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A teal-colored tropical-lime Mountain Dew created by PepsiCo and born as a Taco Bell fountain exclusive in 2004. The exclusivity gave it instant cult appeal—you could only get it at the Bell, which made every trip feel like a special occasion. Fans begged for wider release, clamored online, and eventually got their wish: bottled and retail runs, though the Taco Bell version remained the holy grail. A pure 2000s fast-food icon.
Coca-Cola's first flavored cola—and if you were a 90s kid, the wild graffiti-scribble can is the one burned into your memory. Loud, scribbly, teenage energy on aluminum.
The clear cola that tasted like 90s optimism and regret mixed together. Crystal Pepsi was caffeine-free, marketed on a fever dream of purity, and backed by a Super Bowl ad that tried desperately to make it cool.
The soda that made a virtue of overkill: 'All the sugar and twice the caffeine.' The unofficial fuel of all-nighters, cram sessions, and anyone with a deadline and no intention of sleeping.
The cherry-red Mountain Dew that felt genuinely edgy in 2001 — a new flavor, a darker can, and a tongue-staining color that made regular Dew look tame. It was the drink of LAN parties and late-night gaming.
Coca-Cola's aggressively marketed neon-green citrus soda that positioned itself as the extreme-sports answer to Pepsi's Mountain Dew. Heavy on caffeine and attitude, Surge fueled the mayhem marketing of the late 90s before vanishing from shelves in 2003 — only to surge back after a passionate fan movement brought it to Amazon in 2014.
The hot-pink can of Coca-Cola's first-ever diet drink — a saccharin-tart cola with a fanatically loyal following. Once the best-selling diet soda in America, TAB hung on for decades as a cult relic long after Diet Coke stole its crown.
PepsiCo's high-energy guaraná drink, marketed as "Better do the good stuff now" and remembered for its dark snarling-cat branding. Often credited as the first energy drink from a major U.S. beverage company, it arrived years ahead of the energy-drink boom — and was gone by 1999.
Coca-Cola's aggressively ironic mid-'90s experiment: a soft drink built on market research showing that "OK" was the most recognizable word on Earth. The gray neo-noir cans were illustrated by alternative-comics artists Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns, the slogan promised only that "Things are going to be OK," and the whole thing was dead within a year.