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The Coca-Cola Company / Orbitz
Discontinued: 1888
If you ever wanted a drink that packed cocaine, alcohol, and caffeine. Confederate Civil War veteran John Pemberton created Pemberton’s French Wine Coca as an alcoholic beverage. It was formulated with wine, coca leaf extract (cocaine), and kola nuts. He invented it for his morphine addiction treatment. It is marketed as a nerve tonic for veterans suffering from drug addiction and depression. A 19th-century problem. When Atlanta enacted temperance legislation in 1886, Pemberton removed the alcohol and created Coca-Cola as the non-alcoholic version.
Discontinued: 1918
Another iconic cocaine-laced drink, Koca Nola, was a Coca-Cola competitor with a similar name, but it failed to survive against the original.
Discontinued: October 2020
Coca-Cola’s first diet soda. The name was generated by an IBM computer from four-letter word combinations. Yes, this was way before AI chatbots were a thing. The original TaB was sweetened with cyclamate and saccharin. It became the best-selling diet soda by 1982, then declined after Diet Coke launched.
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Multiple discontinuations: 2009, 2019
The O.G. of energy drinks, C.J. Rapp, created this high-caffeine cola with “twice the caffeine” of regular colas and used real cane sugar instead of corn syrup—just in case you wanted a sugar rush and a major case of the jitters at the same time. Jolt Cola was marketed with the slogan “all the sugar and twice the caffeine.” Sadly, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009 but was briefly at Dollar General from 2017 to 2019.
Discontinued: Early 1990s
The father of seltzers. Alan Miller created this seltzer as a family business revival—his grandfather sold flavored seltzer on Brooklyn streets in the 1900s. Imagine competing against your grandpa. It featured natural flavors with no preservatives in distinctive glass bottles. Trust me, it was healthy. Though the original was discontinued, the brand has since been revived under new ownership in 2015.
Discontinued: 2001
A 90s favorite drink. The Orange-tangerine flavored juice drink known as Hi-C Ecto Cooler was created as a tie-in with “The Real Ghostbusters” cartoon. Spooky. The drink had a short promotional run but succeeded beyond expectations. If you grew up in the 1990s, you probably drank Hi-C by the gallon.
Discontinued: July 1985
Coca-Cola’s biggest flop in its storied history. Coca-Cola reformulated its original recipe to compete with Pepsi after blind taste test losses. Pepsi got the best of them with their obnoxious taste tests. This sweeter formula used fewer oils and natural flavorings. The public rejected New Coke violently—the company received 1,500 complaint calls daily. After a couple of months, the original formula was returned as “Coca-Cola Classic” after massive protests.
Discontinued: 1993
Clear was the rage in the 1990s, so PepsiCo created a clear cola designed to capitalize on the purity trend. Regular Pepsi normally comes in caramel coloring, but the company thought it was a bright idea to replace it with modified cornstarch, making it caffeine-free and less sweet—and clear, of course. Crystal Pepsi took 1% of the U.S. soft drink market ($474 million) in its first year and won “Best New Product of 1992.”
Discontinued: 1997
A drink with balls. Orbitz was a non-carbonated fruit drink by Clearly Canadian featuring floating edible gelatin balls suspended using gellan gum in bottles designed to resemble lava lamps. Sounds appetizing, right? The drink was marketed as a “texturally enhanced alternative beverage.” However, it failed due to consumer aversion to texture and cough syrup-like taste. It’s probably best to stick to NyQuil.
Discontinued: 2003
Coca-Cola’s answer to Mountain Dew. Surge was “Fully Loaded Citrus Soda with Carbos.” Loaded and ready with every swig. It featured a bright green color and extreme sports marketing. Achieved 97% teen awareness in launch markets and 95% trial rate. The soda declined after 1998 when there were false rumors about adverse health effects. Luckily, it did have an Amazon-exclusive revival in 2014. Thanks, Jeff Bezos.
Discontinued: November 2010
Taking its inspiration from Coca-Cola’s original formula, this alcoholic energy drink contained caffeine, taurine, guarana, and 12% alcohol by volume. The perfect party drink or study buddy, your choice. Ohio State fraternity members invented four Loko. Nicknamed “blackout in a can” due to caffeine masking alcohol effects. The original Four Loko was banned in multiple states after hospitalizations. FDA forced the removal of stimulants in 2010. But the current version is still around and only contains alcohol.
Discontinued: 2011
With Surge’s failure, Coca-Cola started from scratch by creating Vault. This was an energy drink-soda hybrid attempting to compete with Mountain Dew. It’s tough to de-crown the Dew. The drink featured a citrusy flavor with a higher caffeine content than traditional sodas. Despite aggressive marketing, including Super Bowl ads, the drink failed.
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Discontinued: 2008
When coffee met cola. Coca-Cola BlāK was an experimental fusion of Coca-Cola and coffee. It contained twice the caffeine of regular Coke. Anxiety for the win again. But the concoction failed due to unusual taste, niche appeal, and consumer confusion about the coffee-cola combination.
Discontinued: 2020
Odwalla Juices was a premium fresh juice company that was nearly bankrupted by the 1996 E. coli outbreak in apple juice. The owners sold it to Coca-Cola in 2001. However, consumers shunned it for its sugar content, and Coca-Cola discontinued the drink line a couple of decades later.
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