Soda is my beverage of choice — Diet Coke, to be exact. But when I heard of Pops Soda Ranch in Arcadia, Oklahoma, it made the list of places I wanted to go. Such weird soda choices! Bacon? Worm barf? Key Lime? So interesting (well, maybe not the worm barf)! I had to get some and do a taste test.
Pops Soda Ranch is a Route 66 icon, open seven days a week and also has a restaurant. We didn’t eat there, so I can’t vouch for the desserts, but the store is pretty cool. It was also very busy. Before you walk in though (or after you leave), take that all-important selfie outside with the 66-foot tall soda bottle like I did. Gotta have that!
After you enter, there are shelves and refrigerators on the right side, both filled with all the different flavors — from delicious to the extremely gross. They do change all the time. From what I was told, they used to carry 800 or so flavors, but now they carry about 400 (if I’m wrong about that, I apologize). The sodas on the shelves at the windows aren’t buyable. They are for show only.
When I went, the bottles were $2.50 each, and I wanted to buy so many! The flavors I ended up buying are: bacon, limoncello, key lime, strawberry cream, Shirley Temple, Bazooka Bubble Gum, banana, caramel apple, lemon meringue, and orange cream. Except for the bubble gum and the bacon I didn’t go too extreme. Here are my thoughts:
The orange cream was the best. Tasted just like a melted orange creamsicle. I also liked the key lime and loved the limoncello. The Bazooka Bubble Gum really did smell and taste like Bazooka Bubble Gum, but it wasn’t overbearing. It was very sweet though — not bad, honestly. The bacon was disgusting. It didn’t have much taste but when you swallow it you get an aftertaste of what seems like bacon grease. My significant other said the same thing. The caramel apple was good too.
I bought my daughters the strawberry cream and the Shirley Temple. They said the Shirley Temple was okay but the strawberry cream was waaay too seltzery for them. I bought my son the banana and he told me it was delicious. Of course it’s difficult when you spend $2.50 for a soda, try it and then hate it — is it worth it? Of course it is! It’s an experience. Just decide what part of your budget wants that experience.
Honestly, does it really matter what we thought? You might love the bacon and hate the creamsicle. You might buy the blue cheese soda and not the Bazooka Bubble Gum. So many choices. You know how when you sit down to watch a movie on Netflix you are overwhelmed with all of the choices? Welcome to Pops Soda Ranch. LOL
Tip: You can’t really decide ahead of time because they change options, but know how many you want to buy before you go in otherwise you can spent a lot very quickly (I wouldn’t know anything about that! LOL). Since we were on a road trip, I had space in the car to carry them until we got back to New York and try them.
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