This somewhat-translucent pink beverage smells fruity, almost like the powder used to make Crystal Light before mixed with water. I was looking forward to a different Fanta flavor, as here in the U.S. we're stuck with just Fanta Orange, Fanta Strawberry, Fanta Pineapple, and Fanta Grape for the most part.

Unfortunately, Fanta Wildberry is a pretty nasty drink. It has a flavor profile that I most similarly associate with Crystal Light's Raspberry Ice flavor… but with carbonation and a not-nice aftertaste. It's very syrupy and in no way represents any berry flavor I've ever experienced. The approach is typical of Coke's North American Fanta line, which we've criticized heavily here at BevReview.com. It's pretty much very fake-tasting soda no matter what the flavor.

Fanta Wildberry
Carbonated water, sugar/glucose-fructose, natural and artificial flavors, citric acid, sodium benzoate, colour.

A 355ml/12 oz. can of Wildberry will set you back 100 calories, 45 mg of sodium, and 51 g of sugars. This drink is caffeine free.

Rumor has it that Coke Canada is replacing Fanta Wildberry with a different flavor. Personally, I have no problem with that decision.

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Thankfully, I've had a chance to taste some excellent non-U.S. flavors of Fanta, including Fanta Pomarańczowa and Fanta Lemonic from Poland, and Fanta Naranja from Costa Rica.

Then the other day Amy and I found ourselves shopping in a suburb right on the edge of the city… and there on the shelf was a 2-liter bottle of Fanta Grapefruit. Having neither seen nor heard about this drink, we picked it up for a taste.

What was interesting about this bottle was that on one side the name was printed in English, while on the opposite side everything was in Spanish (Fanta Toronja – "toronja" is Spanish for grapefruit). This might lead you to believe that this was an imported drink, but all the markings indicate a U.S. product… including the use of high fructose corn syrup (HCFS) as a sweetener.

Upon opening the bottle, there was a clear, clean citrus scent. The color of the drink was rather cloudy, with a hint of yellow. It wasn't really grapefruity, but it was rather sweet.

As for the taste itself, very good. It reminded me of Fanta Citrus, with a light flavor that had a certain citrus "zing". I can't say that there was a definite grapefruit flavor, but you could tell it was from the citrus family of things. The taste was subdued and somewhat weak. It reminded bit a bit of Canfield's 50/50 drink, but not as edgy. It's a mild drink, very carbonated… resulting in a strong "burp factor".

Interestingly, Fanta Grapefruit was involved in a lawsuit against The Coca-Cola Company that recently got settled. Apparently both this flavor and Vault Zero contained some ingredients that had the potential to form cancer-causing benzene in certain rare situations. The drink was reformulated in September 2006 as part of the settlement.

But aside from possibly killing you, this is a pretty good American Fanta that breaks away from the pack of "blah" beverages. The flavor is unique, light, and complementary. An excellent beverage to drink by itself or with food.

Good luck trying to find it, however!

Coca-Cola settles lawsuits over benzene
Fanta Pineapple, Vault Zero had ingredients that could form substance
The Associated Press
May 14, 2007

ATLANTA – The Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to offer replacements to people who purchased two soft drinks to settle lawsuits over ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene, the plaintiffs said Monday.

… The lawsuits alleged that ingredients in Fanta Pineapple and Vault Zero had the potential in certain circumstances to combine to form benzene, and asserted claims for breach of warranty, unfair and deceptive trade practices and unjust enrichment.

…Coca-Cola began production of Vault Zero in February 2006 and has sold roughly 7.7 million individual units from that time through December 2006. From January 2003 through August 2006, it sold roughly 27.4 million individual units of Fanta Pineapple, according to the settlement papers.

It changed the formulation of the two products on or about Sept. 1, 2006, the settlement papers say.

Benzene can form in soft drinks containing vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. Scientists say factors such as heat or light exposure can trigger a reaction that forms benzene in the beverages.

Coca-Cola will no longer sell the two products in question with both sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid as ingredients.

Full Story

Fanta Naranja is Costa Rica's version of Fanta Orange, which, as we concluded in our review, pretty much stunk.

I'm happy to report that Fanta Naranja (which is "Orange" in Spanish) is an excellent drink. This is good for Coke, which makes Fanta, as outside of North America, Fanta is Coca-Cola's second-biggest brand.

The drink smelled good, not fake. It has a fruit juice type of flavor, more akin to something made from real fruit. We've been drinking a lot of real fruit juices here in Costa Rica, so I thought it was a fair comparison.

As for the taste, it's somewhat bitter, with a hint of tangerine. It probably shares more with Poland's version of Fanta Orange, Fanta Pomarańczowa, than with the lame U.S. version. It quenched the thirst quite well. I'm thinking this was due to the second ingredient listed: Azucar. Thanks to my handy VOX Super-Mini Spanish and English Dictionary that somehow magically appeared in my luggage (thanks Jason, you rock!), it would appear that "azucar" is sugar (something we don't have in the U.S. version of Fanta.)

So yes, once again, just like we learned with Kosher for Passover Coke, America's soft drinks are lame compared to the rest of the world because of our foolish reliance on high fructose corn syrup instead of real sugar.

Overall, excellent beverage and highly recommended.

Like Fanta Pomarańczowa, Fanta Lemonic comes in a uniquely shaped bottle. Lemonic's bottle is tinted green, whereas Pomarańczowa's bottle is clear. I think the tinting enabled the yellow-colored beverage to appear more lemon-lime-y on the shelf.

The beverage itself had a rich dark yellow color. Not see-through like you'd assume with a Kool-Aid version of lemonade. Rather, it was dark with a tad of green in the hue. It created the appearance of having body. The initial smell upon opening the cap was very similar to lemon juice.

While you'd expect this drink to taste somewhat like lemonade, it didn't. Rather, it had a very pleasant lemon-lime taste, with an emphasis on the lime. We both enjoyed it very much. Fanta Lemonic has a bitter citrusy finish which, according to Amy, was "kinda nice." Overall, we overwhelmingly liked Fanta Lemonic and probably will be picking it up again the next time we are at the store!

Given that I have a Polish heritage, we live in a heavily Polish neighborhood, and only locals know why we celebrate Casimir Pulaski Day, it was fitting that I expand my Fanta taste testing into this part of the globe.

Back in 2004 at part of our beverage review series, I tasted the relaunched Fanta flavors here in the United States: Fanta Strawberry, Fanta Orange, Fanta Pineapple, and Fanta Grape. My overall reaction? They all tasted bad. Lots of "fake" flavor and nothing original. Just yucky.

Now I had read that Fanta flavors around the world were awesome, but obviously had no way to see for myself. In fact, according to Wikipedia, "[Fanta] was originally made from byproducts of cheese and cider production, since Coca-Cola was not able to be sold in Nazi Germany due to shipping problems after the British and French declarations of war in late 1939. The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Germany) produced Fanta Orange in order to keep profits in the country during the war. After World War II, Fanta was introduced to America by Coca-Cola, and in 1960 they bought the trademark. Fanta Orange is the most popular Fanta flavor, available in 180 countries." Now was my chance to see what all the fuss was about!

According to what I discovered, there are only two current flavors of Fanta in Poland: Orange (known as Fanta Pomarańczowa) and Lemon (known as Fanta Lemonic). Apparently there were also "Exotic" and "Grapefruit" flavors, but they have since been retired. The bottle of Fanta Pomarańczowa that I picked up had a very distinctive shape, very similar to what you might find in a Sunny Delight plastic bottle. The clear plastic 500 ml bottle translated to approximately 17 oz. Typically plastic single serve bottles in the U.S. are 24 oz. Thankfully, the stuff still looked fresh, having a 8/2006 expiration date.

The front of the bottle proclaimed a website address, www.fantabamboocha.pl. Going there I found a pretty odd website that seemed to be promoting some sort of contest to win an island vacation.

There was also some "interesting" commercials featuring two goofy guys, weird desktop wallpapers (including one that featured Santa Claus on the beach), and a Tetris-like game that didn't make any sense without English instructions. I don't read or understand Polish, so it was all Greek to me.

So how did Fanta Pomarańczowa taste? The authentic orange juice smell transferred into the wonderful flavor, which was more mild when compared to a typical America orange soda like

Fanta Orange, Orange Slice, and Orange Crush, or even Mountain Dew LiveWire

The overall flavor experience was more realistic, less fake. Even the color, which was more yellowish-orange, didn't share that "neon" or "nuclear" look that you typically find here in the U.S. Finally, it finished off with a bitter aftertaste that I found unique, different, and welcomed… but might not be liked by everyone.

Overall, Fanta Pomarańczowa is really good! It puts to shame the other crappy Fanta products here in the States. Hello Coke, wake up!

During a recent trip to Nashville, my wife and I found a pop flavor that wasn't available in Chicago: Fanta Peach. According to the Fanta flavor chart, that leaves Black Cherry and Apple as the only U.S. Fanta flavors I have not yet tasted (see previous reviews for Strawberry, Orange, Pineapple, Grape, and Citrus).

I found this flavor as we were filling up our car with gas at a station in downtown Nashville. It was a hot day, so I was hoping that the flavor was very thirst quenching. It wasn't. Granted, I'm not a big fan of peach-flavorings in general. This isn't the worst tasting Fanta (that's Grape), but it's probably not the best either (gotta be Citrus).

The scent upon opening is very fruity. The flavor of the drink itself can only be described as "very peachy." It didn't taste overly fake, but it wasn't very authentic either. The aftertaste is strong… which is great if you like peach flavoring. Overall, it was a different taste for a change, but one that I probably wouldn't get again if given the choice.

As I've mentioned before, the relaunch of the Fanta brand in the United States has been somewhat disappointing to me as a pop fan, mainly because all the flavors I've been able to find don't taste very good. Fanta Citrus is different. It's actually a refreshing tasting soda. That's probably because at its core, it's not really a Fanta.

Earlier this year, Coke decided to rename their existing Citra beverage to Fanta Citrus. The primary competitor to this product is Cadbury Schweppes' Squirt (and I guess, by extension, Ruby Red Squirt). Overall, the taste is light, with a little more bite than your standard lemon-lime drink. It does taste like it has an influence of grapefruit, which I like very much.

Beyond that, the drink not only tastes good by itself, but with a meal as well. The flavor is very complimenting without overpowering the other tastes you may encounter. I just wish I was able to find this flavor locally. There are so many seemingly tasty looking flavors of Fanta out there (including Peach, Black Cherry, and Apple), yet we are stuck with rather boring ones here in Chicago.

Fanta Grape has a strong grape smell to it. When I think of good grape pop, I think back to the generic-brand Jewel Grape Soda my family used to pack on long camping vacations as we traveled these 50 states. That was some pretty good stuff. Fanta Grape's scent was far more potent that the grape of my youth.

As far as the taste, it was really, really fake. Didn't have a glimpse of anything natural in it. Overall, very chemical in nature. On top of that, you aren't left with a great grape aftertaste. It just doesn't last with you. In comparison, this fall's Mountain Dew Pitch Black also didn't have much of a grape aftertaste either, but I think it fared well overall when compared to Fanta Grape.

So, in general, I think Coke has really dropped the ball when it comes to fruit-flavored carbonated beverages. Their Fanta line is pathetic here in the U.S.

This was the best Fanta yet, which actually isn't saying much. Overall, I've been unimpressed with the quality of Fanta flavors. They all taste pretty fake. Not exactly items that I'd want to continue drinking. Or maybe it's that the flavors they do are done so much better by other companies (for example, Fanta Orange is probably the worst orange pop I've ever had).

All that to say that Fanta Pineapple is pretty good, primarily because there aren't that many pineapple-flavored drinks out there. If there is nothing to compare to, it can't be that bad, right? Actually, I liked the distinctive flavor of Fanta Pineapple primarily because it wasn't something copycat. It was a fresh take on a flavor that isn't used much (and personally, I really don't like pineapple-anything!)

The very yellow color of the drink sort of reminded me of Mountain Dew, but brighter. Actually, it has the appearance of a sports beverage like Gatorade. It probably looks like something else as well, but I'll leave it at that.

Overall, not bad. Give it a try, but don't go out of your way for it.