Is Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash Discontinued? What Happened?

Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash was a holiday version of Sierra Mist that PepsiCo put out each fall. It was bright red and tasted like cranberry mixed with lemon-lime soda, which gave it a tart, fruity flavor that stood out from other drinks on the shelf.

Sierra Mist launched in 1999 as PepsiCo's lemon-lime soda to compete with Sprite and 7-Up. Cranberry Splash came out as a limited holiday flavor around 2006. It showed up in stores in October and sold through December. When the holidays ended, it was gone until the next year.

People who liked it looked forward to it every fall. Some bought extra bottles to have after the season ended because they knew it would be off shelves soon. The bright red color made it easy to find in a store, and it worked well as a mixer in holiday drinks and punch.

In 2013 Coca-Cola launched Sprite Cranberry, a similar drink that is still sold today. The two drinks competed in the same holiday window.

Around 2016, Cranberry Splash stopped appearing in stores. PepsiCo never said anything about it publicly. A lot of fans did not realize it was gone until the 2017 holiday season arrived without it. People asked about it online and contacted PepsiCo, but no official explanation came.

In 2023, PepsiCo discontinued Sierra Mist entirely and replaced it with a new lemon-lime soda called Starry. That closed the door on any chance of Cranberry Splash coming back under the Sierra Mist name.