Pepsi Peach

 

Product circa: 2024

I've long contended that Pepsi is way better at making flavored colas than Coke, and at this point, one could argue that they are more prolific as well.  While Coke has been making more and more "odd" colas, they have often involved various levels of exclusivity, with some being harder to find than others.  Pepsi has continued to issue colas over the past few years, and their availability has mostly been wide and long in duration, and as always, they taste better.

Pepsi Peach is perfect for what it is trying to be.  Artificial peach flavoring is ubiquitous, being mostly employed in candy, but beverages as well.  The flavoring is extremely strong and can be overpowering and artificial-tasting.  In this product, it is not.  They used the perfect amount to pair with the Pepsi flavoring, and while it doesn't exactly taste like you're biting into a juicy peach, this stuff is perfect, and I wish they made it year-round.

Mountain Dew Star Spangled Splash, Freedom Fusion, and Liberty Chill

 

Product circa: Independence Day 2024

Should they really keep doing this for the US Independence Day?  They will run out of vocabulary words eventually.

Star Spangled Splash: Dew with generic red fruit.  It's not bad, but I've tasted this kind of Dew at least a dozen times.

Freedom Fusion: A peach lemonade Dew which will naturally be compared to the KFC exclusive Sweet Lightning.  I've only had the latter once or twice, and it wasn't memorable enough to recall.  This stuff is very tasty, with a little tartness that goes a long way.  I would say that they should have upped the peach flavoring, but if they had, I probably would be saying I had wished they dialed it back.  They deserve a lot of credit for this one.

Liberty Chill: Another one of the occasional "omnibus" varieties that combines an absurd amount of flavors into one beverage (in this case, 50).  This is a mess... it's overly sweet, and if I try, I can pick out "blue", and "cherry", and that's about it.