Thaindian News

PepsiCo brought out a berry-flavored soft drink by the name Pepsi Blue in mid 2002. It was discontinued in the US and Canada in 2004 but some countries still continue selling it. They created the berry flavor after testing tastes of over a hundred other flavors over a nine month long span to compete with rival Coca Cola’s Vanilla Coke. A lot of drinkers said that the flavor o the Pepsi Blue was identical to cotton candy with an aftertaste of berries. Some said it tasted like raspberry and some said it was blueberries but Pepsi preferred to call it just “berry” and it tasted much sweeter and more syrupy than ordinary cola. The color of the drink came from Blue 1, a very controversial coloring that had been banned in many countries.

Pepsi Blue was widely endorsed by Britney Spears, Sev and Papa Roach and also featured in the remake of the original hit movie The Italian Job. But in spite of such publicity sales remained low and it was perceived as a commercial failure for the brand Pepsi.

The New York Mets also promoted the drink in summer 2002 because the color blue was their symbolic color too. Also included in promotional activities was the handing out of free Pepsi Blue bottles as samples from a Pepsi Blue themed VW New Beetle at shopping malls around the US.

Pepsi Blue contains Carbonated water, High fructose corn syrup and/or Sugar, Citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, Phosphoric acid, Potassium citrate, Potassium benzoate and Potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness), Caffeine, Gum arabic, Ascorbic acid and Calcium disodium EDTA (to protect flavor), blue 1, red 40. It also contains 25 mg of caffeine.