10 '70s Sodas That Belong Back In Stores

It hardly looks like there's room in the soda section at the grocery store for the flavors currently in existence, let alone the jazzy new concoctions bound to hit the market throughout the year. But if we're voting on new and exciting additions to the existing stock, we should give the lost sodas of the '70s another chance. From failed citrus coolers and sugarless cola to challengers for the root beer crown and fruit flavor medal of honor, so many snazzy sodas appeared or peaked in the disco era before dropping out of sight shortly afterward. For some, it's clear that the soda bubble popped too early.

Trekking through the trove of '70s sodas that belong back on store shelves, we found a bounty of forgotten brands that were celebrated at the time, only to be lost to the tides of public taste and corporate profits. Many of these brands came from the best of the popular soda makers in the world, including giants like PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company. They were experiments that didn't go over as well as expected, but shouldn't be relegated to the waste bin of history entirely — more like the recycling bin, if anything. 

Wouldn't it be cool if soda companies would heed our cries and consider reinstating classics like Teem, Barq's Grape, and apple-flavored Aspen soda? Here's a list of our votes for prime picks should the effervescent minds behind modern soda marketing decide to resurrect a few few blasts from the past.

Sugar-free Tab from the folks at Coca-Cola wasn't the first diet soda when it hit the market back in 1963, but it did become one of the best known soft drinks of the '70s. Tab's sweetener of choice was the notoriously controversial substance saccharine, the pre-aspartame chemical that stirred concerns about potential cancer risks based on experiments in which lab rats developed bladder tumors. Saccharine has since been declared safe to consume by U.S. food safety standards, but it was banned in 1981 while further research was performed. A 1982 reconfiguration featuring Nutrasweet showed that Coke was doing its due diligence and shifting away from a sweetener that was potentially harmful.

But Tab's reputation was dented. Though it remained on shelves for years, it became passé in the face of fresher diet sodas — drinks that didn't come with the saccharine stigma. The Coca-Cola Company finally pulled the plug on Tab entirely at the end of 2020, ending decades of stops and starts that ultimately stalled the brand. Despite its removal from store shelves, the cultural shift toward low- and no-cal soft drinks drove Coke to introduce its Zero line to challenge even its own interests with the cult-like popularity of the Diet Coke collection. If there were ever an opportunity to bring Tab Zero to the masses for a nostalgic rush with a thoroughly-modern formula, this is the moment for the company to give it another shot.

If you've ever wondered if sipping a soda could taste like taking a bite out of an apple, Aspen from PepsiCo would have been your jam. The company dropped this odd yet intriguing hybrid on the pop-quaffing public in 1978 as an innovation that was ahead of its time. Sodas like Slice Apple and Manzanita Sol (a Pepsi brand, actually) are bubbling proof that apple sodas can crack the market. It was clear like lemon-lime sodas but purported to taste like biting into a crisp apple, a claim that may have been a bigger bite than Pepsi could chew. The sharp green colors and modern logo on the can hinted that this was an upscale drink too, crafted for a more discerning soda-loving palate.

By 1982, Pepsi Aspen was nothing more than a memory, pulled from future plans by an enterprise with its eye on the future — and even trippier experiments to come. While the decades down the road would deliver ill-advised options like the flop that was Crystal Pepsi and creepy, Windex-hued Pepsi Blue, the refreshing essence of apple-flavored Aspen would never make a comeback. Pepsi could always push "pause" on Manzanita Sol and give Aspen another run. It's been long enough to relaunch this inventive blend and see if it has a more successful second life in a post-modern age of the daring soda drinker. The hundreds of members of the We Love Aspen Soda Facebook group would, no doubt, be thrilled.

Anyone who recalls Rondo, the citrus soda served in a can that looked more appropriate for beer than a soft drink, has a deep memory indeed. It aimed to be a Mountain Dew conqueror, with the description "blended from fine essences" on the label suggesting it may have been an early attempt at a mass-marketed craft soda. Facebook fans tease about how quickly it came and went, joking about it being a new flavor that seemed to have lasting power. Only a drinker from the '70s who knows how much of a flash-in-the-can this one was could make such a snarky remark; comments from folks who remember it as a junior high school gym refreshment circa 1978 to 1979 confirm Rondo's distance in the soda world's rearview mirror.

Cadbury-Schweppes was responsible for Rondo, launching the less-carbonated citrus quencher the company dubbed "The Thirst Crusher" in 1978. The big draw according to a goofy 1979 ad in which two karate competitors battle with bamboo staffs in the middle of a forest claimed that the lighter carbonation made it easy to slam down a can when you were at your thirstiest. There was a diet version too, though it didn't have any more lasting power than original Rondo did. A quick reappearance in 2023 may have given former fans hope for a long-term reunion, but there are no signs of Rondo anywhere these days.

You probably only know Barq's as a stand-alone caffeinated root beer, but there was a day when Barq's Grape soda shoved other fruit-flavored beverages aside in hopes of grabbing market share. It was created as direct competition for NeHi, the vintage pop that came in a rainbow of juicy essences, including grape. Lifelong soda lovers count it among their favorite Barq's flavors, which seem to include other classic options orange, and lemon-lime. Some Ohioans recall as many as 26 flavors at one point, even though the Barq's national standard has been root beer for decades, fans still search for grape as a nostalgic throwback to sweeter times.

The Coca-Cola Company snatched up the Barq's brand in 1995 for a cool $91 million, making the Southern-born bubbler part of the Coke catalog — the only root beer in the whole expansive beverage collection. Barq's Crème Soda and Red Crème Soda also show up in some markets, but grape is long gone. With such a small focus on fruit-flavored sodas these days, could it hurt to pop a little Barq's Grape back onto the menu? It could be just the refreshing flavor to revive the inner child in soda drinkers all around the U.S.

With Dr Pepper's stronghold on the alternative cola quadrant of the '70s soda scene, The Coca-Cola Company conceded that it could use a snazzy second brand to keep up with the times. So in 1972, the company launched Peppo, a rip-off of Dr Pepper's famous 23 flavors that was such a carbon copy of the original, even the name felt like intellectual property theft. It had the spicy cherry-esque snap, too, prompting the side-eye from both soda drinkers and the Dr Pepper company itself. The overlap resulted in Dr Pepper filing a lawsuit against Coca-Cola. Changes were made to avoid a copyright infringement brouhaha, which was how Peppo was rebranded as a much more familiar label: Mr. Pibb. That's right; if you've ever nursed a can of Peppo, you were actually drinking a Mr. Pibb in its embryonic form.

This was all long before Mr. Pibb vanished, then showed up again as PibbXtra, loaded with extra cinnamon spice to make it distinctive and unique. But drinkers of both Peppo and Pibb recall the original being smoother than later iterations; the newest re-re-rebranding of the soda, once again called Mr. Pibb (but with an exclamation point where the "i" should be) has been given a spicy cherry-caramel flavor and 30% more caffeine than older versions. Those who've tried it consider it too sweet for their taste. It seems like Coca-Cola should flip the switch on the soda time machine and bring back the original Peppo formula to make everyone happy again.

Teem was Pepsi's lemon-lime soda that appeared around 1960 and became highly popular in the '70s as a precursor to the Sierra Mist yet-to-be. It gave the blue-labeled can a chance to be a clear soda champion, bottled in vintage green glass much darker than classic Coke bottles. The name made it feel like drinkers had a chance to be part of a different crew, one that preferred crisper refreshment than non-citrus colas could offer. It seemed like a perfect solution and a strong competitor for the company.

But it wasn't meant to be. By the mid-'80s, Pepsi came to realize that not only was there no "I" in Teem, there were no dollar signs in it either. The lemon-lime shelf belonged to crackling Sprite and the Coke-challenging uncola 7UP, while Fresca had grapefruit soda covered and Mountain Dew was taking care of shoppers' juicier, more caffeinated citrus needs. Teem was cut from the roster in 1984, replaced by lemon-lime Slice, which had its own brief run as the lemon-lime Pepsi option before being ditched for Sierra Mist in 2000 ... which became Mist Twst in 2016. It's a lot of lemon-lime-ness to keep track of.

With so many craft sodas and limited-edition releases from national brands introducing novel flavors every season, there's no need for Pepsi to leave Teem on the bench forever. A special store-shelf drop to remind folks what they've been missing out on for all these years would be swell.

What is a cola company to do when it already has a diet soda on the books but comes up with a clever twist (of lemon) to the original formula? If the company in question is Pepsi, it launches a spinoff soda called Pepsi Light to give consumers another option. This unique take appeared in 1975 to confound cola fans who thought they knew everything there was to know about diet soda. Pepsi Light threw them a curve, even if it was a bit if a softball. But if people had taken to squeezing lemon into their Pepsi manually to cut the sweetness and freshen up the flavor, they'd surely appreciate cracking open a can that already had the lemon flavor added.

It turned out to be an assumption that didn't ring true with drinkers. Pepsi Light had vanished by the mid-'80s, but it reappeared in non-diet form as Pepsi Twist in the early-2000s. Nowadays, it's only available as a European import, which means Americans have gone back to juicing up their Pepsi and Diet Pepsi by hand like the cavemen did. Pepsi could help evolve the process by taking another chance on Pepsi Light. It seems the moment is ripe for a carbonated evolution.

Rather than mix up the message by using lemon and lime flavoring, Quirst from the 7UP Company went straight for the tart side of the balance with a lemonade-flavored soda. The name sounded like a crushed-down take on the phrase "quenched thirst" or a confused anagram of another citrus soda, Squirt, which made for novelty branding that set the soda apart. A 1978 ad called it "a quencher in a can" and made a goofy sing-along jingle from the line "I feel like a Quirst." An alternate version used grape drink instead of lemonade, though that flavor didn't rate a mention in the commercial.

Sadly, Quirst wasn't long for the soda world, dropping out of sight in 1980 when the 7UP Company was sued for infringement by SquirtCo, which found the similarities in the names too close for comfort. Maybe the years have softened egos and the time is ripe for a Quirst resurgence. Even with a different name, lemonade soda would be a mighty refreshing alternative to the other overly-familiar flavors that saturate the market.

There aren't many players in the root beer sector, which is why the absence of this '70s favorite feels particularly egregious. Hires was one of the biggest names in root beer circles, starting in the 1800s and eventually evolving into a Utah fast food drive-in similar to A&W in 1959 and is still in operation after more than 60 years. The soda still flows there, but the cans and bottles that filled store displays haven't been seen since the brand hopscotched from corporation to corporation, ending up as a Dr Pepper Snapple company property before being canceled as a store-bought beverage in 2010.

Most recently, it was spotted in liquor stores, reimagined as Hires Vodka Cooler to meet its now grown-up audience where they were at. But that doesn't solve the problem of the soda version going MIA. Even an empty Facebook fan page says that Hires has slipped from our collective memory. For enterprising home brewers who like bespoke sodas they can create themselves, Hires offers a liquid extract that keeps the spirit alive. Anyone with a thirst for less labor-intensive soda enjoyment and a taste for classic Hires are currently out of luck. Some of the original Hires family descendants have posed the question to Reddit: Is it possible to buy back the rights and bring the vintage root beer back into vogue? Die-hards in the comments section love the idea.

Cherry soda doesn't get a fair shake these days, and it didn't in the '70s either, especially a bubbly number that came with the whimsical and somewhat-off-putting name I Like Worms (also known as just Worms). It was launched by Larry and Duane Company, former Pepsi workers who named companies as wittily as they named their beverages. Clearly, this was targeted at young consumers; the logo was printed in a child's handwritten font and the mascot was a tousle-haired cartoon rugrat who looked like a cross between Dennis the Menace and Opie Taylor. The devilish urchin still shows up on retro merch as a wearable throwback, even without the soda on shelves to support the cause.

Worms soda cans are a big draw on the antiques and collectibles scene, with helpful collectors answering the call when older fans put out the call. Fans who remember the soda's quick mid-'70s run describe it as being similar to Dr Pepper and Mr. Pibb more than a straight-ahead syrupy cherry drink. And when the soda appeared on nostalgia forum In The '70s, commenters flipped their caps recalling a temporary sipper they hadn't thought of since childhood. It wouldn't be wrong of PepsiCo to pay tribute to Larry and Duane by bringing Worms back for a sentimental rerun, even if the Peppers and Pibbs of the world run the cherry-flavored soda show.