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Soft Drink Hall of Shame: Pibb Xtra

In today's Soft Drink Hall of Shame segment, we feature Hall of Shamer Pibb Xtra. (See what I did there. I pretended like we've done this before!)

Pibb Xtra is Coca-Cola's answer to Dr. Pepper... yet another showcase of originality from the people who brought you Mello Yello, Tab Clear, and Coke Blāk. (Sorry!) Originally called Mr. PiBB, the drink was reformulated and renamed Pibb Xtra for the new millennium. Although it's a semi-passable Dr. Pepper clone, Pibb Xtra is a Hall of Shamer because after six years, nearly everyone still calls it Mr. PiBB.

Where is the Coca-Cola marketing department on this one? Does Coca-Cola have some bizarre ritual where they retire old names and don't allow for their reuse? Does that explain Vault (pretty much tastes like Surge) and Coca-Cola Classic (why still Classic after twenty years?) Whatever.

Comments (2)

bun:

I've ever tried Mellow Yellow here in Japan 20 years ago. I liked it but it's no longer available. Speaking of soda, Coca Cola has got started selling here a kind of Diet Coke named "Coke Zero" with as strong impact as the original coke. I'm sure you can't easily distinguish between them.

Yes, Mello Yello actually isn't a bad drink. Coke Zero has shown up here too. As opposed to Diet Coke, which is an entirely different formula, Coke Zero is based on the Coke formula, replacing HFCS with an artificial sweetener. I agree that it tastes much more like actual Coke. Diet Coke, to me at least, tastes like liquid cigarettes, and was the basis for New Coke.

By the way, I haven't actually seen Mello Yello available for years. It's one of those rarities you run into once in a while, and now that Coke has released Vault, I'm sure Mello Yello is even harder to find.

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