13 Holiday Sodas We Really Miss

Experiencing the horrors of the new AI Coke Christmas ad makes us long for the good old days of holiday flavored sodas. Remember those? How could you forget, what with the annual roll-out of new flavors like Pepsi Gingerbread and Shirley Temple 7UP adding fizzy glitz to otherwise-ordinary beverage selections for fall and winter. The phenomenon is like a separate little celebration, with eager seasonal soda devotees waiting to see which festive formulas will claim the title of the merriest drink for the holidays.

The stirring nostalgia for bubbly creations of yore calls for a walk down holiday soda memory lane, where corn syrup glistens in every can and sweet and spicy essences create crackling surprises for anyone excitedly cracking the flip tab. This wintry wonderland of holiday sodas gone by is like flipping through a family album with photos of relatives you haven't seen in a while, but who'd be welcome at the table if they happened to drop by unexpectedly — maybe with a surprise re-release that feels like finding one last treat in the toe of your stocking. It may not come to pass, but soda lovers can dream. Here are just some of the holiday sodas we still really miss.

The brouhaha this bubbly brew caused was a carbonated furor that rivaled Crystal Pepsi. Cinnamon Coke was added to the product line as a harbinger of holiday refreshment back in 2019, a limited-edition formula meant to spark conversation about how creative cola-based beverages could be whenever the jingle of holiday bells filled the air. Food and beverage recipes were featured as part of the marketing roll-out, informing curious shoppers that it wasn't just for sipping; this sparkling invention could be used to flavor up festive culinary endeavors too.

Too bad the buzz from consumers turned out to be mostly bad. Despite developing a cola cult following, the spiced soda was destined to become a massive Coca-Cola fail. As of 2021, Cinnamon Coke had fallen off the holiday soda advent calendar, with no clever reimagining of any other seasonal selection taking its place. Apparently Coke decided to stick with its Santa-decorated can as a cheery offering rather than tinkering with the classic composition in the can. Fans still hoping to find a can under the tree can direct their jolly red-suited benefactor to eBay, where unopened cans fetch upwards of $50 a pop.

The mere notion of a soda flavored like savory holiday food items is enough to trigger the gag reflex of even the most ardent soda fanatics. Who wants to drink a savory mix of the most un-soda menu items imaginable? Jones Soda was betting on daring drinkers to break open a bottle of the most novelty notion ever applied to soda-making, just to see what the combination was like. There was even a merch opportunity, with Jones selling tees that read "I Tried Jones Soda's Turkey & Gravy Soda and Survived."

Plenty of pop people stepped up to the challenge and sipped on the blend; anyone brave enough to chug a bottle during the 2023 holiday season could earn themselves a Jones T-shirt by posting their videos on the company website for public viewing. The upload link is still active for anyone interested in watching the brave tasters give it their best attempt. The tee is guaranteed to last longer than the scarring memories and horrid aftertaste that certainly comes from engaging in such a traumatic activity, especially during the holidays. But it sure would be fun to find a few bottles and share it with the family this year.

Anytime spice enters the soda scene, taste buds perk up and take notice. Back in 2004, Pepsi launched Holiday Spice, a cola with warm kitchen seasonings usually reserved for baked treats worked into the recipe. Ginger, cinnamon, and cloves all made auspicious appearances in the usual Pepsi base, bringing the taste and aroma of holiday happiness to the tastebuds and nostrils of blue-can lovers. It sounds more complex than just a sprinkle of cinnamon being tossed into the fizz, and it captured the hearts of Pepsi fans in search of a bit of winter enchantment in their favorite drink.

It was so popular, in fact, that you can still find Pepsi people pining for their lost beloved holiday sip. Reddit users wax rhapsodic about the thrill of nursing Holiday Spice and buying extra to enjoy throughout the year. Though it made a second showing in 2006, it hasn't been spied on the holiday horizon since. Maybe a write-in campaign is in order to get this classic can back in the hands of those who love it best. If it worked to connect Virginia with Santa Claus, anything is possible.

It took Coke's chief rival a super-haul of holiday bravery to pull off a marketing ploy that pulled its coveted carbonated name into the picture, but Pepsi finally bit the bullet with teasers for "Cocoa" Cola Pepsi, a limited-edition flavor issued for the 2021 Christmas season. The notion of mixing chocolate and cola is nothing new; chocolate sodas were a mainstay of soda fountains back in the day, with a generous dollop of syrup added to a cola-based fizzy bubbler called a Black Cow. But cocoa calls to mind the inclusion of milk in the mix, a feature popularized in the '70s by the sitcom Laverne and Shirley and revived as a poorly-named 21^st century internet fad dubbed "Pilk," which just sounds blech.

Thankfully, Pepsi declared its intention to lean into chocolate and marshmallow flavors instead, infusing the familiar cola with flavors that made sense. And then, in an unfortunate turn that rivals Scrooge snubbing Tiny Tim's dinner invitation, Pepsi made the fabulous flavor a limited-edition contest prize rather than launching it for wide release. And in what might be the best part of this attempt to conquer Coca-Cola for the holidays, was that Pepsi sent winners cans of "Hot" Chocolate Pepsi instead. Did the soda suppliers get cold feet and change their mind about poking the polar bear at the last minute? One clever X user revealed the truth: The "Hot" Chocolate graphic was a removable label covering cans of "Cocoa" Cola Pepsi. Ingenious!

Anything merry in a crackling can or sudsy bottle is bound to make waves with the holiday soft drink set. Mountain Dew Merry Mash-Up introduced cranberry and pomegranate elements onto its artful flavor palette, brushing bright party flavor in bold strokes rather than keeping things subtle ... not that the Dew is known for its restraint. But these more sophisticated fruits that were squarely aimed at an audience who loves the juicy joy of just about everything Mountain Dew do — er, does — was met with mixed reactions, with fans divided on the flavor.

The strangest part may be that the company brought Merry Mash-Up back three seasons in a row, from 2018 through 2020. Maybe the wistful sippers just needed to taste it more then once to decide what they really thought of it. It hasn't been seen in the wilds of winter since the last release, replaced by other holiday Dews that do better for the occasion. But what a Merry Mash-Up we had, while we had it!

It may be difficult to imagine how working apple and cinnamon essences into a can of Pepsi could bring to mind the hearty satisfaction of a Thanksgiving meal. Apple Pie Pepsi was one of those "try it to believe it" innovations that sometimes catch on despite its oddness. Sometimes those innovations go up in flames like a real apple pie left in the oven too long, too. With its buttery-apple-cinnamon mixture tossing a challenge to the palates of fickle soda specialists, Apple Pie Pepsi was likely to go either way.

It turned out to be favorably received by and large, as a fun drinkable dessert you could drop a straw into. Word on the soda circuit was that it tasted just like Thanksgiving, a feature Pepsi played into by offering a free bottle to 1,500 lucky TikTok users willing to share clips of their disappointing dessert fails. Even if you weren't exactly Sara Lee or the Pillsbury Doughboy in the kitchen, you could use your less-than-perfect baking skills to win a bottle of something sweet to replace your lame-duck pie. Pepsi sure knows how to sweeten up the holidays.

The clever name, Snap'd, let Mountain Dew maintain its edgy cool spirit while introducing spicy ginger layers into its ever-spinning cyclone of soda selections. For a company that sticks to juicy fruit flavors, having such a powerful spice show up on the menu gave Dew doers a bit of culture shock. Maybe the point of going so far afield was to get everyone talking about the new Mountain Dew holiday flavor. Or maybe there's only so much soft drink formulators can do to recreate a holiday experience from the fruit-forward end of the spectrum.

The first clue that this 2021 special edition wasn't the usual Dew concoction was the color, which hit closer to cream soda or actual ginger ale than the usual neon hues. That tone didn't appeal to the test audience, so the company shifted from taupe to white and announced the gingerbread tasting notes were meant to bring a spicy new favorite to market. But it disappeared after a single season of celebration and never made another showing, a clue that indicates Snap'd failed to catch fire.

A Pepsi that's white instead of the quintessential caramel cola color? Preposterous! And yet, pop poppers in Japan had the chance to experience a wintry white-out in the form of Pepsi Christmas Cola, a blizzard in a bottle that threw tongues brave enough to take a taste into a frosty white wonderland of flavor. Was Pepsi chasing Coke's holiday sleigh with a one-upping creation that altered the essential essence of what cola looks like as well as what it tastes like? Not quite. The flavor eschewed traditional cola entirely for a flavor described by drinkers as a fruit-forward candy taste, which makes a lot more sense than trying to create a white cola and ending up with another Crystal Pepsi fiasco. 

Though the opaque liquid peeking out from under the label is a bit off-putting at first, it makes for a punchy visual, sort of like drinking a bottle of melted snow. Alas, if you're planning on investing in a case to use as stocking stuffers for your favorite fizz fans, you might need to shop abroad — and learn how to time-travel. There's no sign of Pepsi Christmas Cola showing up in the U.S., and the initial Japanese run in 2017 was never repeated. Some things are destined to be nothing more than joyful holiday memories.

When you hear holiday brew, you may think of bubbling apple cider sweet enough to speed up your circulation or some sort of ancient Nordic grog that requires berries you only find in enchanted forests. Mountain Dew used the concept to make a rhyming take on holiday soda called Mountain Dew Holiday Brew that was neither cider nor grog, but a sneaky smash-up of Code Red and original Mountain Dew instead. It sounds a lot like regifting soda-style, but using what you have on hand to create something unique for the holidays is actually in keeping with the spirit of the season. At least, that's what you learn about it on TV.

If you're thinking you'd love to crack open a Holiday Brew, pour it over ice and revisit the glory glugging of holidays gone by, you could be in luck. Rumor has it you may find this bottle still haunting store shelves like the Ghost of Christmas Sodas Past. As challenging as it was to dig up details on this temporary Dew, don't count on finding a six-pack waiting for you under the tree. But now that you know what the mixture is made of, you can whip up a batch for yourself anytime you want it anyway. It's a gift that keeps on sipping!

Pepsi S'mores was a limited-edition soda experiment that let cola mixologists conjure up their own version of the perfect seasonal soda equation. Rather than stuffing all the flavors into a single concoction, the playful folks behind the scenes created a trio of cans that held an element of the classic campfire dessert. Mini-servings of original Pepsi imbued with super-sweet chocolate, marshmallow, and graham cracker essences were an invitation for pop people to play mixologist and adapt the blend to suit their own tastes. Of course, anyone who thought graham cracker soda sounded a bit too odd could always opt out and enjoy just the chocolate and marshmallow, or any other combination.

It would have been an occasion for celebration had the company stocked shelves of these inventive cans for customers to get their hands on. Unfortunately, it was a specialty set only available by the luck of the draw, in a promotion that likely left many Pepsi fans wishing the S'mores selections would make a comeback someday. Like Frosty the Snowman at the end of the story, we're all still waiting for the first winter frost to arrive and resurrect what could have become a true seasonal classic. Holidays can be hard sometimes.

Cranberry notes blended into a sparkling lemon and lime citrus base make for a crafty cocktail that drinkers have been experimenting with for generations, thanks to party punch recipes that make the match-up. Sprite got on the bandwagon in 2022 with Winter Spiced Cranberry to provide crisp refreshment to the non-cola sippers. There was just enough new flavor in the bottle to perk up the essential Sprite-ness without overdoing things, much to the delight of anyone who favors Sprite for its restrained personality.

Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry was distinctly different from basic Sprite Cranberry, and when it whooshed out of the holiday soft drink carousel, there was an audible gasp of disappointment. Lucky lovers of anything Sprite-related will be happy to learn that Sprite Spiced Cranberry has made a much-heralded return for 2024. It's a sweet surprise release that brings back the crackling combination just in time for family feasts and house-hopping from party to party, a light and lush flavor that cries out for a boozy mix-in to give it a more adult personality. Of course, it's perfectly festive on its own for the no-buzz drinkers and younger soda lovers at the table.

Now this is a flavor that few Pepsi fans needed convincing to take for a test run. For the 2017 holiday shopping season, the cola creator hopped on the salted caramel bandwagon with its cans of Pepsi Salted Caramel, a natural extension of the product line that didn't exactly scream "holiday flavor" at the top of its crackling lungs. But since end-of-year jubilance gives the go-ahead for all things sweet and special, having a holiday-adjacent specialty selection allowed the company to cross-market the bottles and cans instead of aiming it straight at the heart of the festive crowd.

If you're hoping to set out a bottle for Santa to enjoy with his Christmas cookies, this long-gone soda is bound to leave you flat. The flavor never showed up on the radar again, presumably because caramel sweetness added to the already syrupy Pepsi base was just too much for tongues to handle, though there were fans a-plenty raving about it on Reddit, wishing it would make a resurgence. You can always add a splash of caramel syrup to plain-old Pepsi if your celebratory thirst calls for something creamier than the usual pop.

If you were lucky to have a Coke Freestyle machine in the vicinity, you may have encountered a trio of holiday flavors that allowed users to make merry mischief with syrups and sweet mix-ins. These ultra-modern soda-dispensing robots allow users to control the flavor blends as a regular feature, so introducing specialty syrups for the festivities was an inspired idea, especially for moviegoers and fast-food fans who love taking advantage of hot new releases during their down time.

Three formulations debuted in time for holiday season 2015: Secret Santa, with notes of cherry and lime; Jolly Reindeer, with a vanilla root beer essence; and Mistletoe Flow, with a vanilla Coke Zero blend. The pre-mixed syrups let guests pour their own without having to guess how much of each to add to the cup, creating a convenient experience that could only be had at the Freestyle fountain. Imagine when word spread about the hunt for seasonal soda you could pour yourself. If Christmas wishes come true for lovers of carbonated cheer, maybe a Coke Freestyle Holiday will make a surprise comeback to make winter magical again somewhere down the line.