THUNDER BAY – Are you looking for a taste from your Pepsi Generation days? Right now, Pepsi is offering a retro flavour, Throwback, the taste of Pepsi with real sugar. If you remember what really good cola tasted like back in the days of cane sugar as opposed to corn sugars, then until the end of March this might be your drink.
The packaging is based on a Pepsi can from 1971 with the old logo from the company. The flavour is a blast from the past that one can only hope the company will decide to keep around. All that is really missing are the old steel cans that were a real Canadian contrast to the aluminum pop cans of the day.
What is interesting is that this “retro” taste is actually closer to the taste that is still available in many parts of the world where many of the popular soft drinks are still available in glass bottles. In the southern United States, many consumers head south to Mexico to pick up a regular supply of their favourite soft drinks made with cane sugar and bottled in glass bottles.
It is interesting to note the taste difference between the retro Pepsi and the “regular” Pepsi. There is a similarity to Jones Soda which also uses cane sugar, or “real sugar” as Pepsi states on its Throwback flavour.
Recapturing the flavour of the past is likely to lead to a demand from consumers for more flavours. In the United States, Mountain Dew and 7Up are also being made available for consumers.
What would be great, at least in my opinion would be to see a return to glass bottles, which can be re-used, and are more natural than the plastic ones that line the shelfs at local stores. Besides somehow a cold beverage from a frosty glass bottle just seems to taste better.
Pepsi has a great idea in bringing back really flavourable cola, lets hope they keep it up!
For many in Thunder Bay all that is missing is their favourite Dorans Brewery beverage in a 12oz Stubbie.
James Murray