Originally Posted by Mr Zabe

Are you recalling that Jewel had President's Choice soda pop made in Canada?
I'm not sure even if Jewel had store brand soda pop back then?

This was pre-President's Choice. I'll have to dig up some old "family vacation on the road" photos with some Jewel-brand beverage images

Waldbaum's brand (it's also the store brand for a few other stores) America's Choice makes a really good Diet Cola with Lime. It's my go-to pickup for when the current week's Pepsi/Coke sales are crummy.

I'm guessing you don't have any Safeway affiliated stores in NC? The Safeway brand sodas are usually pretty high quality. We have Randalls in Houston, and they carry all the Safeway products.

The local grocery store chain, Food Town, carries Stars and Stripes. They are usually pretty decent. I'm pretty sure they sell Stars and Stripes at other small chain grocery stores across the USA.

The Parade brand sodas are decent. I particularly like the "cola." I'm not sure about diet versions though.

Sorry about losing the Krogers and Winn Dixies in NC. Big K drinks are usually top quality for a store brand.

No, there aren't any Safeways around here.

I was really disappointed with the Diet Food Lion drinks. When I saw that they were sweetened with Splenda, I had high hopes, and Independent Beverages usually produces high-quality sodas. The Food Lion diet drinks, however, all had an awful aftertaste.

My wife pointed out one other store-brand soda that we've tried: the Laura Lynn drinks sold at Ingles grocery stores. With the exception of their cola, most of their diet drinks are pretty good. Their Diet Dr. Lynn is my favorite of the bunch.

While this is off-topic, this thread has made me realize how many grocery stores have closed in this area since Wal-Mart started selling groceries....

You people should try the All natural house brand that Giant Eagle sells here in Maryland. It only comes in plastic bottles but it is sweetened with cane sugar, has what they claim are natural ingredients, and isn't super carbonated like coke and pepsi products. I have only had two flavors but both were very good. I don't think the general public will ever buy it though because it doesn't say 'coke' on the bottle.

Bik K Orange is the closest thing to Slice.

Originally Posted by skylark68

The local grocery store chain, Food Town, carries Stars and Stripes. They are usually pretty decent. I'm pretty sure they sell Stars and Stripes at other small chain grocery stores across the USA.

In the past few days, I've seen Stars and Stripes 2 liter bottles at two different CVS locations here in Cincinnati. I don't know if they are going to be permanent additions to CVS or if they are there for a limited time. My guess would be for a limited time, based on the shelf placement. They were located where the CVS stores in question usually put special sale/limited time only merchandise. The label indicates they are made by Cott.

In one CVS, they didn't have any diet versions of the flavors. The other CVS had a bigger selection of them but I was in too big of a hurry to closely check out the display--there could have been some diet 2 liters.

If there are any CVS locations close to CitrusCola--and they seem to be popping up all over the country--they might be worth checking out.

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

I saw some of the Stars and Stripes drinks today. They were being sold at Dollar Tree. I checked the bottles and found that they are produced by Cott. They also had 4-packs of 16-oz. canned Shasta drinks. I bought some of the Shasta Diet Cola, and it was pretty good. I know that many years ago, when Shasta was the "bargain" soda at several area grocery stores, their drinks were pretty bad.

Well, I do like Wal-Mart's Grapette, but it is not diet.

I also have a co-worker that swears by Save-A-Lot's Bubba Cola. Come to think of it, two co-workers. Again, I've only seem them drink the non-diet, though. The diet versions might be quite different.