Vault - The new Surge

As the connoisseur of caffeine I have seen fads come and go, from the ultra-caffeinated Jolt cola strong enough to pickle eggs, to the decidedly milder and deceptively useful Water Joe caffeinated water, to today's craze of energy drinks with everything from caffeine to engineered chemicals like Taurine to the more holistic bubblegum and charcoal flavor of guarana and heart-attack-inducing milk thistle extract. Along the road I've had them all, but a few beverages stick out as timeless classics. Among these are what have always been my two favorite sodas; Mountain Dew, the classic with its smooth citrus taste and subtle background carbonation, and the now-discontinued Surge, crisp and refreshing, more of an eye-opening constitutional in the morning where Dew is the smooth operator to get you through the evening and late into the night. Sadly, due to slumping sales and an ever-diversified marketplace, 2001 saw the passing of Surge with merely a nonchalant nod from the drinking public. Years pass... cravings grow... Surge begins creeping back into the sense-memory of Caffeine Fanboys and a movement begins. www.savesurge.org . What begins like a group of mourning widows turns into an Internet phenomenon. Whispers of Coke bringing back the dearly departed run rampant. Flash forward to 2006. Yours Truly finds himself in a Shell gas station in East Boston and what do I see staring at me from the cooler chest... Vault. The prodigal son returns wearing a new label. For months I had been following the background noise, tapped into the E-psyche, Vault was Coke's concession to the masses thirsty for Surge.

With great anticipation I found a quiet place to savor my prize. I admired the contoured bottle, mimicking the many sports drink bottles found 2 coolers over. I twisted off the black cap and inhaled the sweet sweet aroma: sharply citrusy, but not too strong of an attack. I quaffed the potion and was immediately transported back to 1998, when the streets ran wild with teeming masses of adolescents shouting their hyper-caffeinated war cry "SURGE!!!!!"

From the purist’s point of view, Vault is not Surge. Its close... as close as I think we're going to get. The taste is 95% Surge 5% something new; much more of an orange soda taste than the generic "citrus" that these types of sodas usually group themselves into.

On the up side, the taste is just as crisp and refreshing as I remember. The flavor benefits from what seems like some sort of natural citrus essence. Coke seems to have taken a hint from Mountain Dew, the new smaller bubbles are better for this type of drink. On the downside the color is a little off-putting, Surge was an excellent toxic-waste green, Vault is more of a sickly yellow, I guess to compete palette-wise with Mountain Dew. My biggest issue with Vault is the aftertaste; though not noticeable at first, by the end of a 20oz bottle you can't help but notice a slightly disagreeable taste landing somewhere between Kool-Aid and Jell-o, not what I look for in a soda.

That said, I am in no way telling you not to try this strong entry in the caffeinated beverage family. Maybe with some minor tweaks, my veins can once again run green with the Surge of my youth.