With the economy in a dump and my soda addiction at an all time high, I've turned to Private Label soda to ease my wallet.

About a month ago, there were soda sales all over the place here in Southern CA (it was possible at one point to get five 12 packs for around $12, plus our crappy CRV).

Needless to say, not any more. The prices have gone back to normal (or higher). I think I saw the prices are about two 12 packs for $9 now (no thank you -- that's so incredibly expensive that the stores should be embarrassed to call that a sale!).

SO, one of my favorite drinks is Mountain Dew. I decided to go and try every private label version I could find. Here's my list from best to worst:

1) Superchill Mt. Chill (from Albertson's/Lucky)
2) Great Value Mountain Lightning
3) Safeway/Vons/Pavillions Mountain Breeze
4) Shasta Mountain Rush

Other than Kmart (which I am not sure has a Mountain Dew version -- but I'll find out tomorrow -- *edit* apparently "Citrus Mountain" was dropped by them...dang!), those seem to be my only choices. Stater Bros. may have a version, but they are too far from Los Angeles. I do know that "Stars and Stripes" exists around here, but I only see them in plastic bottles and I only drink from cans.

So, Superchill is my number one choice -- by a large margin. I don't know who makes it, but it's excellent -- and pretty close to Mountain Dew. I think they key is that they use Orange Juice from Concentrate (as does MD). The other drinks do not. (And neither did Mountain Dew Throwback, which in my opinion hurt that one).

Shasta's Mountain Dew Clone is HORRIBLE. It's like a lemon/lime drink with a "hint" of OJ taste. But if I didn't know what it was "supposed" to be while drinking it, I would have guessed it was a private label Sprite clone (a bad one).

I've tried a few of the other Superchill drinks and they were pretty good too (although I have yet to taste *any* private label Cola that even comes close to knocking off Coke -- which I love or Pepsi -- which I don't like anyway).

I was quite interested to see others mention Superchill in this thread. But ugh, DIET??? I won't and will never "go there." Blech! LOL