Scratch

I am a special kind of person - A suburban tween.
There isn't too much interesting about where I live, and the other kids (as well as me) are bored often.
I have taken a weird interest - Strange soda varieties.

Living in my town, we don't have many places to get soda. There is a pizza place and a small restaurant right near the middle school, as well as a gas station store. On Fridays and half Wednesdays, kids from the school head down to the small restaurant and gas station store. Occasionally, I would follow, though most of the time I would go to the pizza place. That is where I fell in love with Mountain Dew Code Red.
I never thought that I would like it, but I was a Dew fan,so I thought, what the heck, I'll try it. I don't know if it was my age talking, but I loved it.


I did plenty research on the flavors of Dew, and have collected the various flavors that were available in my area: Dew, Diet Dew, Code Red, Supernova, White Out, Pitch Black, Throwback, and Voltage. (I live in Maine for the summer and there are better soda places nearby.)


Besides Supernova, they were all awesome. White Out was my second least favorite, it tasted very similar to Supernova. I want to try Typhoon, (another flavor,) but it is only sold in two-liter bottles at Wal-Mart. Sadly, I think they may have stopped making it.


My father is a big Dew drinker, and told me that when he was a kid, there was a Coke brand soda called Mello Yello that was a Dew knock-off, but tasted better. I was in awe that there may have been a knock-off better than the original. And then one fateful day, at the Newbury Comics in my area, there it was. In a mini-fridge. A Mello Yello. I dropped one of my CD's and picked up the lone bottle.


I told my Dad that I got Mello Yello, and he had a sip. He said it didn’t taste how he remembered it. It tasted almost exactly like Dew, but a little different. I think it is as good as Dew. It does taste different, but it is still just as good. If I get the choice somewhere, I would pick Mello Yello, since it has less caffeine.

After I saw it at Newbury Comics, I started seeing it everywhere.
I’m sure it has been around for a while, but it probably started in my area about a year ago.

After looking around the Mello Yello site, I found MyCokeRewards.com. Right where the list of sodas were, I saw a soda called Pibb Xtra. I took one look and thought it was a stupid energy drink, but somehow I stumbled across a website devoted to the drink.
It called the drink Mr. Pibb, and it had a different logo. The site told me that they had added a bit more cinnamon to the drink and renamed it Pibb Xtra, though it tasted pretty much the same. It barely had a description of the drink, besides “A Spicy Blend of Flavors.” I really wanted the drink.

Yep. I found it. I was at Five Guys Burgers and Fries (HEAVEN ON A BUN), when I noticed the big soda fountain. It had lots and lots of sodas, and it said Free Refills! in big letters. I was excited. I went over to look at all the drinks. Coke, Diet Coke, Mello Yello, Pibb Xtra, Cherry Coke... Wait a minute. PIBB XTRA?!?!?!?!?

(That's not me. That's a stock image. If you look close enough you will see Pibb Xtra. It's a real Five Guys in the picture.)

I got it and giddily drank it. It tasted exactly like Dr. Pepper. No difference whatsoever. No cinnamon taste like the label said. I liked it a lot though.

Never thinking I would see the soda again, I was at Target when I saw a shirt with the original Mr. Pibb logo. Beneath it, there was a Mello Yello shirt. I bought both of them and happily wear them around. Yay.


The various logos of Mr. Pibb.