People love to solve a mystery. It’s why true crime podcasts are so popular. It’s why Murder She Wrote is a perennial favorite (at least in my household). And it’s why every fall, soda brands release difficult-to-pinpoint “mystery” flavors and tacitly encourage people to argue on Reddit and Instagram about what they are. This year, Fanta got in on that action with What the Fanta?, a black, mystery flavored soda that’s currently on shelves for spooky season. Fanta still hasn’t revealed what the flavor is (the internet obviously has a lot of thoughts), but let’s tackle a more important question: Does What the Fanta? taste good? We picked up a 20 ounce bottle at the grocery store to find out.
If you like Fanta, you probably like fruit-flavored sodas. And if you like fruit-flavored sodas, you’ll probably like this. I took a sip and thought it tasted citrusy. My colleague Jordan Myrick took a sip and thought it tasted grapey. Most people seem to agree it’s blood orange flavor, although others seem convinced it’s a berry of some sort. One commenter said that their boyfriend works at a movie theater and the Coke Freestyle machine makes this by simply mixing grape and orange syrups. Tricky!
Pros: It’s soda! What the Fanta? is tangy and carbonated and refreshing, and it’s also zero sugar but doesn’t taste too much like artificial sweeteners. I honestly think that knowing what flavor it was would help me enjoy it more, but that probably says more about me than it says about What the Fanta?
Cons: It turns your tongue black when you drink it! I don’t love walking around looking like a chow chow.
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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