Summer is a time for hot temperatures, trips to Disneyland, tight short shorts, armpit sweat stains, and of course, summer blockbuster movies, and just like you can expect Dane Cook to use the word “bro” in everything he will ever appear in, you can expect each summer blockbuster to have a product tie-in. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has the Snickers Adventure Bar, Iron Man has the AMP Energy Freeze Slurpee, the new Harold & Kumar movie has skull bongs, and Get Smart has the Sierra Mist Undercover Orange.
For those of you who did not watch Nick at Nite in the early 1990s and/or watch television in the 1960s because your parents were afraid of the radiation coming out of the “picture radio,” Get Smart was a James Bond parody that followed the adventures of Maxwell Smart, an agent of CONTROL, a secret U.S. government agency. His task was to thwart KAOS, an evil organization with the same penchant for the caps lock key as CONTROL.
The Sierra Mist Undercover Orange is a 7-Up/Sprite wannabe lemon-lime soda with a splash of mandarin orange flavor. If your inner botanist believes a mandarin orange is a tangerine, then it does have a mandarin orange flavor. Personally, my inner botanist has had its fair share of canned Asian mandarin oranges in heavy syrup over the years to raise my fruit intake, so I have a pretty good idea of what mandarin oranges taste like and I have to say that I don’t think a mandarin orange is a tangerine. Therefore, I believe this soda tastes more like a tangerine.
Either way, the orange flavor in this soda isn’t like Sunkist or any of the generic brand orange sodas out there. I kind of prefer the flavor of the Sierra Mist Undercover Orange because it tastes a little more natural than most orange sodas because it’s less sweet and more sour, thanks to the Sierra Mist lemon and lime flavor.
The Sierra Mist Undercover Orange isn’t bad for a carbonated citrus beverage and summer blockbuster tie-in. It’s a limited edition beverage so once it’s gone, it’s gone…unless it’s really popular, then it will come back in the future, most likely with another movie tie-in. For now, it makes a great soda to wash away the taste of the trailer for the movie >Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 bottle – 240 calories, 0 grams of fat, 55 milligrams of sodium, 65 grams of carbohydrates, 65 grams of sugar, 0 grams of protein, 0 grams of caffeine, and 0 grams of box office gold.)
Item: Sierra Mist Undercover Orange
Price: $1.25 (20 ounces)
Purchased at: 7-Eleven
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: It’s clear. Tastes like a tangerine (according to my inner botanist). Low sodium. Has a more natural taste than most orange sodas. Iron Man. Nick at Nite.
Cons: No fucking caffeine. High fructose corn syrup. A lot of sugar per bottle. Armpit sweat stains. Spelling the word “night” as “nite.” The despair you’ll feel after watching the trailer for Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
So is this a good drink to have “under cover” and recharge yourself, post-coitus? The lack of caffeine makes me think you’d crash hard after the sugar high wore off.
I used to watch Get Smart after school in the early 80’s.
You should mix it with Stoli Orange and report back on how well it goes.
Missed it by that much.
I have to say I love all your reviews!!
The undercover orange looks and sounds good. I used to watch Get Smart in the 80’s too.. it was on after gilligan’s island repeats!
You forgot the mint M&Ms that Indiana Jones has as well….
Chuck – Without caffeine I am nothing but dust blowing in the wind.
Lord Jezo – If you give me that can of Pepsi Holiday Spice sitting in your fridge.
Captain Needa – Would you believe this soda is made out of 1,000 mandarin oranges? No, then would you believe one mandarin orange and lot of sugar.
Lex – Oh, how I love syndication. I get to enjoy the shows of the past and feel old.
I remember when the Slice sodas were popular before they disappeared and turned into Sierra Mist. At one time, they all had 10% juice. One of the flavors was Mandarin Orange, so I am glad to see it has come back…sort of. I will have to try one and see if it is similar, or I am just too neurotic about things that have gone by the wayside and will never come back. What a disaster! 😛
I may be old fashioned, but clear orange flavored soda just doesn’t work for me. I actually tried this out of a can so I didn’t know that it was clear, and it was ok. It has nothing on Sunkist though.
Michael – Unfortunately, like a battery from the 1980s, this one doesn’t have any juice.
Melonie – Clear sodas kind of throw me off. Crystal Pepsi threw me off in the 1980s. Jones Cream Soda threw me off in the 1990s.
Hi There
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“big box meal” !!!!!!!
what the hell hapened to sprite remix “berryclear” ?! i was literally obsessed with that stuff
Why did I click on that link? I despair for the children and will cry myself to sleep tonight. Words cannot express how ghastly that movie looks and how it has destroyed my faith in the future.
Niall Harbison – Thanks for the link.
Brendababe – I liked that Sprite Remix flavor too. I’m sure it will reappear someday.
She Ra – Um…you’re welcome?
Glad you mentioned Crystal Pepsi- I had flashbacks of the “citrusy” nightmare that was Crystal by Pepsi when I saw this.
Inner botanist: “Mandarin” and “tangerine” are two words for the same thing, technically Citrus reticulata Blanco.
this crap sucks. i got some the other day. bleh. gimmie sunkist!
Annaliese – Actually, if you look back thru the review archives, I’ve mentioned Crystal Pepsi on numerous occasion, hoping that my constant name dropping will bring it back.
Johnny D – Ugh…no wonder I didn’t take botany in college.
laina in da swamp – Sorry that you drank crap. 🙁