The Definitive Orange Soda Brand Ranking You've Been Needing

The magical juice of an orange has always made it worth enjoying. Orangeade entered the lexicon by the dawn of the 18th century as people mixed orange juice with a sweetener and water. Later, carbonated beverages with syrups became popular and "orange soda" was sold as a perfect drink for summer that was, as the News-Democrat noted in 1888, "pleasant to the taste and soothing to the stomach." The dawn of the 20th century saw the rise of name-brand orange sodas, with Crush, Nehi, Nesbitt's, and Fanta becoming familiar favorites. Now, there are dozens of orange sodas on shelves. The Takeout wanted to figure out which was truly the best.

To qualify, the beverage had to be currently available for sale and marketed as an orange soda. Excluded from consideration were orange-cream sodas (although some in the list snuck in some vanilla flavoring), diet or zero-sugar versions of represented products, prebiotic or probiotic ones, seltzers, and others that fall outside the traditional soda category. While I would have loved to have tried every orange soda in existence that fits this bill, I ended up with 29 to wrap my hands around, with all these bright young things vying for my love and attention.

Airheads has been an awesome candy choice since 1986, and lent its flavorful talents to a line of sodas starting in 2025. Its orange flavor was a disaster from start to quick finish. It smells like liquid Fun Dip powder, and the first sip had my mouth recoiling. While I could sense it was trying to have an orange taste, its profile was a bitter pill of sugar swill. This is straight up awful. That Airhead logo on the can has nothing to smile about, and neither will you if you try it.

Fans of "The Simpsons" and food had much to cheer about when Duff A L'Orange Sparkling Beverage debuted in 2021. The can's design alone is worth the price, but sadly its contents within this non-alcoholic drink are a complete misfire. This orange drink has the least attractive color, unless you're really into DayQuil. The taste is no picnic either. Each sip heads south after about a nanosecond, and it's kind of hard to even want a second sip. D'oh! Also, wouldn't a root beer have made more sense?

Sprecher styles itself after Bavarian beer culture, and the Wisconsin-based brewery has cranked out a slew of craft sodas since the 1980s. I was all in on the packaging, and hoped its "Orange Dream" was a great reality. While the beverage resulted in the singularly most unique taste in the entire test, it was one my palate couldn't gravitate towards. The inclusion of honey's a novel idea, but made this drink more of a sipper than one I'd want my mouth to swim in.

I had a heckuuva time trying to figure out how to activate this Ramune Orange Soda by Sangaria, but after finally pushing the Ramune marble ball down and causing a fun fizzy stir, those theatrics proved to be a hard act to follow. This drink that hails from Japan is colorless, but what it lacks in orange hue, it makes up for in sickly sacchariness. This is a pass.

One of the state's most iconic drinks, Boylan's lent its good name to sodas since the 19th century in New Jersey. Its bottle is beautiful, with orange soda shining bright within. While its key ingredient of cane sugar earns space on the label, it apparently earned too much space in its taste, too. It's nice that mandarin and tangerine oils were used in the soda's make-up, but the sugar dominates too much to fully embrace. It's an orange drink that somehow doesn't fully taste like an orange drink. Oh, boy-lan.

The Janik family started flowing the Niagara Falls area with its Johnnie Ryan sodas in 1935. Its drinks come outfitted in a regally decorated bottle, complete with top hat logo, atomic energy looking label, a family crest, and even a dash of French language to make it super-fancy. Its orange soda has a clean look and pleasant smell, but that's where the compliments end. The beverage had no carbonation to it, and although fueled by cane sugar, it somehow comes off as tasting artificial.

Black Bear got into sodas in 1931, and today is made by Sprecher. Not sure what it tasted like back in the 20th century, but today it's certainly not creating new drink memories. It has a foggy look to its body, has no real carbonation, and it tastes like a generic orange drink they used to hand out to kids during half time of soccer games in the 1980s.

GuS stands for Grown-up Soda, and the brand that started in 2003 has created beverages billed as dry, refreshing, and not too sweet. The bonus of GuS' orange soda is that it actually contains 5% juice, and is one of the rare glass bottles in this lot with a top you can screw back on. While its virtues are noble, it doesn't exactly hold its weight in flavor. It tastes like an orange was washed in water, and that water was bottled up here.

Frostie launched in Maryland back in 1939. While its snowy-white-bearded elf logo raises a smile, its orange beverage results in more of a smirk. Frostie orange has no strong carbonation to it, and in turn is just a real syrupy tasting drink. It's almost like drinking the room temperature orange liquid in one of those freeze pop plastic holders.

DEA agent Hank Schrader loved home brewing in "Breaking Bad" and this orange Schraderbräu soda honors that idea. Its label features portrayer Dean Norris, looking ready to party. Nowhere did it indicate this was an orange cream soda, but a few sips confirmed it's light on cream, and pretty palatable for those who aren't normally fans of them. This one may be purely for the fans of the series, and while it may be for laughs, is still a better option than "The Simpsons" joke of a beverage.

Nuclear bombs are no laughing matter. Neither are dictators of repressive regimes. The joke would seem to be on the drinker of Nuclear Orange Bomb, a soda with North Korean leader imagery and the tagline of having a "terrorizing taste." While I was surprised it had a creamy tinge to it, the drink is nothing that would cause a defection from continued sips. It's actually not bad, and easily has the most attention-catching label of the lot. That counts for something.

For U.S. Coca-Cola fans searching for a taste of "the real thing" — aka, made with actual sugar — grabbing a Mexican Coke became a more common option by 2009. Sprite and Fanta soon joined the fun. The bottles are big, bold, and beautiful. The Fanta Orange liquid is somehow not as grand an import as one would believe. This lighter brew is not nearly as bubbly as its American cousin, and the orange flavor lacks a punch. The problem is the cane sugar, which doesn't seem to add, but serves as a drawback for full Fanta enjoyment. No need to import into your mouth.

Bawls began delivering caffeinated alternatives to coffee with its guarana-fueled sodas in unique bubbly textured glasses in 1996. Its orange has a neon-bright orange hue, and in the light, it's almost glowing like the contents within the "Pulp Fiction" briefcase. The drink leans more towards carbonation than fruity flavor, but from first taste to aftertaste, it's consistently good. The caffeine seems like an added bonus for those who need a pep in their step.

Italian lemon sodas are some of the best in the world, including Sanpellegrino. I had high hopes for its Aranciata Orange flavor, packing 16% Italian orange juice from concentrate. The drink was flush with a strong fruity taste, sharp sparkling body, a bit of bitter bite, and memorable aftertaste. It even looks like actual juice. While it's an admirable drink, why did it have to taste more like grapefruit?

I had always fallen victim to Sunkist's "Good Vibrations" beachy nature but I approached this taste with a fresh mind, especially since 28 other orange sodas were tested before it. When I had this refreshed taste, it almost came off as average. It started off a little watery and finished with a jolt of artificial sugary orange. I took a break, revisited it hours later, and the follow-up tasted better. Still, I don't think Fanta is losing any sleep over Sunkist.

I've had Fanta Orange variants from around the world, and for this taste test I procured one that hails from Serbia. I don't know how it differs from other European Fantas, but it tasted more like Orangina than the Fantas on our side of the pond. Its light yellow color is a tad off-putting, about the only knock against a drink that's more like orange-flavored seltzer. It maintained its effervescence and mild orange flavor from start to finish.

Jarritos means "little jugs" in Spanish, and the Mexican brand actually started in 1950 with a coffee flavor. Today it offers several bright fruity flavors, and somehow I had never tried its mandarin one. It hits the same notes as its brethren flavors, with a smooth body and super-sweet taste. The mandarin flavor is a nice departure from all these other overly orange sodas. For some, it may be a bit much to drink as a standalone drink, but it remains a perfect match to wash down some good street tacos.

Even if you've never played the post-apocalyptic video game "Fallout," its collaboration with Jones Soda Co. reeks of bottled fun. The super bright and clear Nuka Orange flavor will wake up any set of eyes, but its flavor is no gimmick. It's very tart and bitingly bubbly. It's also another rare quality cane sugar entry on this list. If only its flavor didn't remind me of orange Jell-O, this could have been a top five contender. Still, this is worth a stash in your nuclear fallout shelter.

With a name like Avery's Totally Gross sodas, and for its orange flavor, Gamer Goop, it doesn't exactly scream, "drink me." While this physically looks like an orange drink, the label mentions that grape is also in the mix. Its smell confirms as much, and its taste strikes an interesting and tasty balance between orange and grape. Turns out, not only is its name memorable, but the drink itself, too. This goop is good, and now I'm game to try more "gross"ness by Avery's.

There are a plethora of grocery store chains across America, many with their own lines of generic, house-brand soda lines. It would be impossible to take them all into consideration for this list, so the orange soda made by Giant Food in the mid-Atlantic region had to stand in for all the rest. Just because something is generic doesn't mean it can't keep up with the Joneses, and Giant's orange soda actually held its own quite well. It aims for Fanta-stic heights and comes quite close in delivering a similar taste. Don't judge this one by its cover, and in doing so you'll get great taste for less money.

First and foremost, Kool-Aid Orange Soda doesn't taste like actual Kool-Aid, as the carbonated water brings about a splashy refreshness. Also, its orange flavoring here seems to pass itself off as natural, which is an achievement its powdered version could never muster. In general, it's a surprisingly splendid orange drink that is actually worth seeking out. 

7-Eleven launched its own private line of sodas in 2026, including an orange flavor. The drink itself has a nice fruity flavor, and a bubbly and crisp body. It retains its fruitiness even as the liquid makes its way to the recesses of the mouth. This was a total surprise as it's presented as a generic drink, but ended up being a true winner. It's worthy of a reach in its stores, and perhaps one day it can be worthy of adding to the 7-Eleven fountain so I can have a Big Gulp of it.

Route 66 was once the cross country road that was the pulse of the nation. Now that nostalgia is bottled up in a soda of the same name, and even sold along the old route. What seems like an easy souvenir is actually a lovely soda. It's another one of those rare cane sugar drinks that blends well with the orange flavor, and is just overall super-refreshing. Also, it's hard not to smile at the bottle's tagline "chosen by soda jerks every time."

Shasta was the kind of beverage my mom and friends used to drink when playing mahjong in the '80s. Little did I know that it hails from a different '80s — 1889. And little did I know, Shasta makes an amazing orange soda. It has a welcoming juicy taste, where its lovely mandarin flavor mixes well with its sugary base. I enjoyed its clean crispness with every sip. Did the brand ever do an ad campaign called "Hasta Shasta?" Cause I hasta have one again!

Eli Forsley's handcrafted root beer was a hit with locals, and his son Fred turned it into a genuine soda line called Capt'n Eli's in 1996. From the get go, the Capt'n Eli's orange pop stands apart from the rest. Instead of a clear container, its brew is housed in a brown bottle more apt for a beer. It has a nice fruity, citrusy smell. While it tastes more like an -ade than a soda, it's unlike any other beverage on this list. It's clean, refreshing, and not what one would expect. Capt'n Eli's take on orange soda contains natural orange and tangerine flavor, but its real twist that makes it both tasty and memorable is a dash of natural lemon flavor. Cheers to you, Capt'n Eli.

Maine Root's sodas do indeed have roots linked to the Pine Tree State, born in the dawn of the 21st century. Like its New England neighbor Capt' Eli, its bottles are brown, obscuring its contents. Probably for the best with Maine Root's mandarin orange soda, because its liquid looks more like grapefruit juice. Once you get past that non-orangey sight it's all reward. This mandarin flavoring is kind of like the one Jarritos chips in, but Maine Root's version dispenses an even more pleasurable drinking experience. It's a unique, tasty, and memorable pure orange soda with cane sugar that hits the mark.

Crush is one of the O.G. orange sodas, with origins tracing back to 1906, and has beyond proved its staying power. Taking a fresh sip of it, stacked against so many orange sodas than have joined the battle, Crush shows it is still crushing the competition. It has everything one would look for in an orange soda — bubbly, well carbonated, a quality orange taste, and it's all well balanced. It tastes fresh, and even has a tiny bite that punctuates each sip. Its famous and ubiquitous name even lent itself to the official state cocktail of Maryland.

The Feigenson brothers went into the soda bottling business in 1907, and today, its line of drinks that are Insane Clown Posse approved goes by its more familiar name Faygo. Its orange can looks like a raging party straight out of "Weekend at Bernie's," and its contents back up its festive nature. The drink has a nice clean smell, and carbonation so pronounced you almost start burping immediately. The orange flavoring has a pleasing taste to it, and is mixed with the perfect amount of sweetness. I concur with what the can says — it's 100% "dee-licious."

There are three orange Fantas on this list, all from different parts of the world and made from different recipes. The U.S. got its first taste of Fanta by the late 1950s, and by the '70s, cane sugar left the bottle and high fructose corn syrup took its place. This sweetness is what the American palate is attuned to, and that's why I believe the Fanta produced in our shores remains the best one. This drink has a crisp belly of carbonation that balances perfectly with its awesome orange flavor, and it all adds up to the best orange soda on the market. Bravo!

The orange sodas in this taste test were acquired in a mix of store buys and samples supplied by manufacturers. The taste test was conducted with the drinks in alphabetical order, across four separate days. The drinks were refrigerated overnight and evaluated the following day in two different sampling sessions within that single day. Tortilla chips and carrots acted as palate cleansers. My older sister joined me on this Herculean task, and after a deluge of sugar and coloring dyes and a lot of tasting note taken, we have survived to tell this tale.

The following criteria were considered in compiling this ranking: flavor, aroma, color, body, carbonation, orangeness, artificiality, balance, mouthfeel, finish, aftertaste, overall refreshability, packaging design and aesthetics, originality, uniqueness, vibes, and the two most important attributes — is the drink memorable, and would we want to buy it again. Orange you glad you made it this far? I am, and thanks for reading.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials provided by the manufacturer.