Good luck to Pepsi on trying a new mid-calorie soft drink — Pepsi Next, will reportedly have 40 calories per 8-ounce serving, or 60 calories per 12-ounce can.
Pepsi is trying an uphill battle in finding a middle ground. Sure, Coca-Cola tried this with C2 and Pepsi had Pepsi Edge, but neither did well when they were around.
The reports say the drink will contain high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose, and ace-K. Oil and water have a better chance of working well together.
Consumers who drink regular soft drinks would want to have fewer calories, but not with a sacrifice of taste. Consumers who drink diet drinks have no reason to get 40-60 calories more if they already like their drinks.
The ideal solution would be to put less sugar (yes, sugar) in a regular soft drink without sacrificing the taste. You won't save as many calories as Pepsi Next does, but you could get something consumers might drink.
The need by companies to have the drink be as sweet or sweeter as the regular version throws off what people should be doing, reducing their sweet tooth.
Sprite Green had the right idea with a drink with lemon juice and sweetened with Truvia and sugar. The drink came in a smaller size (plus) with real ingredients (plus). The drink had more calories than Pepsi Next.
Sprite Green suffers from a lack of promotion. Pepsi has a larger promotion budget, but don't expect much about Pepsi Next.
Would love to see more opportunities and experimentation by the major soft drink companies — and the promotion to go with those new drinks.
While we don't think there is a true audience for a Pepsi Next, there are cries for different ways to approach soft drinks.
Vote for Cola at http://coolometer.org ! It has a much better flavor, where as Pepsi is an artificial copy of Coke.
Posted by: Account Deleted | May 03, 2011 at 08:50 AM