Who makes the best store-brand sodas?

[CitrusCola]

With the current economic crunch, my family has been trying more of the less expensive, store-brand sodas lately. We've only bought diet sodas, but I've noticed that not all store-brand sodas are equal.

The ones from Wal-Mart that I've tried, Sam's Choice Cola Zero Calorie, Diet Mountain Lightning, and a few others, are not very good. I think that Wal-Mart's drinks are made by Cott. The diet drinks from Food Lion (which I think are produced by Independent Beverages of Charlotte) aren't very good either. The Diet GT Cola at Aldi and the Diet Clover Valley Cola at Dollar General are pretty lame, too.

The ones I've tried from Harris Teeter, Diet Orange soda and Diet Cherry Cola are so-so. So is the Diet Bubba Cola sold at Sav-A-Lot. I don't know who makes them.

The best diet store-brand drinks I've tried so far came from an IGA store near the NC coast. These drinks were called "Super Chill," and the cans said that they were distributed by the SuperValu chain. I don't know who produced them, but they were good -- especially the orange and "Mountain Chill."

I know that Kroger used to have some good store-brand drinks, but they closed all of their stores around here a few years back.

Are there any other good store brands? Who produces them?

[Mr Zabe]

Not trying to be a total jerk; IMO why not buy the diet soda pops you really
enjoy but drink less of them. How much diet soda pop does your
family drink in a normal week? I use to buy Supervalue's store brand
soda pop. They changed it to Big Chill which does not have the
"HFCS and or Sugar" sweetener. I picked up a 12 pack of grape.
It sucked big time. I do see where you are coming from.

[fusion]

Cott produces most of the generics out there, but I am sure there are subtle differences in the formulas they use for different customers.

You are right, Independent does make Food Lion diets. Have you tried them since they switched to Splenda?

Super Chill is in all the SuperValu owned/distributed chains here now. Before, Acme had Acme soda, now they have Super Chill. I believe Redner's used to have their own brand of soda back in the day (probably when the bottling plants around them were independent, and would run smaller batches), but they've had Super Chill for a while now. They even used to sell Green Spot, which is apparently no longer available in the US.

Have you ever tried Kroger brand? They have their own bottling plant, so there could be differences in taste between theirs and others.

Also, it's summer time, and sodas go on sale a lot. I know diet sodas don't keep fresh as long as sugar sodas, but you could stock up during the big sales.

[wonkapete]

Chek from Winn-Dixie has always been my favorite store brand. Lots of flavors too!

[SamC]

Kroger produces its store brands at Bluefield Beverage in Bluefield, VA, and America's Beverage in Irving, TX. The Virginia operation, at least, also makes it own brand called "Rocky Top" that shows up in small town non-chain stores around its region.

[Man From Ohio]

The best diet store-brand drinks I've tried so far came from an IGA store near the NC coast. These drinks were called "Super Chill," and the cans said that they were distributed by the SuperValu chain. I don't know who produced them, but they were good -- especially the orange and "Mountain Chill."

I

Super Chill drinks are sold at quite a few of the chains that SuperValu owns (such as Biggs here in Cincinnati) and many others that it supplies, such as Foodland and some IGA locations. However, I believe most of the IGAs in my area carry IGA-branded soda for their house brands. I don't know if they are the same as Super Chill except for the labels but I kind of doubt it--the IGA brand diet cola I got not long ago from one of the local IGAs was rather good, and IMHO if there's a consistent weakness in store brand sodas it's diet cola. You might try seeing if another IGA in your general area (if there is one) carries IGA brand soda.

As you probably know, the Super Chill sodas recently underwent a change in can design. I bought some of the Super Chill Diet Root Beer in the new cans a few days ago. I swear it's not as good as it was in the old cans. Maybe all the money went into consumer testing of the new designs.

[Dewman1979]

Mountain Mellow from western family is the best generic mountain dew.

Albertsons has Super Chill...

[Android]

Didn't Safeway's house brand win some taste award a few years back for their diet Cola?

[Tannerman]

I use to buy Supervalue's store brand
soda pop. They changed it to Big Chill which does not have the
"HFCS and or Sugar" sweetener. I picked up a 12 pack of grape.
It sucked big time. I do see where you are coming from.

Zabe, do you recall who made previous versions of Jewel soda? I remember somewhat liking it in the 80s when they were an independent... pre-Albertson's, etc.

[Mr Zabe]

Zabe, do you recall who made previous versions of Jewel soda? I remember somewhat liking it in the 80s when they were an independent... pre-Albertson's, etc.

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?
I do recall that Canfields had a very solid line up of cheaper soda pops
that I drank often. Canfield's was about 20% cheaper than the
nationals brands.