Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Pepsi Throwback - the sequel!

I don't drink Pepsi. But I made an exception for last year's Pepsi Throwback, the real sugar original formula stuff that they only produced for a limited time.

It's back! And in a different can!

I found it at Target, of all places, in Valley Stream, NY. It was amazing last time how many people were finding my blog in Google searches for where they could buy this stuff. Why doesn't Pepsi just make this their regular drink? I'd buy it all the time and I'll bet a lot of other people who never drink Pepsi would too.

I'm not gonna talk too much about the taste, because I did that in my earlier post about it last year. But if you're wondering, it tastes like a cleaner, lighter, less aftertastey version of Pepsi - basically more like what a cola should taste like. UPDATE: I finally did an actual A/B taste test with a can of regular Pepsi and a Pepsi Throwback, and I'm happy to say that the taste difference is definitely real and not imagined. The aftertaste difference is huge.

Even though I'm a child of the 70's and 80's, I wasn't a fan of the new Throwback can originally, which is based on the can of that era. In fact, from what I remember (and can find in Google searches), it's almost exactly the same as the design on the old-style heavier metal cans from my youth, just printed on a newer-style aluminum can.

But as I sit with one next to me here (a finished can that I'm too lazy to get up and dump in the trash), it's starting to grow on me again. It's a strong-looking can. Iconic. Familiar. The regular, modern Pepsi can? Garbage. Each successive re-branding has been worse than the last. Pepsi should go back to this design - it is unmistakable in a store. I spotted the case at Target - one of only two left, I might add - from the opposite end of the aisle. The regular Pepsi surrounding it was just a sea of blue store-brand looking stuff.

Here are both of the Throwback cans side by side. I'm actually a fan of the first run can too, even if it does use the current Pepsi font for the "throwback" and even if the can is blue. But that's what that font should be used for - a subtitle, not a main logo. (I find it interesting that Pepsi switched the verbiage from "natural" sugar to "real" sugar - I wonder if there's any significance to that.) I did like the 1950's logo used in an updated form like that - I thought it was an example of what a modern Pepsi can could have looked like if the company hadn't completely eschewed either its roots or any sort of logic.

I've also been looking for Mountain Dew Throwback, which I understand tastes even more different from the modern version than Pepsi Throwback does. But I haven't found it yet. Probably a regional thing - Mountain Dew's a lot more popular in the south, so that's probably where all the Throwback goes. Oh well.

2ND UPDATE: Mountain Dew Throwback found! At the same Target in Long Island. How's it taste? Like it did when I was a kid... when it was my favorite soda. I always thought I just grew out of it, but no, it really changed. The regular modern stuff is very, very heavy and sweet. It's also neon yellow. They've amped up the syrup quantity per can, maybe in an attempt to mask the corn syrup aftertaste with other flavors. Throwback is surprisingly a lot lighter (in both taste and color). It's still very sweet, but it's a lot less offensive to those not looking for an "extreme" soda - which is what Mountain Dew has become. Mountain Dew Throwback just tastes like a really good, really flavorful citrus soda. Which is what it used to be.

Pepsi really needs to make this regular Pepsi and Mountain Dew (cans and all), and just ditch the current stuff.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:55 PM

    Have you found Pepsi throwback any where in Manhattan? Preferabbly in the East Village?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't looked hard, but I haven't seen it at any of the places I've been to in Manhattan. I would try the K-Mart on 8th St. Yesterday I found pallets and pallets of both Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback at Target on Long Island, so I think K-Mart is the best place to try in Manhattan.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't looked hard, but I haven't seen it at any of the places I've been to in Manhattan. I would try the K-Mart on 8th St. Yesterday I found pallets and pallets of both Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback at Target on Long Island, so I think K-Mart is the best place to try in Manhattan.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They are just about gone in Central florida. Only single bottles left

    ReplyDelete

About This Blog

This is increasingly not a blog about Alphabet City, New York. I used to live in the East Village and work on Avenue B, but I no longer do. Why don't I change the name if I'm writing about Japan and video games and guitars? Because New Yorkers are well-rounded people with varied interests, and mine have gone increasingly off the rails over the years. And I don't feel like changing the name. I do still write about New York City sometimes.

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