Jones Soda Nuka-Grape Cola: Our Early Review of the New Flavor

The newest collaboration between Jones Soda and Fallout is here! For the uninitiated, Jones Soda has been producing flavors of the popular game and television universe’s “Nuka-Cola.” And today, I’ve got my hands on the third flavor in this series: Nuka-Grape Cola. Jones Soda hasn’t even announced this flavor as of this writing, so this is an early treat. Let’s pop this open (and pocket the cap) before the super mutants find us.

Wait, Jones Soda made a drink from a video game?

Basically, yeah! To promote Fallout 4 back in 2015, Jones Soda released their classic Berry Lemonade in special “Nuka-Cola Quantum” packaging. In the past year, Jones launched Nuka Victory Cola for the first time and re-released Nuka-Cola Quantum in stores (and reformulated it to be super-sour, good lord). While the bottles aren’t the retro rocket shape seen in the video games, the labels are a great approximation of the in-universe designs.

But how does this new Fallout-inspired Jones Soda flavor taste? Here’s our official review.

New Jones Soda Flavor!

Jones Soda Nuka-Grape Cola Review

Pros: This is a fantastic grape soda! No medicinal yuck here; this has a great natural grape flavor sweetened with old fashioned cane sugar. And unlike Nuka-Cola Quantum, I finished the bottle without my face turning inside out like a sour candy commercial.

Cons: I checked the nutritional facts against Jones’ standard grape soda and, while they’re nearly identical, this new Jones flavor includes the addition of unknown “artificial flavors.” I wasn’t able to get my hands on a standard Jones Grape Soda for comparison, but this truly just tastes like grape soda. Why isn’t this identical to Jones Grape Soda, which features exclusively natural flavors?

Credit: Liv Averett

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Where can I get my hands on Jones Soda’s new Fallout flavor?

I only knew to even start looking for this soda when I saw it on my favorite grocery store’s Instagram page. That said, if you aren’t lucky enough to live within a reasonable distance of Jungle Jim’s International Market, Jones Soda is sold at select retailers. (I found my bottle at a Kroger.) Of course, once the flavor is officially announced, Jones Soda will definitely sell this flavor on their website. Stay tuned, vault-dwellers!

What’s next for Jones Soda?

Jones Soda hid something on the underside of the bottlecaps of this year’s batches of Nuka-Cola Quantum and Nuka-Grape Cola: a QR code linking to a special page on the Jones Soda website. That page suggests that we’ll see another Nuka-Cola flavor at some point in the future. I don’t know about y’all, but I’d love to see an actual Nuka-Cola hit shelves next.