Soda-flavours (was Re: Pepsi vs. Coke, Deposits)

[pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Ebony AKA AngieJ" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:
[snip]
> It's all Coke... and RC... and Chek... and all sorts of other 
> weird drinks.  In order to get a taste of Pepsi, you had to go 
> to KFC or Taco Bell... and it *still* didn't taste the same.

We have something called Arctic Cola in Norway - awful taste!  Dairy 
Queen had Pepsi, btw.

> Pepsi preference aside, the best array of soft drinks is Faygo.  
> Another Midwestern thing, I'm sure... perhaps Michigan only.  
> Faygo comes in about as many flavors as Baskin-Robbins ice 
> cream does, and costs anywhere from fifty-nine to ninety-nine 
> cents a bottle plus deposit.  Good stuff!  My favorite flavors 
> are Rock and Rye (cream soda), Twist (lemon-lime), and Redpop 
> (strawberry).

I do recall from my days in Kentucky a brand that I was certain was 
called FayCo, but I may have a somewhat blurred emmory there.  I can 
only recall three flavours, however - orange, grape and redpop.  The 
two things I remember most vividly were (a) that the regular variants 
tasted like the diet-variant of most comparable Norwegian sodas, and 
(b) the colouring in the soda stained the glass.  it is of course 
entirely possible that what I saw in Kentucky was some form of cheap 
imitation, though I hvae the impression taht whatever it was, it had 
been on the market for some time.  

I recall also that there was a type of soda-flavour called Vanilla 
Cream.  I never did work up the guts to try that particular variant.

In Norway, we have: 
*   Coca Cola, regular, diet and de-caf version, and Sprite, 
regular+diet, and Fanta Orange, regular+diet; 
*   Pepsi Cola regular, diet and decaf versions, and Pepsi Max, 7Up 
regular+diet.  
The major store-chains have there own brands as well that mimic the 
above-mentioned brands at much lower cost.   There is 
*   Schweppes, with Grape Soda (it's grape *fruit*, but grapes are 
called drue in Norwegian, while grape-fruit is called grapefrukt, so 
the name is truncated), Lemon, Club Soda, Russchian, Bitter Lemon and 
Tonic Water.  The latter four are used mostly for mixing drinks, but 
club-soda is also used as a stand-alone drink.  
*   Farris, a norwegian carbonated mineral-water produced from the 
Farris-springs near Larvik.  The company also produces Villa, a fruit-
champagne (a blend of fruit-flavours used to mimic the taste of sweet 
Champagne) flavoured soda.
*   Solo, a Norwegian orange-soda which has changed its recipe 
recently, as it used to taste much better than Fanta - these days 
Fanta is preferable.  Solo is allowed to call itself "orange-soda" 
rather than "soda with orange flavour". 
*   The sodas from Oscar Syltes Mineralvannsfabrikk - most 
importantly the pineapple- (transparent dark shade of amber) and pear-
variants (transparent light green)
*   Grans Mineralvannsfabrikk, with Tropo (flavoured with a mix of 
tropical fruits - is opaque light green) and Baluba (transparent 
azure - never tasted it, and the bottle doesn't tell), and the 
Christmas-sodas (which *are* sold in 12oz glassbottles, to mimic 
those used for Christmas-ale, the advertisement of which is forbidden 
by law - hence the Christmas soda in identical bottles as hidden 
advertisement) - the standard variants are amber and red (both 
transparent), but one year there was a variant in transparent dark 
emerald, which immediately brought my thoughts to mint mouth-wash - 
put me off immediately.
*   Eventyr-brus (translates as fairytale-soda - has an image from a 
random Norwegian fairytale on the label), the only real red-pop - 
everything else is bleak in comparison.  Its colour is an excuisite 
dark transparent ruby, the flavour is rich and full, and it's so much 
more fizzy than *any* other soda.  The foam on top lasts much longer, 
too.  Care should be taken when opening, however, as it has a 
reputation for being somewhat "explosive".  Truly the king of redpops!

[snip]
> --Ebony (who really ought to take the 70-odd pop cans and
> bottles she has stashed between her trunk and the coat closet
> back to the store one day... that's a good seven dollars right
> there, and I could treat myself to a matinee.  ;-))

Best regards
Christian Stubø