Did your parents also buy Shasta soda?

My parents didn't like us drinking soda because they thought it was unhealthy, which is correct. They did let us have some, but it was just 1 bottle a week, and we bought ours from a local bottler that was famous for their product. I do not know how it price compared to national brands.

My poor friends used to have Shasta in their kitchens, right next to the little tins of Vienna sausages. I felt so sorry for them.

They are miles ahead of me now in the foot race of life. Poverty is a great motivator.

I was always intrigued by the vast array of flavors they had—apple! strawberry! But we never got it.

My mom hated generic shit and so did I

My Dad worked for Coca-Cola, so Shasta and Fanta soft drinks were rare treats in our household.

Like R1, my parents never bought pop period.

We could order it at McDonalds or something, but they would never buy it at the store. I doubt they were that particularly health conscious, but considered it a waste of money compared to water or milk (or chocolate milk if we wanted to get "fancy").

Shasta is a Western thing isn’t it? I don’t recall seeing it on the East Coast. We had C&C sodas. I grew up thinking there were for major cola brands in this order: Coke, Pepsi, RC and C&C. I came to find out C&C was a cheapie brand barely distributed beyond the Tri-State area. No one speaks of RC Cola anymore, and that truly saddens me.

Shasta was definitely available in the American south east in the 80s

We were poor and my mom would always buy Shasta for the many fishing and camping trips we took. Th variety of flavors was awesome with black cherry and kiwi strawberry being my favorites. My dads house though was coca cola only .

we were only allowed soda pop on special occasions, like New Years Eve or a Birthday. My sister and I had to share one (1) bottle. The battle over who got the more generous poor was solved by letting the observer get first pick pf the two glasses.

sorry, pour not poor- but we lived like we were poor

RC cola gave you three liters of sugar and then later HFCS goodness.

Not poor, just loved Shasta Diet Chocolate soda. That flavor didn’t exist at the time in “expensive “ sodas.

I still buy the orange soda. I don't really care for Coke or Pepsi.

My parents bought what was on sale.

Soda was only for parties and picnics so any soda was amazing. Brands meant nothing and I grew up in an up in an upper middle class family and neighborhood.

Shasta was the standard soda beverage on United Airlines for quite awhile in the 90s, so I assume they had national distribution.

The local brands like Rock Creek and Cotton Club began to shrivel in the 80s and 90s. The regional bottlers usually sold "mixers" as well as some name brands like Dr Pepper or 7-Up, unless the local Pepsi or Coke bottlers had those---often the local Pepsi and Coke bottlers took over those franchises. These days Dr. Pepper and 7-UP often have their own distribution.

My father bought Shop Rite soda. Their cola never tasted right to me.

My Dad always bought the cheapest store brand cola. When he died my Mom was devastated... but not so devastated that she didn't demand we throw out the crappy cola and get Pepsi...and only Pepsi from now on!

My family would play deep cuts from the poverty playlist: Chek soda.

People didn't spend lots of money on food and drinks in the 1970-80s. The whole gourmet foodie trends didn't start until the 90s. Kids drank Shasta and generic sodas, but Kool-Aid was most popular because it was so cheap. We had a wooden spoon that was permanently stained from the red Kool-Aid that we use to stir-up every few days.

Funny thing is, we kids from that era were much stronger than kids of today, even though we ate all the candy and soda that we wanted. We didn't need Ritalin, or anti-depressants, or have multiple food allergies.

“ We had a wooden spoon that was permanently stained from the red Kool-Aid that we use to stir-up every few days.”

Us too!

I'm a 50s Atlanta kid. We drank Coke products primarily, but we also had RC Cola in the house. An RC Cola and a moon pie was scrumptious back in those days.

Ha! I forgot about the red wooden spoon from the Kool Aid! We also drank powdered iced tea!

Like others in this thread, I grew up with limited access to any soda at home. Yet we guzzled super high sugar content fruit juices as if they were health tonics.

My parents bought whatever was on sale. But I remember Fanta more often than Shasta. Especially because Fanta's diet orange seemed to be available more at our local store than any other orange flavor.

I forgot one other soft drink we had a lot back in the day. Nehi made some delicious soft drinks. I especially loved their peach & grape sodas.

My grandmother always had Shasta and I remember the black cherry was pretty good. At home, my parents did buy a few 2 litter bottles of diet soda and sometimes bottles of root beer when we would rootbeer floats for gatherings.

More poverty soda : Double Cola

Generic brands sodas can be OK. Mountain Lightning is surprisingly good.

(Ohio) We were a Pepsi house and always had cartons of 16 oz returnable bottles in the enclosed back porch. We kids rarely drank Pepsi, but Dad loved it. The poor, single-mother neighbor lady bought Shasta for her kids (but she drank Pepsi herself). I was intrigued by the fun Faygo flavors, and bought it at the corner store, but their bottles had sharp edges around the mouth. Faygo bottles cracked when you opened them and I cut my mouth on them several times.

The worst was Scot Lad brand soda. The family of one of my friends was fairly well off, but his mom bought Scot Lad. In cans. I always thought it was strange.

"It hasta be Shasta!"

Kool-Aid or Funny Face. The packages always told you whether they were pre-sweetened or you had to add your own sugar with the water.

I remember seeing Shasta at big picnics, etc. with a lot of people.

The only one I really loathed was 50/50. But it wasn't really meant to be a drink. A few lushy parents in the neighborhood used it as mixer.

The guy in this commercial used to turn me on when I was in high school.

Barry Williams was so hot.

We were a cola family for the most part, and always had 8-packs of 16 ounce glass bottles in the cupboard. Mom bought whatever was cheapest among Coke, Pepsi, and RC. Sometimes the Shastas would be on sale for super cheap and Mom would stock up on them in various flavors. I liked all of them except for the cream soda and, surprisingly for a budding fat whore, the chocolate flavor.

Both guys in that commercial at R36 are hot. How appropriate that he’s singing “I wanna pop !”

All the guys in R36 are hot!

Ah, when guys looked like that.....

Quite nice pits!

They did, once in a while, and it was fine with us kids to get any kind of soda. As an adult, I shied away from it until I was on the game show "Sale of the Century" in 1985, and won a case of Shasta Cola, along with a branded beach towel and visor (among my "lovely parting gifts"). Once I foisted these beverages off on family and friends, it was back to the "real" name-brand" soda for me!

Gweg mixthed hith Tshashta with Jack Danielsth!

Shasta?

Of course not.

My parents saved money on Vess, and we got to take the bottles back for the five cent deposit. Vess also bottled and we collected those deposits on Whistle Orange Soda and the divine Yoo-hoo, cited by Sheldon in "Big Bang Theory" with "It literally beckons."

They were

My grandparents in San Diego had Shasta when we visited. I was quite young and all u really knew is that it was a West Coast brand and was therefor somehow special.. back home in Chicago my mom would buy a case of 24 10 oz cokes at the beginning of summer and like someone upthread did their was the pour/choose with my brother. The store brand grape/orange/root beer was always considered cheap and nasty

My parents did buy Shasta, but I can’t remember why, or why they stopped. But it wasn’t for long. They normally drank Pepsi and even back then I would have given five Shastas for one Pepsi despite all its different flavors.

We lived in a mid Atlantic metro area.

soda is for the Poors

OP have you ever had mud Kool-Aid. Scrumptious

Diet Rite was the best.

If I had grown up in Detroit it would have been Vernor's for me, but other regional brands didn't do much for me.

We had either Shasta or Cragmont fruity sodas when I was growing up. Orange, Grape, or whatever variation on Fruit Punch were my faves.

Welch's sparkling white grape juice was to die for.

We didn’t keep soda or chips in the house. We were allowed to have them elsewhere - my mom just didn’t see them as necessary.

I vaguely remember that Mount Shasta in Northern California was featured in their logo.

Shasta McNasty!!!

It's named after a magnificent mountain in far NorCal!

Soda was very rare in our household. My Mom considered it toxic.

I never realized Shasta was a class marker. Somehow, Cragmont did seem generic and down-market, though.

It's not like Coca-Cola & Pepsi (the companies) were making a variety of flavors.

Shasta had different flavors, so I don't see it as a Coke or Pepsi knock-off.

Cream soda was the ulimate class marker.

What class did it mark, r59?

The ulimate one?

Hmm ... I loved cream soda.

Kool-Aid seems more low-class to me. Anything bubbly in a can would have to beat Kool-Aid, IMO.

Tang was below Kool-Aid

Nope, I think Tang was above Kool-Aid. The only thing below Kool-Aid was Flavor Aid, the knock-off, which was what they drank in the Jonestown massacre.

We always had a pitcher of flavor aid in the house. Occasionally Kool-Aid but usually flavoring was cheaper and we had to dedicate it skinny drawer bar or dishwasher that was designated for all the various flavored packets. The real usually was whoever drink the last of the previous picture was responsible for making a new one. So of course you'd always leave not even a couple so that you could say you werent the one to empty the picther.

We always use two packets and two full cups of sugar. My mom was always very specific about us making sure to rinse every bit of powder out of the packet into the picture. They kept our sugar and an old plastic ice cream container and had a old dented metal one cup measuring cup. On more than one occasion this was referred to as juice in our house as in one of the babies wants more juice. And because milk was expensive often one of my siblings would have a bottle full of flavored ade.

Nah, we were in Michigan. Faygo country. I remember seeing Shasta on tv shows but never in real life.

About as low as it got. I think there was one other brand of soda that was just in a black-and-white can

My grandmother in Louisville always had her basement fridge stocked with a variety of Chek sodas from Winn-Dixie (we always called these soft drinks while our east coast family called it soda. I never heard it called pop like in some regions of the Midwest). Chek Ginger Ale was my favorite. I like the graphic design of these old soda cans prior to them all getting their 80s makeovers.

Dad was in the wholesale grocery business and was always getting stocks of new products to try from vendors. One was an apple flavored soda called Applicious which stocked our basement fridge for a summer. I can’t find any verification of its existence as a product. Some other products we were gifted with were Koogle flavored peanut butter and Figurines diet snack bars. I was already skinny but I ate a lot of Figurines.

I think Shasta made all the store brands and just allowed the store brands to stick their labels on the products. In the 80s you could get 6 for a dollar of the store brand, like Cragmont. But Shasta was a little bit more, like a dollar fifty for 6.

Also, the "orange drink", "grape drink" or "fruit punch drink" that came in the gallon jugs (like milk) and the Little Hugs were lower than Kool-Aid.

Barry Williams was hot? I just laughed so hard I spewed my orange Shasta all over myself.

[quote] Nope, I think Tang was above Kool-Aid. The only thing below Kool-Aid was Flavor Aid

We had neighbors who would drink ZaRex.

I believe that is below Kool-Aid.

No soda at all.

Vintage sodas no longer sold.

Any of you drink Fizzies?

My grandmother had a rule. You could drink soda, but NEVER with a meal. She just thought that was trashy for no real reason.

On Saturday mornings, we would go to a place called "The Cannery," a discount grocery outlet. There was what seemed to be hundreds of flavors of A-Treat. You could load single bottles into a case for, I think, three dollars. My favorites were black cherry, tangerine and cream soda, but sometimes there would be chocolate or cotton candy for special occasions.

My grandparents were far from poor, but they loved a good bargain. In the back of The Cannery, there was a giant bin of unlabeled cans. Five for a quarter, My cousins and I would each get a quarter and we'd choose five cans. We'd get home for lunch, and my grandmother would open one of the cans and say, "Well, I guess it's baked beans for lunch!" and we'd all laugh. Again, not poor....just frugal.

It may sound like this was in the 1930s or something, but it was the early to mid Eighties.

We used to drink Suburban sodas as kids. They came in pale ginger ale, golden ginger ale, red Almond Smash, orange, grape, etc. Orange and Almond Smash were my favorites. They tasted even better when they were in glass bottles.

I loved Shasta's cherry cola flavor.

... parents? .... soda???

No soda, we had Zarex.

We did not have Shasta,

My Mom would not allow my two older brothers to have soda when they were little. She gave up when my little brother and I came along. I can remember a soda packed in with my lunch in high school (in grammar school I had a plastic, cartoon-themed lunchbox with a little thermos. The thermos usually had milk in it. I always dropped it, thus shattering the mirrored, glass interior).

Our brands were either Coke or Pepsi. By college, we had the Diet brands of each.

We never had Tang or Kool-Aid. They were considered to be common.

We drank milk. The only time we were allowed soda was when we were sick. Ginger ale to settle the stomach.

Now when it came to junk food that's a different story. We had what we referred to as the candy cabinet stocked with every imaginable candy bar, Reeses, Kit Kats, you name it. And let's not forget the potato chips, ice cream, Entenmann's (remember them?) and on and on. I still don't know why my parents drew the line at soda. I suppose they weren't raised with soda.

It was mostly milk for us -- we went through 7-8 gallons a week -- but Mom would very occasionally spring for Faygo or Towne Club.

R5 trust me, Shasta isn’t anyone’s treat.

R79 is that window cleaner?

It was a sweet drink concentrate in different flavors and popular in New England when I was a kid.

I can remember going to Safeway in Virginia in the mid 70s buying Cragmont for 17 cents a can. I recall rarely having Shasta.

R69: Winn-Dixie made a lot of other store brand sodas but, Cott, based in Canada but with US facilities was the largest supplier. Cott sold their soft drinks to a European company, but they continue in this business.

Cragmont was nothing but a Safeway brand.

My uncle was a loyal Shur Fine customer. I admit I loved the orange flavor.

Black Cherry Shasta was the best soda ever, and I still miss it to this day.

It sucks. It’s cheap that’s why a lot of hospitals used to keep the little half cans on hand

I loved Orange Crush but we were only allowed to have it on special occasions. My parents were more into giving us Kool-Aid or Hi C because it was cheaper.

My grandmother loved her Kool-Aid too. I found out why one time when I drank some of it and it was 90 proof! Drunk old bitch, bless her heart.

My go-to snack as a kid was a cherry cola and a cherry pop tart. It was both delicious and nutritious.

The reason we were so healthy back then, despite our sugar and chemical-laden diets, was because we were outside playing all the time. We weren't inside playing video games and on the internet/phones like the kids of today. We were running, riding bicycles, climbing trees, hiking. We also had P.E. class every day at school. Do they still have P.E. classes?

My dad would get Penguin Soda which was the store brand at Grand Union. Tasted awful. My mom called it penguin piss and never bought it. She wasn’t much on soda anyway.

Stop & Shop used to have a really good Raspberry or Strawberry soda that I think you could get in a 3 liter bottle.

Now if we were ever in the New Haven area Foxon Park was the best and it’s made with real sugar. I don’t know if that’s a poverty brand or not.

Shasta was invented for losers to have their own soda brand

Does anyone remember NeHi?

^Yes.

Certain '90s sitcoms used a fake soda brand called "SHASA" (no t).

I will not tolerate this disrespect being shown towards Shasta.

No, we had Coke and Pepsi. What were you really saving with these other brands? A few cents? Was it worth the lousy flavor?

I think we did drink Cott mixers.

Poor folks have no taste.

My parents bought Shasta. We were poor, white trash so that's all they could afford.

As an adult now, I cannot understand how adults drink the stuff. It's disgusting and sugary and makes me thirstier if I drink it...which is maybe once every two years. I'll buy a small can, drink two swigs and then I can't stomach it anymore. Vile stuff.

We didn't have much money but rarely bought Kool-Aid and never bought cheap soda. There were always pricing promotions for the name brand stuff.

No soda growing up. Ever. We were poor, but even if we hadn't been, this was refined sugar in its most heinous form, and was NOT every in our house. Ditto on cold breakfast cereals, common snack foods (such as chips, Cheet-os, Doritos, etc), snack cakes, etc. Fast food was NOT even done - ever. Hell, even slow food wasn't a thing (eating out, I mean). We probably went to a restaurant maybe twice a year if we were lucky.

I was a Senior in high school in 1987, so that's my time frame. Needless to say, visiting friends or staying overnight was thrilling on so many levels - soda, snacks, cable tv (or even satellite!)!!!

We knew we were different from most kids LOL. On the other hand, both my parents were amazing cook and made delicious food that some kids had never even heard of. Except i hated our once a month fish nights - i sincerely hated fish growing up, even though my parent prepared it in a way that i'm sure fish fans would love. Still not a fish fan these many years on, although i will eat an occasional tuna sandwich and most sushi (though not often). And the only smoked salmon i have ever liked was actually eaten IN ALASKA.

That’s my family, r105!

We’d beg to go out for Sunday dinner and my dad would say “ok. We’ll go to ‘Mama’s Diner’”.

Blah!

[quote]We didn’t keep soda or chips in the house. We were allowed to have them elsewhere

Same here, R21. We could drink soda when we went out to eat and while on vacation. We could eat chips at other people’s houses and at summer camp.

We drank milk with most meals. We could have one cup of Tang with dinner, but only after drinking a glass of milk first. On weekends we could have Minute Maid frozen orange juice with breakfast.

Some of you can even make a thread about Shasta soda smug and eye rolling. You probably couldn't drink soda or eat snacks in your house because your parents grew up during the depression and were cheap skates.

I grew up in the 60s. Usually my mom gave me some change to buy drinks or snacks. There was a big ice chest of various varieties of soda in the convenience store that was owned by two sisters, Peggy and Mary, down the street. Every day my friends and I would return our bottles for the deposit and get a different kind of soda. I think it was 10 or 15 cents. The Town Hall had a Coke machine with 10 cent bottles. The gas station had.a soda machine with 20 cent, bigger bottles. Can’t even imagine how my parents would have forbidden me from drinking soda.

My only toy was a stick and I had to share it with the dog.

We always Fresca and Tab down in the old wet bar - next to the poodle-headed whiskey bottles…. It was never consumed or replaced.

The rich side of my family in leafy Connecticut and sandy Cape Cod had delivery of local bottled soda in the varieties of: club, tonic, cream, root beer (or birch beer or sarsaparilla), and ginger ale. Cola was never a guarantee. Grape or orange very occasionally.

[quote] We could eat chips at other people’s houses and at summer camp.

How would your parents stop you from eating chips at other people's houses or at camp, anyway?

I'm picturing a scene like when Scout brought one of the Cunninghams home for lunch (To Kill a Mockingbird). The deprived boy poured maple syrup over everything on his plate.

[quote] It's disgusting and sugary and makes me thirstier if I drink it...which is maybe once every two years. I'll buy a small can, drink two swigs and then I can't stomach it anymore. Vile stuff.

I was the same way about Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut. I'd eat there once a year and hope it would turn out differently but nope, it was always the same--diarrhea and stomach cramps. At some point you realize that it's shit food making you sick.

[quote]I'm picturing a scene like when Scout brought one of the Cunninghams home for lunch (To Kill a Mockingbird). The deprived boy poured maple syrup over everything on his plate.

This gave me a good chuckle, R112. The way Jem and Scout looked at Walter Cunningham was priceless.

We weren't deprived children, my parents tried to steer us toward healthier things than chips and soda. Not necessarily healthy, but healthier.

I'm sorry, but Black Cherry Shasta was fantastic. Awesome. Delicious. Nothing else comes close.

Nobody willingly drank Shasta Cola that I know of.

I remember my parents buying RC Cola when they were financially strapped... ugh. But even that was better than Shasta Cola. I don't know why other brands even try. Coke is king. Pepsi is a distant second. RC Cola an even more distant third. And there's no reason there should be any others, because they're all so distant there isn't even a 4th through 9th rating.... the next best falls out of the top ten and there are only three in the top ten. Off-brand "cola" is just NASTY.

But Shasta's other flavors? Some were very good. A few were great. Like Black Cherry Shasta. The pinnacle of sodas.

WETH Patio?

My aunt and uncle had three kids, lived in the 1st floor of a 3-decker in a mill town, and they always had one of those wooden cases of Cokes (about 24) in their house. It couldn't have been that expensive.

Coke is one flavor. These so-called low-class sodas had a bunch of different flavors.

Also, maybe people just really did need to save a few cents here and there.

R75, I agree with your grandmother100%.

R74 - my mother bought Fizzies when I was a kid. The ORIGINAL fizzies. I still remember how the orange ones tasted.

So what does everyone here think of Sprecher root beer? How many of you have even heard of it. I saw that it is sold in 42 states now, so it's not exactly regional anymore. It's also not exactly the cheapest thing on the shelf.

I like Hansen's grapefruit soda, the original one, not the diet one.