You may have even seen the commercials for Pepsi Throwback. But unless you've been paying attention, or read this blog back in April, you may not know of the short-time phenomena known as "natural sugar" Pepsi and Mountain Dew products. And has there been any promotion for Mountain Dew Throwback?
The Throwback products are available for a limited time (about another week longer). And they aren't easy to find in the store. So is this experiment being done on the up and up?
PepsiCo would say "yes," because they have to. But they could have done more to let us know. The idea that soft drink manufacturers would be more eager to incorporate sucralose than sugar, despite a huge outcry for the product and the willingness (likely) to pay a few pennies more for the experience, seems anti-capitalism at its finest.
If you do find the soft drinks, are they worth the extra effort? To get the biases out of the way, I haven't had much Pepsi in my life, even when I massively drank soft drinks. But I do remember the original taste, mostly due to a recent exposure to Kosher for Passover Pepsi. Though I drank more than Code Red than the flagship at the end, the unmistakable pleasure of regular Mountain Dew has not been forgotten.
I bought 20 oz. bottles of each, mostly so I could try it over several meals. For my tastes and health, a little bit is great, but a lot is too much for me to handle.
The Mountain Dew Throwback was everything I thought it would be. Beautiful, simple, classic, very nice. The right amount of sweetness, a point not to be underscored.
I can't say the same for the Pepsi Throwback. I couldn't get a sense of the taste of the product. It was certainly better than any high-fructose corn syrup drink, but I didn't get the full Pepsi taste of old. Maybe hard-core Pepsi fans can pick up a difference, but my taste buds are pretty sensitive.
If you are looking for a sign of what I thought of the products, I bought two more Mountain Dew Throwback 20 oz. bottles and zero Pepsi Throwback bottles.
I did appreciate the 1970s jive to the Pepsi spots, reflecting the last major era where sugar was in soft drinks and not high-fructose corn syrup. The funny part about this montage of spots is that this is more the vibe I wanted to promote these products, but haven't seen on the mainstream commercials. Would have been fun to see a commercial for Mountain Dew Throwback.
But it felt sad that a couple of generations have gone by that don't remember what that was like. Let's give those who want that full-time the freedom in a capitalistic society to choose which one they like better. Even the younger people will pick a life without high-fructose corn syrup.
Comments