5 Discontinued Early 2000s Drinks All Millennials Miss

In the wise words of Joni Mitchell: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone." And millennials relate deeply to these words when it comes to their favorite foods and drinks. We didn't realize how fortunate we were at the time, and now we miss the tastes of the 2000s that we'll never get back.

Comparing a discontinued 2000s drink to paving over a tropical paradise may seem a bit melodramatic, but the power of millennial nostalgia should not be underestimated. These drinks all bring memories of a time that felt simpler. Would we have savored the taste of each drink, etching them into our minds and taste buds, if we'd known they would disappear?

Here are five of the 2000s drinks that are gone but not forgotten.

1. SoBe
2. Sprite Remix
3. Surge
4. Snapple Elements
5. Pepsi Blue

SoBe

We were indulging in the creamy, smooth taste of these tropical drinks years before the term "mocktail" became popular. With flavors like strawberry daiquiri and piña colada, kids could feel cool and mature, and most millennials would still rather have one more SoBe than an average beach cocktail.

Technically, SoBe does still exist, and PepsiCo claims there has never been an official discontinuation, but good luck finding any. Even the SoBe website store locator struggled to find a physical or online store that carried the drinks. Maybe if enough people petition PepsiCo to revamp their production, SoBe could possibly make a comeback.

Sprite Remix

Aside from the seasonal Winter-Spiced Cranberry Sprite, no other flavor has come close to the 2000s Sprite Remix. There were actually three flavors in the Sprite Remix line: Tropical, Berry Clear, and Aruba Jam. And as a kid, you had to try a combination of the three at least once.

Sprite Remix was released in 2002 and was discontinued just three years later. Sprite re-released the Tropical Mix flavor in 2015, and you can still find a bottle or two. Sprite also partnered with Wendy's to release the Aruba Jam flavor exclusively in their restaurants in 2024. No word that Berry Clear will ever be re-released, though.

Surge

When Coca-Cola was searching for a soda to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew, the company found the Norwegian Urge soda. With a few tweaks and an added 'S,' Surge soda was released in the US in 1997. It gained a pretty big following, but could not beat Mountain Dew and was discontinued in 2003.

Fans of Surge started the Surge Movement and got their favorite drink back in stores in 2013. But in 2020, Coca-Cola announced they were stopping production of Surge due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has yet to regain the momentum it had before.

Snapple Elements

If you ever wondered what fire, sky, or air might taste like, Snapple provided answers in 1999. Snapple already felt like a fancy juice with its glass bottles and factoids on the bottom of the lids. So, Snapple Elements felt almost ethereal when they had more exotic flavors and elemental marketing.

The first Snapple Elements flavors were Fire (dragon fruit), Sun (starfruit-orange), Earth (grape-cranberry), and Rain (agave cactus), but grew to 15 different element-themed flavors. They were discontinued in 2005, and afterward, it came out that Snapple used high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. The Snapple Elements line was re-released in 2022, but the recipe was changed to be healthier, and some fans say the new versions are disappointing.

Pepsi Blue

Anyone not familiar with Pepsi Blue might think that it's just a rebranded blue Mountain Dew. While the color of the sodas was the same, the flavor was completely different. Pepsi Blue was a berry cola, almost like a regular Pepsi with berry syrup mixed in.

Pepsi Blue was released in 2002, and Pepsi worked hard to promote it as a competition to Vanilla Coke. The bright blue color was supposed to entice kids and teens, but the food coloring used had been banned in a number of countries, which hurt sales outside the U.S. Pepsi did try to bring it back in 2021, but it didn't catch on.

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