The Shasta Mineral Springs Company got its start in 1889 at Shasta Springs, a summer resort on the upper Sacramento River just north of Dunsmuir. The resort sat right on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s main line, which came in handy, since the water was poured into glass-lined railroad cars and shipped off to be bottled elsewhere.
The company became the Shasta Water Company in 1928, and in 1931 it released Shasta Pale Dry Ginger Ale. Club soda followed in the 1940s, and for roughly two decades the lineup stuck mostly to fizzy water and ginger ale.
The 1950s are when Shasta started acting like a soda company. In 1953, it began selling soft drinks in cans (Shasta counts itself as the first to do so), and it introduced a line of low-calorie drinks around the same time. It also sold directly to grocery stores through wholesalers, and the rest of the soft drink business eventually adopted the same approaches.
Low Calorie Shasta was sweetened with Sucaryl, a cyclamate sweetener, and a 1962 ad pointed out that a full 12-ounce can had only six calories. The FDA banned cyclamates in 1969, and by 1972 Diet Shasta was advertising 13 sugar-free flavors at one calorie a can.
By the 1960s, Shasta was well known across the West and parts of the Southwest, and in 1966 Consolidated Foods (the company later renamed Sara Lee) bought it and renamed it Shasta Beverages. Around 1969, its plant in Hayward, California, was billed as the world’s largest soft drink canning plant.
The flavor list kept growing through all of this. A 1966 lineup added pineapple, vanilla and chocolate colas, and by 1976 shoppers could pick up red apple, wild raspberry or grapefruit soda, each in regular and diet versions.
In the late 1970s, Shasta sodas dropped refined sugar from its regular sodas in favor of fructose. A 1980 ad claimed Shasta Cola beat Coke 52% to 48% in a nationwide taste test, and the brand was pushing into new markets across the country by the early 80s.
That expansion came with a pretty memorable soundtrack. In 1983, Shasta’s ad agency hired Al Jourgensen, then a synth-pop musician and later the frontman of the band Ministry, to write and perform a jingle that ended every verse with “I want a pop, pop, pop, I want a Shasta.”
National Beverage Corp. bought Shasta in 1985 and still owns it today, alongside Faygo. The brand kept experimenting with kid-sized 8-ounce cans of Mario Punch and Princess Toadstool Cherry in 1993, and the Diet Shasta soda line was eventually rebranded as Zero Sugar Shasta in the 2020s.
Shasta is still headquartered in Hayward, where a giant spinning can of Lemon Lime Twist stands outside the plant. Take a look back at dozens of flavors of vintage Shasta sodas — including root beer, sparking lemonade, strawberry, cream soda, pineapple cola and others — from the 60s, 70s and 80s!
- FLAVOR THAT POPS: Bold and fizzy cola flavor without the sugar or calories
- ZERO SUGAR, FULL FLAVOR: All the flavor you crave without the sugar – perfect for low-cal lifestyles and guilt-free enjoyment
- BIG VALUE 12-Pack: Stock up with 12 cans of your favorite Shasta flavor – perfect for parties, pantries, and everyday sipping
Vintage Shasta soda: Peak of flavor (1961)
“It hasta be Shasta!” – Retro flavors from the ’60s include: Orange, cherry cola, old-fashioned root beer, sparkling lemonade, strawberry soda, creme soda, cola
An exceptionally bad vintage soda ad for Low Calorie Shasta (1962)
TWO SOLUTIONS TO THE WEIGHT PROBLEM
Try as we may to pin it on something else, the chief cause of hyperabundant avoirdupois (or fatness) seems to be food. And drink.
In the picture above, we have hinted at two possible solutions. We recommend only one. It is the substitution of Low Calorie Shasta for your customary soft drink.
Low Calorie Shasta tastes darned good, contains no sugar (thanks to Sucaryl), and a full 12-ounce can contains only six calories. This won’t solve your entire weight problem (you might have to cut down on rich desserts) but it surely helps.
Flavors: Root Beer / Orange / Cola / Lemon-Lime / Grape / Black Cherry / Creme / Ginger
New! 6 big, bright, bold colas from Shasta (1966)
A quick-chilling can of Shasta flavored cola. New flavors include Pineapple cola, Cherry cola, Vanilla cola, Lemon cola, Chocolate cola and regular sparking!
MORE: In the ’80s, New Coke debuted, failed, then helped launch Coca-Cola Classic
One-calorie Diet Shasta soda cans (1972)
Thirteen really good diet soft drink flavors, all sugar-free, and all with just one calorie per can. Next time you want a diet soft drink, try Diet Shasta.
Have a Shasta summer! (1974)
Shasta gives you more ways to have fun. With fourteen good and refreshing Regular flavors, fifteen sugar-free Diet Shasta flavors
So first, choose Shasta — then choose your favorite great-tasting flavor. And what could be more fun than that?
Strawberry soda – Grape soda – Chocolate – Lemon-lime – Black cherry – Draft root beer – Red apple – Creme soda
Classic Shasta sodas from 1976
Shasta brightens the holidays like no other soft drink.
Put sparkle into any holiday party with Shasta’s 14 great-tasting flavors, each and Regular and Sugar Free Diet. Cola, Draft Root Beer, Orange, Lemon-lime, Strawberry, Ginger Ale, Black Cherry, Creme Soda, Cherry Cola, Grape, Red Apple, Grapefruit, Wild Raspberry, Tiki Punch.
Fructose-sweetened: Finally. (1970s)
An alternative to ordinary sugared soft drinks.
Shasta now replaces ordinary refined sugar with simple sweeteners like fructose, a kind found in fresh fruit.
Until now, the leading regular soft drinks didn’t give you a choice. Because they were sweetened the same way: with ordinary refined sugar. About nine teaspoons in every can.
Now Shasta introduces an alternative.
Starting now, Shasta has discontinued the use of ordinary refined sugar in its regular soft drinks. We’ve replaced it with simple sweeteners like fructose, a kind found in fresh fruit. And we think you are going to love Shasta’s full clean, refreshing taste.
So now you can choose: ordinary sugared soft drinks… or new Shasta with fructose. That’s the Shasta alternative. An alternative you can feel good about.
Shasta soda factory (1978)
MORE: Pop culture: Vintage diet sodas from the ’80s, like Dr Pepper, Sprite, Diet Coke & Fresca
Vintage Shasta sodas: 1970s Frankenstein’s monster TV ad
Shasta with fructose beats Coke and 7up (1980)
The Nationwide results are in!
Shasta Cola beat Coke 52% to 48% with better flavor. Shasta Lemon-Lime beat 7up 55% to 45% with better flavor.
Shasta lets the flavor fly — fructose is the reason why!
MORE: Squirt soda wasn’t ‘sweet like other soft drinks,’ plus five 60s Squirt cocktail recipes
I want a pop – I want a… Shasta (1980s)
Shasta soda TV commercial jingle lyrics
Don’t give me that so-so soda
the same ol’ cola
I want a rock ‘n’ rolla
I want a pop, pop, pop
I want a Shasta
I want a taste pizzazz
All the great taste Shasta has
I want a pop, pop, pop
I want a Shasta
I want a thrill, I want a wow
Taste it all. I want it now!
I want a pop, pop, pop
I want a Shasta
A super-80s electronica-inspired Diet Shasta TV commercial
MORE: 7-Up float: Combine Seven-Up soda & ice cream for a truly retro treat
One Response
Shasta Grape soda was the best Summer drink in the late 60’s and early 70’s for me. Cola was good but there were lots of choices there. Good stuff! 🥤