Ever wonder which sodas actually deserve your money and which ones should stay on the shelf forever? Recent taste tests have revealed some shocking truths about popular drinks, with one particular grape soda earning the dubious honor of dead last place. Culture Pop Grape Soda managed to disappoint even the most generous reviewers, proving that fancy marketing can’t save a terrible-tasting drink.
Culture Pop grape soda tastes like grass and disappointment
Picture opening a can of soda and immediately regretting it. That’s exactly what happens with Culture Pop Grape Soda, which costs about $2.39 per can. The smell hits first – an off-putting odor that makes most people wrinkle their nose before even taking a sip. The drink manages to smell grassy and tart, which already sounds wrong for a grape soda.
The actual taste somehow gets worse from there. Instead of the sweet, artificial grape most people expect, this grape soda delivers a musky, unpleasant experience that tastes more like carbonated grape juice about to turn sour. There’s no sweetness, no classic grape soda satisfaction, just a weird medicinal quality that makes people question their life choices. Even marketed as a “healthy” prebiotic soda, nothing about drinking it feels good or enjoyable.
Cherry Bombshell from Crumbl gets the same treatment
Speaking of drinks that nobody asked for, Crumbl’s Cherry Bombshell dirty soda earned its spot at the bottom of another ranking. Made with Dr Pepper, cherry syrup, and coconut cream, this combination sounds promising on paper but delivers something closer to cherry cough medicine mixed with flat soda. The warm spice of Dr Pepper somehow makes the artificial cherry taste even more plastic and unpleasant.
The coconut cream creates its own set of problems, separating and curdling on top like an oil slick that coats the tongue. Even the lime garnish can’t save this dirty soda disaster. Most reviewers can barely make it past the third sip before giving up entirely. It’s essentially a melted Shirley Temple that someone decided to ruin with cream, proving that some flavor combinations should never exist.
Mountain Dew Freedom Fusion confuses everyone
Mountain Dew’s Freedom Fusion presents another case of a drink that nobody can figure out. Officially labeled as lemonade and peach, most people smell grapefruit when they first open the bottle. The icy white color looks promising, like a summer slushie, but the confusion starts immediately. The disconnect between what it’s supposed to taste like and what actually happens makes for a frustrating drinking experience.
The real problem comes with the aftertaste, which resembles Robitussin cough medicine. That bitter, medicinal finish makes people wrinkle their nose and reach for something else to wash it down. Being a limited edition 4th of July drink makes it even harder to find, though most people agree that’s probably for the best. This Mountain Dew proves that patriotic theming can’t overcome fundamental taste problems.
Healthy sodas often taste the worst
There’s a clear pattern emerging with so-called “healthy” sodas consistently ranking at the bottom of taste tests. Poppi Grape Soda, another prebiotic option, manages to taste strongly of apple despite being grape-flavored. The apple cider vinegar infusion creates an overwhelming artificial sweetness that borders on unbearable. These drinks seem to prioritize gut health over actual enjoyment.
Olipop Classic Grape Soda follows the same disappointing path, tasting more like carbonated grape juice with lime than actual grape soda. The Stevia sweetener creates that telltale artificial aftertaste that many people find gross. Even worse, it’s not even purple – it’s red, which feels like false advertising for grape soda fans. These drinks might be better for digestion, but they completely miss the mark on delivering the nostalgic grape soda experience people actually want.
Artificial sweeteners ruin most diet versions
Diet sodas face their own set of problems, typically starting strong but finishing poorly. Diet Mountain Dew smells fantastic and tastes bold and sweet at first, closely mimicking the original version. The initial sip tricks people into thinking they’re getting the full experience, but then reality hits with the delayed aftertaste. That bitter finish common to most diet sodas shows up and ruins the whole experience.
Even Baja Blast’s zero sugar version suffers from the same issue, despite having that great lime smell and fizzy first sip. The sugar substitutes create a satisfying initial taste but leave behind a bitter aftertaste that doesn’t match the original. This seems to be the trade-off with most zero sugar sodas – they nail the initial impression but can’t stick the landing. It’s particularly frustrating because the first few seconds make people think they’ve found a perfect substitute.
Some sodas taste like completely different things
Purple Thunder from Mountain Dew creates confusion by tasting nothing like its advertised berry plum combination. Instead, it tastes exactly like grape soda and even smells like grapes. The disconnect between marketing and reality makes it hard to enjoy, even when the actual grape taste isn’t terrible. It’s like ordering pizza and getting a hamburger – it might be good, but it’s not what anyone expected.
The drink also has a weird savory undertone that becomes more noticeable in the aftertaste. While other sodas finish sweet or bitter, this one goes in a completely different direction with an almost salty quality. Being exclusive to Kroger stores makes it even harder to find, though the confusing taste profile means most people aren’t missing much. When a soda can’t deliver on its basic promise of what it’s supposed to taste like, it’s already fighting an uphill battle.
Frost Bite tastes like absolutely nothing
Sometimes the worst thing a soda can do is taste like nothing at all. Mountain Dew’s Frost Bite manages to be completely flavorless despite its bold blue color and cool melon marketing. People expect something exciting based on the appearance, maybe something like blue movie theater slushies, but instead get a drink that’s basically carbonated water with blue food coloring.
The complete lack of distinct taste makes it impossible to place or enjoy. It’s not bad enough to be memorably awful, but it’s not good enough to be worth drinking either. The blue color creates expectations that the taste completely fails to meet. While it doesn’t leave a terrible aftertaste like some other bottom-ranked sodas, the absence of any real taste makes it equally disappointing. At least bad-tasting sodas give people something to react to – Frost Bite just exists without purpose.
Medicinal aftertastes plague many bottom ranked drinks
One common thread among the worst-ranked sodas is that medicinal aftertaste that makes people feel like they’re taking cough syrup instead of enjoying a drink. Mountain Dew Spark, with its raspberry lemonade promise, starts off smelling fantastic like Olive Garden’s raspberry lemonade. The initial sip even tastes okay, creating hope that maybe this one will work out differently.
Then the medicine taste kicks in immediately, not even waiting for a proper aftertaste to develop. It’s like drinking cherry Nyquil mixed with soda, with artificial sweeteners that overpower everything else. The strong medicinal quality makes it impossible to enjoy, even for people who typically love raspberry lemonade combinations. When a soda makes people think of being sick instead of feeling refreshed, it’s clearly missed the mark on what beverages are supposed to do.
Limited availability makes bad sodas even worse
Many of these bottom-ranked sodas are also the hardest to find, which adds insult to injury. When people finally track down a limited edition or store-exclusive drink, the disappointment hits twice as hard if it tastes terrible. Mountain Dew Voltage, despite tasting like liquid blue raspberry candy, ranks lower partly because it’s only available at 7-Eleven stores in bottle form.
Purple Thunder faces similar availability issues, being exclusive to Kroger stores and absent from other major grocery chains. Freedom Fusion’s limited edition status means people might buy it just for the novelty, only to discover that bitter Robitussin aftertaste. When bad sodas are also hard to find, it creates a perfect storm of wasted time, money, and anticipation. At least when terrible sodas are widely available, people can easily avoid them once word gets out about how bad they taste.
These bottom-ranked sodas prove that fancy marketing, healthy ingredients, and limited availability can’t overcome fundamental taste problems. From Culture Pop’s grassy disaster to Crumbl’s curdled cherry nightmare, some drinks simply shouldn’t exist. The next time these names appear on store shelves, smart shoppers will remember these rankings and reach for something else instead. After all, life’s too short for sodas that taste like medicine or nothing at all.
