Sunkist vs Fanta vs Crush
Orange soda, to me it has a kind of mystique- I don’t know anyone who exclusively drinks orange soda, most people like it yet it seems to be more of a novelty beverage. Although, I must just not know the right people because orange soda is sold at every gas station, mini-mart and grocery store so obviously it’s popular with someone. Crush was actually a little hard to find and I could only find it in glass bottle but there’s nothing wrong with that. My friends Mark and Sarah sat in for this round, lending their expert tastebuds to evaluate and ponder these drinks of orangey carbonation.
Sunkist:
Right away Mark noticed the strong ultra-sweet orange smell, like orange candy (which it is) and found it to be very pleasant. Sarah felt it had a slightly weird after-taste, we realised it was because of the rosin, actually listed as “ester of wood rosin”. It actually wasn’t bad though but after we read the label it seemed to taste even more “rosiny”. We also thought it had the deepest orange color.
Fanta:
Fanta had the same strong orange smell. We found it to be the more fizzy and sweeter than Sunkist. It seemed more artificial and somewhat flatter in flavor.
Crush:
Crush had lighter smell but we found it to be overwhelmingly sweet. We all agreed this was the most artificial of the three and Ethan described it as “water from a pool”. This lacked any real flavor and was not enjoyable at all.
Wrap up:
We started out thinking these would all taste pretty much the same but it was interesting to find such clear differences. Sunkist was the most favorable, even with the wood rosin, maybe that’s the secret ingredient that makes this drink the most appealing. Fanta was the runner up, a bit more tart and corn syrupy but still had a decent orange flavor. We thought Crush would be the best but were surprised that we couldn’t finish our little tasting cups. Maybe it had to do with Ethan comparing it to “pool water”, whatever that means but it made sense at the time. We all felt that it lacked orange taste and was way to sweet. Although, for what it’s worth, I think it has the best logo.
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September 17th, 2008 at 1:33 am
What a cool blog!!! I found you on One Food Guy’s blog. I love your format…how did you come up with it? I’m definitely going to stay tuned!
I’ve just started out with my blog - any tips? Again, great blog!
September 21st, 2008 at 1:44 am
Came over from Snackerriic for what I hope will be the first of many visits.
OK, Sunkist may welll be the best of these three.
Haven’t tried Fanta in many years. Hope it has changed - last time I tried it the coloring agent, well, it showed up later. Only other time that happened to me was the night I got blitzed on Blue Curacao in a Chinese restaurant…
September 21st, 2008 at 10:16 pm
The best orange soda out there is definitely Mirinda but sadly it’s not available in the United States.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Wow! You have got to be crazy to not like Crush! Crush is the original Orange soda, and everyone knows you can’t beat the original!
November 26th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Crush used to be the best, until a period back in the 80’s when food companies began to actually try to get healthy. Crush added “10% real fruit juice” to their drinks and the flavors tanked.
They still have a decent grape soda, though.
December 13th, 2008 at 5:03 am
If i have a choice, its none of these. When it comes to orange,grape,strawberry -you know your fruit sodas, you gotta find the cheapest ones there are, like best choice or equivelent cheapness. I think theyre the best, the more fake the fruit flavor, the more i like it. Im under no illusions that im drinking juice, and i want it to taste like soda not juice. crazy sugary syrupy fake fruit drink.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:36 am
There goes my “glass bottle sodas taste the best” theory.
February 25th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
“Who loves orange soda?” “Kel loves orange soda!” “Is it true?” “Mmm-hmm. I do, I do, I do, I do, I do-hoo!” -Kenan & Kel.
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:51 am
Dear LORD, they’re orange! I’m sure British Fanta and Sunkist aren’t that colour - are they?
Orangina is nice, if pricey, and very popular in France.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I used to like the Dollar General “Clover Valley” brand Orange Soda from the late 90’s to the early 00’s.
It had a nice smooth texture and mellow (not watered down) flavor.
I used to put it in a glass and stir it up to give it an even smoother texture.
Then around 2001 they must have cheapened the recipe and started watering it down while adding more corn syrup to compensate.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Sunkist is my favorite orange soda. The diet version is also packed with flavor.
July 25th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Ester of wood rosin is actually what’s called a “clouding agent,” it has no flavor of its own, but it gives beverages a cloudy, juice-like appearance. It’s citrus-based.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
sunkist is so much nicer than fanta and crush
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
fanta is for girls sunkist well i made it my favorite soda for a few weeks then moved back to mtn dew crush is the best though
March 9th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
I can barely vote for this. I exclusively like all sodas except Coke Zero and any forms of it, Diet Sierra Mist and Sprite. I specifically prefer caffeine and if you look at the bottom of the Sunkist label, you’ll see that it has 27 mg of caffeine per 8 fl oz.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Ever since Dr. Pepper-Snapple has had Pepsi make Crush (Orange specificly), it has become a vastly better drink. I believe it is more toward the best orange soda ever, Slice, and replaced probably the worst, Tropicana. They are also bringing in more flavors, such as Cherry and for a LTO in September, Lime!
April 10th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
I think the ester of wood rosin in Sunkist has since been replaced with ester gum or something like that.
April 11th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
To be perfectly honest with you,I think that the reason Crush tasted the worst is because of the glass bottles. Either way,have you heard of Jolt? I think it first came out in the 1980’s in Cola,Electric Blue,and Red Eye. The Red Eye one is probably a cherry flavor. Either way,ever since Jolt became an energy drink(Believe me,it wasn’t that long ago.)they’ve discontinued Red Eye. The 5 flavors they have now are Power Cola,Blue Raspberry,Zero Carb Blue Raspberry,Orange,and Grape. If you wanted to do a rematch,you’d have to go to Rite Aid,7-Eleven,maybe Walgreens,or your local convienence store.
May 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 pm
You know, I’m not a huge Crush fan, but you’re sure that in no way the taste of Crush wasn’t affected by the glass bottle? I’d think that they MIGHT have Crush up there in a two liter bottle or a twelve pack or something. And even though the Crush logo was probably different at that time, Sunkist and Fanta have both changed their logos and I prefer the one Sunkist has, followed by Fanta.