I remember it. It was pretty good. I didn't drink much of it though - was on a Josta kick at the time.
Crystal Pepsi was actually the catalyst that led to my best friend and I becoming friends. My mom bought a couple packs of it for the novelty of it, but one of the 24-packs she bought was actually diet, which is quite nasty, imo. Still, she packed it in my school lunch each day. I was griping about it one day when this girl offered to trade the tea in her lunch for my soda. Her mom was a diet kick and making her family go along with it, so she was used to the taste of diet drinks and didn't mind it like I did. We traded every day until they all gone. We were 9 or 10 years old at the time and were pretty much inseparable up until we went to college.
Diet Coke is the diet version of "New" Coke. So if you want to know what New Coke tasted like, it tasted like a non-diet Diet Coke. The diet version of regular Coca-Cola is Coca-Cola Zero. New Coke was supposed to taste more like Pepsi than regular Coca-Cola (Classic). If it tastes like regular Pepsi (I haven't had it) how is it better than regular Pepsi?
It's not just Mexican Coke... from what I understand Canadian Coke and Coke from all over South America is also still made with real (cane or beet) sugar rather than the evil high fructose corn syrup used in the US. That said, I am a Pepsi guy and always have been. I remember when Crystal Pepsi came out they were giving away free samples in cups at the LA Zoo. My wife was there and grabbed a cup, put a lid on it, left the zoo and drove home at top speed trying to get it to me before it went flat. I was unimpressed... tasted like a weak Pepsi with a bit of citrus essence. I did appreciate her effort, though. As for Diet Coke, the story I heard about its development was that, rather than try to more closely replicate the taste of Coke, they simply did taste test after taste test and kept removing anything to which anyone ever objected. That's how they ended up with that oddball drink that bears so little resemblence to Coca-Cola.
That's because Coke Zero (in America) is the European formula of Diet Coke (or Coke Light), essentially.
Here in Texas they sell the Mexican Coke in grocery stores in Hispanic neighborhoods. People will drive across town to buy cases of it. And it's definitely better than the corn syrup stuff.
In SoCal you can get it in certain ethnic grocery stores and from taco trucks. Real Pepsi too. It makes a big difference!
You don't have Jolt in the US any more? Oh the humanity! It's easily the best cola around. Never had such a problem when I was in the US. Just the same there as here, dumbasses are aplenty.
The biggest problem I have with foreigners at my bar is not that I don't understand what they're saying, but I'm often not sure if they're just calling something by a different name. Coke Light. I've never seen it, so I didn't know it was a real thing. I wasn't sure if it was just their name for Diet Coke or if it was a completely different drink altogether. It's a minor thing, but it's enough to make you wonder what other cultural differences there are in the simplest of things, like Coca Cola.
My best friend in high school and I actually enjoyed Crystal Pepsi. But, my favorite drink from that time was the Peach Vanilla Mistic.....oh, how I miss that drink. I remember going to a gas station to buy some Star Trek cards (around 1992 or 1993 and it was the only place around that sold the cards) and a Peach Vanilla Mistic. The worker thought it was a wine cooler and asked for my ID. I had to explain that it was just a flavoured water.
Honestly, I never encountered such a problem. Then again I've been pretty damn well immersed in American culture most of my life, and when I visited the US my English was actually better then most of the people that actually lived where I visited
I bought my mother a bunch of that when it first came out. She had always told me how much she loved vanilla Coke when she was a kid. I thought it was okay, but a bit too sweet for my taste.
Well, it's not something that happens a lot. Honestly, even the foreigners who speak no English at all at least make a point to learn the word "beer." From there, I can usually figure out if they want a light or dark beer. If light, they usually drink Miller Lite. If dark, it's always Sam Adams.