that make it super drinkable. So many cream sodas are just sweet, sweet, sweet, but this one is refreshing and complex and delicious. Plus, cane sugar gives it a crisp, clean flavor to the last drop. It’s quality cream soda and one of the best sodas, period.
Read the full ranking of the best cream soda
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Sprecher Ginger Ale
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Are you surprised not to see Canada Dry here? Well, take your preconceived notions about ginger ale eliteness and throw them out the window, because Sprecher makes some fantastic ginger ale. You feel the ginger burn, you relish its sweetness, the pleasant fizz tickles your palate. Part of what makes it one of the best sodas we’ve ever tasted? Sprecher ginger ale is sweetened with honey. Even honey skeptics have to agree that ginger and honey make an iconic combo, especially in a carbonated bev.
Read the full ranking of the best ginger ale
Credit: Liv Averett / Sprecher
- Barritt’s Ginger Beer
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Ginger beer better have some burn. Otherwise it’s glorified ginger ale. Well, Barritt’s got the memo. Their ginger beer is vibrant and spicy and authentic tasting—we wouldn’t have been surprised to find bits of ginger floating in this can. It really, really tastes like ginger—we can’t stress that enough. Pour this into a glass and you’ll see it’s cloudy. That’s the ginger juice, baby. If you’re making mules, this is the ginger beer to buy.
Read the full ranking of the best ginger beer
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Orange Crush
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Orange Crush is an elite orange soda. As Jordan said in their review, “I couldn’t believe how much better Orange Crush is than every other orange soda we tried.” From the citrusy fragrance to the genuine, mandarin-adjacent orange flavor in every sip, this stuff is a dang treat. Every orange soda may look pretty much the same, but if you want orange soda with real citrus ap-peel (get it?), Crush is the best soda you can buy.
Read the full results of our best orange soda taste test
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Squirt
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If you’re mixing up Palomas, you might be tempted to buy one of those fancy, craft grapefruit sodas you see on the shelves at your local liquor store or shoppy shop. But we have advice: Just buy the Squirt. It’s bright and refreshing, with a powerful sweetness that balances the tartness of the grapefruit. Because there’s no mistaking: This soda actually tastes like grapefruit. Even if a certain mezcal cocktail isn’t on the menu, you’ll never be sad to have a few cans of this in the fridge. Squirt rules!
Read the full ranking of the best grapefruit soda
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- Q Club Soda
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Club soda is club soda, right? Wrong! There are all sorts of things to take into account: Fizz level, bubble size, gulpability, and a fresh, clean flavor that tastes like really, really good filtered water. That’s what you get from Q Club Soda, all in a dainty little can that’s going to look awfully cute behind your wet bar. The bubbles are tiny and active, but that’s perfect if you’re using it as a mixer. If you’re drinking it straight, don’t worry—this stuff has a round rather than acidic flavor that makes it super drinkable. If you’re looking for the best soda—as in the best soda water—this is the stuff.
Read the full ranking of the best club soda
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water
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Tonic water can be intimidating. It’s bitter, which makes it a tough sell for some people, but if you love the stuff, you want something that’s going to jolt your palate a little. Fever-Tree’s Mediterranean Tonic Water has the perfect mix of bitterness for tonic water fans, but a balanced flavor that makes it appropriate for people who are just dipping their toe into the tonic water, er, waters. In addition to that traditional quinine flavor, this tonic is infused with rosemary and lemon thyme, so it’s complex. You’ll never have a better gin and tonic at home. Promise.
Read the full ranking of the best tonic water
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- Sunkist Orange Zero Sugar
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Crush may make the best orange soda we’ve ever tried, but when it comes to the best tasting diet soda, Sunkist wins out. What makes it the best diet soda? Well, it doesn’t really taste like diet soda—most diet sodas can’t say that! It’s citrusy and bright, but it doesn’t have the powerful, chemical-ly aftertaste even though it’s sweetened with aspartame, same as other diet sodas. Something about the orange flavor profile works in its favor. Sometimes, the best soda makes magic happen.
Read the full ranking of the best diet soda
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Diet Stewart’s Root Beer
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I know what you’re thinking. Diet soda. Fake sugar taste. Disgustingly sweet. AHHH! It’s okay, we get it—we’ve all been wronged by diet sodas, but luckily this is an exception. Diet Stewart’s is rich and richly spiced and doesn’t have that cloying diet soda thing going on. In fact, it’s on the dryer side of the soda spectrum, making this one of the best tasting diet sodas we’ve ever tasted, period.
Read the full ranking of the best diet root beer
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- Wild Cherry Pepsi
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Wild Cherry is a Pepsi flavor for Pepsi fanatics and skeptics alike. It’s not just a tasty Pepsi flavor, it’s a soda to bring you back to the early 1900s, sit you down in an imaginary drugstore, and convince you you’re gulping down a glass of pop straight from the soda fountain. The cherry flavor is just unbelievable—it’s worth a try no matter your cola loyalties. We’re looking at you, Coca-Cola fans!
Read the full ranking of the best Pepsi flavors
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- Dr Pepper
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Dr Pepper has released some wild iterations in the past few years: Strawberries & Cream, Cream Soda, and, next up, a blackberry version that’s joining the brand’s permanent lineup. But really, the original just can’t be beat. Our taste tester went so far as to call it “the best soda in the world,” so do with that info what you will. Those 23 flavors come together in perfect harmony and it’s a beautiful thing. As we always say, sometimes a classic is a classic for a reason!
Read our ranking of the best Dr Pepper flavors
Credit: Merc / Dr Pepper
- Mtn Dew
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Mtn Dew has been, is currently, and will become many things over time, from Flamin’ Hot Cheetos flavored to gingerbread flavored to—well—red flavored. But which of these flavors has stood the test of time as to become the best soda in the Mtn Dew lineup? You guessed it. Regular ol’ Mtn Dew. We’re sorry, but it’s just that good! It’s sweet and refreshing. It has a flavor that’s totally its own. It’s an icon of the soda aisle for a reason.
Read our ranking of 14 Mtn Dew flavors
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- Canada Dry Lemonade Ginger Ale
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Canada Dry ginger ale is great. We love the stuff (albeit not as much as other ginger ales). But once in a while a brand improves upon its original formula, and that’s precisely what Canada Dry pulled off with this lemonade-ginger ale hybrid. It’s fizzy with makes it more of a soda than an ade, but this isn’t your average ginger ale by a longshot. It’s tart with a sweet finish, kind of like a sparkling lemonade you’d get in England. This is one of the best sodas to stock in the fridge when the weather is hot.
Read the full ranking of the best Canada Dry flavors
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- Sanpellegrino Aranciata
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If you were a “guzzle an Orangina after a swim in the neighborhood pool” kid like we were, then this is the perfect chilled can of nostalgia for you. It’s got the best balance of sweet, clementine-like flavor, with just a touch of rind-y bitterness. It’s so refreshing and it makes a fancy little brunch drink.
Read the full ranking of Sanpellegrino soda flavors
Credit: Merc / Sanpellegrino
- Poppi Raspberry Rose
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First off, what a name. Raspberry Rose? It sounds like your favorite Bath & Body Works body splash from middle school. Luckily, it doesn’t taste like it. While so many rose-flavored drinks taste like perfume in a can, the rose flavor in this can of Poppi is light and sweet, delicately enhancing the raspberry flavor. Make both your gut and your soul happy with a can of raspberry rose Poppi!
Read the full ranking of the best Poppi flavors
Credit: Merc / Poppi
- Olipop Ginger Lemon
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Olipop knows how to do a ginger soda and do it well—Ginger Lemon and Ginger Ale were the top two flavors in our Olipop taste test. Ginger Lemon won out with its bright, tart, zingy citrus-ginger combo. Something about this zingy flavor just makes sense in a prebiotic soda. It tastes like you’re doing something good for your gut—and maybe you are!
Credit: Liv Averett / Oliopop
Best Cola
Rating:
10/10
Sporks
Best Lemon Lime Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Root Beer
Rating:
10/10
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Best Cream Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Ginger Ale
Rating:
10/10
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Best Ginger Beer
Rating:
10/10
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Best Orange Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Grapefruit Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Club Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Tonic Water
Rating:
10/10
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Best Diet Soda
Rating:
10/10
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Best Diet Root Beer
Rating:
7.5/10
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Best Pepsi Flavor
Rating:
10/10
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Best Dr Pepper
Rating:
10/10
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Best Mtn Dew Flavor
Rating:
10/10
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Best Canada Dry Flavor
Rating:
9.5/10
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Best Sanpellegrino Soda Flavor
Rating:
10/10
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Best Poppi Flavor
Rating:
10/10
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Best Olipop Flavor
Rating:
10/10
Sporks
