Surge
12I used to be a soda addict. In high school I drank Surge every day. I wish I could find the terrible photo of me during class, with a can of Surge on my desk. After Surge I switched to Mt. Dew. Around 2-3 years ago, I finally called it quits.
Once in a blue moon, I’ll have a soda, but a caffeine free one. There was a few weeks last year that I was visiting someone in a hospital, that had a free soda dispenser. That was the first time I had a Mt. Dew since I quit. The first few sips were so tasty, and I could remember why I was so addicted. After that, it lost its appeal. I tried it again a few times, and always the first sip was tasty. I haven’t had a Mt. Dew since then.
Today, I went to Burger King for lunch. They had a huge sign that they have the exclusive Surge in the freestyle machine. I said, fuck it, and bought one.
It tastes vaguely familiar, but it also kind of tasted like the carbonated limeade from the freestyle machine. I don’t know if it tastes like the original, or if it tastes off because it’s the freestyle machine. I’ve had Sprite from that machine and it tastes weird from what I remember. It tasted better the first few sips, but now it tastes not quite right. I guess I should be happy that it doesn’t taste quite right, because now I don’t really have the urge (haha) to have another one.
Has there been anything discontinued that you were happy to see come back? Did it live up to your memories?
Did you miss Surge?
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It was regularly availble here $1 a six-pack back in the day and I would pick it up from time to time. Reminds me of:
/giphy futurama Slurm
@tnhillbillygal $1 a six pack? I would have developed diabetes in a month at that price!
Back in the 80’s, there was this:
/image New Coke.
Happy to have seen this come back afterwards:
/image Classic Coke
@narfcake
I kept a can of the pre-Classic Coke for years, but my parents made me get rid of it. So I’ll never know if Classic Coke was really the same as the original … or even if Classic Coke is still the same as it was.
Had to give up caffeine years ago (not that I really drank it for that).
@narfcake @TheFLP
I heard that they used new Coke to cover up the change from real sugar to the high fructose corn syrup.
New coke was never meant to succeed.
i once tried a mcrib again after many years. wtf was i thinking!??!
@carl669 I hadn’t eaten McDonald’s in years. Probably close to 5 or more. Last week I was picking up food for someone so I grabbed some chicken nuggets. I remembered liking those at one point. They were, just whatever. An hour or two later, I started to taste them for the rest of the day. Ugh.
@carl669 The McRib has to be done for a limited time before more folks catch on how it’s a Banquet meal.
/image Banquet riblet
@RiotDemon Because chickens don’t have nuggets.
@carl669 @narfcake @RiotDemon
Guess which orifice White Castle’s “Chicken Rings” come from?
I drank Surge. Not a lot though just went I felt it something no brown colored for a soda. My favorite was this though:
@Targaryen In high school, a trip to a university campus let us find this. I remember high caffeine and 25 cents per can. Never found it anywhere else.
@jaybird Yup, did you call the OK phone number and leave a message? That was fun as well.
@Targaryen yes we did. Much fun was had. 1800IFEELOK
Yeah…they still sell Surge around here. Usually in the 16 ounce cans. I’m not sure it tastes exactly like it used to, though.
/image 16 oz Surge
Taco Bell breakfast. In the late '90s every Taco Bell in the state was open for breakfast and they had a great, inexpensive lineup to start the day. $0.59 Fiesta Burritos were awesome! Egg, sausage, pico and shredded cheese wrapped in a warm, soft tortilla. All for fiddy nine cents.
After about 18 mos… no more brekky at the Bell.
About 2 years ago Taco Bell started serving breakfast in my area again. Sweet! Not so much. Totally different menu. The Fiesta Burrito became the “Grilled Breakfast Fiesta Potato Burrito”. The sausage became petrifried potatoes, the shredded cheese became some yellow-orange mush they claimed was “nacho cheese flavoured sauce”, the size was halved and the price was doubled.
Bah. In the infamous words of TC Wolfe, “You can’t go home again.”
When I was like six or so, my parents were going to a gym and every so often I would have to go with them and just sit in a tiny breakroom with a vending machine and a tv. The machine had a soda that I had never seen before: a mysterious dark red liquid with funky lines and panther on the label. I bought one and it was the best soda I’d ever had. Every time I would have to go to the gym with my parents, I would get one, and whenever they went without me I would ask for one. It wasn’t until I was an adult feeling nostalgic that I looked it up and discovered I had been drinking one of the first energy drinks on the market when I was too young to even stay home alone.
As for things that have gone and come back:
…and boy did it disappoint.
@Moose So you’re saying your parents starred in the original American Gladiators and they had to workout all the time leaving you to fend for yourself in the gym as a 6 year old?
@medz yes they named me Moose aspirationally, and every day mom would drive me to school in the family Atlasphere
I like Mountain Dew. I don’t buy it to keep at home though. My new infatuation is this:
/image baja mountain dew
@therealjrn Baja Blast tastes like Mt Dew mixed with Disappointment. I am an original Mt Dew fan, although I no longer drink calories so my go to is Rockstar Pure Zero Silver Ice. I did like Mt Dew Game Fuel quite a bit.
@tightwad YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH AND TAKE IT BACK!!! I LOVELOVELOVE BAJABLAST MOUNTAIN DEW AND YOU CAN’T TAKE IT FROM ME!!! YOU TAKE WHAT YOU SAID BACK!!! NO, I DO NOT DRINK TOO MUCH OF IT, WHY WOUD YOU ASK SUCH A THING!!!
@therealjrn @tightwad Maybe you should switch to Jolt cola?
@sammydog01 @therealjrn sure, if it was 1995 still. Energy drinks are so much more mainstream now…and Jolt Cola tastes disgusting! I don’t like Cola’s…I drink the white Monster or the Silver Ice Rockstar…or the store brand equivalent from Racetrak convenience store.
@sammydog01 @tightwad Racetrak is called QuikTrip here. They have a selection of energy drinks too.
/image QuikTrip energy drinks
@sammydog01 @therealjrn @tightwad
QT is the shiznit. They also have “Donkey Kick” and “Rooster Booster” on top of the generic ones above. On Tap at the soda station.
@therealjrn my favorite is Mt Dew Live Wire (orange). I see it in convenience stores but not very often
@therealjrn sorry, but I never could stand the taste of Baja Blast…(besides the fact that it sounds like a euphemism for Diarrhea.)
now the Sangrita Blast they had a couple years back…THAT was some tasty, tasty shit.
but since that went away, my fav. dew is Voltage, I was all about code red before that. but as soon as Voltage came out, I never looked back.
but my Go to, if i can find it, is the original dew Flavor of kickstart.
@sammydog01 @therealjrn @tightwad Here in DFW, QuikTrip and RaceTrak have a lot of similarities, but they’re not the same. QT has $.49 vanilla ice cream cone/cup.
@earlyre THE BLAST IS THE BESTEST PART11!!!
@therealjrn @tightwad
For a minute I thought you were ALEX! JONES!!
@therealjrn FYI: if you want Baja Blast and its not available for one reason or another, mix Mountain Dew with blue Powerade in a 2:1 ratio and…ta da, Baja Blast.
@therealjrn Baja Blast is the only thing I drink when going to Taco Bell. If you can’t find it in bottles, get it there. It comes and goes on PepsiCo’s whims but it’s always in the fountain at TB.
@compunaut @therealjrn @tightwad WHO RANG MY BELL?!?
I ONLY DRINK HIGHLY-CAFFEINATED ENERGY BEVERAGES!!! I CRUSH AND SNORT NO-DOZ AND CHASE THAT WITH 5-HOUR ENERGY THAT I RAN THRU AN EXPRESSO MACHINE!!! THE BEST THINGS COME STRAIGHT FROM THE EARTH!!!
BUY MY STUFF! ! ! ! !
@AlexJones you need to blast out your link… getting careless
@sammydog01 @therealjrn We have both here, they aren’t the same company. I’ll have to try the QT version.
@sammydog01 @tightwad Oh I know they’re not the same. QuikTrip started here in Tulsa. I used to work for them back in the day. I was just using verbal shorthand.
@sammydog01 @therealjrn The first time I walked into a QT or Racetrak I was blown away by the fountain choices. I had just traveled from the east coast to Texas on separate business trips…went from not being able to find fountain drinks in any size/selection to 89 options in sizes up to 64oz…it was glorious.
@compunaut @sammydog01 @therealjrn @tightwad I like the machines that have Manzanita Sol. That’s the good stuff.
@Targaryen Taco Bell used to have it on the fountain around here. Now they don’t, so I don’t know where to get it any more.
(On the subject of Mexican fountain drinks, Valero stations used to have Horchata on tap before they were bought by Circle K. That was trouble.)
@djslack I think I see it in glass bottles sometimes in gas stations… or maybe I’m mistaken. I usually get the large containers of horchata when the urge hits, but pretty sure I saw them once.
I’m kinda digging this Old-Fashioned-in-a-can, Slow & Low Rock & Rye.
A real “porch pounder”.
My absolute favorite that is no longer available was Cherry Smash. Nothing I’ve had over the years tastes similar. The last it was available was when it was purchased by rock creek (i think) and eventually they went out of business.
Part of your disappointment may be with Surge itself (I was a fan back then and it doesn’t seem the same now), but I would lay a majority of the blame on the freestyle machine. That thing can make any flavor drink taste terrible. It needs to be treated like the printer in Office Space.
@djslack It’s a crap-shoot where I live. Sometimes the sodas come out of it as a reasonable facsimile of their canned brethren. Sometimes they are an abomination unto the Lord. Mostly, though, I mix in different fruit flavors to Mello Yello Zero to get something interesting.
@djslack I guess I’ll have to try it in a can then!
@djslack @RiotDemon Many years ago when I worked in a restaurant, we could adjust the ratio of syrup in the fountain machine. There was a gadget to test it for the correct settings but how often checked or if the place is trying to save pennies a day it can vary in quality. I generally avoid fountain drinks and drink water in restaurants.
The store brand black cherry cola. For family picnics the kids were allowed to drink pop as a treat. I always begged for extra black cherry in the selection chosen at the store. We would get one of the boxes that had a inch lip and held twenty four cans to mix and match.
There is still a store brand although the can has changed. If the pop tastes the same, I don’t care too much for it anymore.
I liked Surge but it was not my go to choice. I was put off Mountain Dew by a classmate calling a bad joke but I do drink it sometimes now.
I have been addicted to caffeine off and on for many years. Currently is an on phase but I am getting tired of it. It is too convenient to grab and go. I need to make several life changes including this one.
@speediedelivery
What was the joke?
@jst1ofknd cricket piss. I didn’t like it enough to put up with the endless giggles.
@jst1ofknd @speediedelivery we always called it “mountain man piss water” and enjoyed it…
Amazon has surge in 16-oz. cans, exclusive. Original recipe. Grab a 12-pack and compare.
Also get a red Swingline and some McDonald’s Szechuan sauce while you’re at it.
(Actually, my research says Surge is back in stores. In places)
Find Surge near you!!
@PocketBrain Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!
@PocketBrain @ChadP actually already has like 5 packs of Szechuan sauce in his drawer in the office.
@PocketBrain the local convenience store supposedly carries it. They also have boiled peanuts. My stomach will probably hate me.
@PocketBrain @RiotDemon I can’t enjoy boiled peanuts. And I love peanuts. Is there a trick to it?
@Targaryen I think you like them, or you don’t. The texture is kind of weird. Unless they taste bad, then it has to do with the seasonings. The local place has just a regular, or Cajun spices.
My mom is from Georgia and you see local road stands all over the place. They are a pain in the ass to eat when road tripping.
@PocketBrain reading the article, I found this interesting:
Lots of Norwegians up there. Surge started out as Urge in Norway, and is still sold there as Urge.
/image urge soda
With so many people saying how they miss the drinks they can no longer find makes me glad I hate anything carbonated. Nothing to miss
@Kidsandliz My kids drink V-Fusion juice instead of soda, but it’s still WAY more expensive that the Kool-Aid we drank back in the day.
@compunaut I just bought some Koolaid Jammers at Sam’s for 15 cents a box serving. 40 pack was cheap. If Koolaid was good enough for me, it’s good enough for the Grands.
I try to avoid carbonated beverages but I do like one of these from time to time:
I want to emphasize that’s not a product suggestion, though! (I had a SodaStream at one point…)
Success! I found it. Savored the first can over a couple of days. The second can went much quicker. It tastes so much better than the freestyle machine. It brought me back to high school.
I want another one. I had a hard time sleeping those two nights because of the caffeine… But holy shit, I want another one.
Luckily, I don’t drive by the convenience store that carries it very often. I could see myself easily getting addicted to soda again.